"Who Else Wants to Know How I was Able to Finally Clean Up My Credit and Raise My Credit Scores 180 Points?"

In today’s world, you are a non-citizen without a good credit score. Department stores and other retailers entice us to purchase items on credit by using creative marketing ploys such as ‘no interest for 12 months.” Eventually we all give in and make the leap to the big purchase and the too good to believe credit terms.

In better financial times, the risk was minimal. You paid off your purchase, increased your credit score by a few points, and everyone was happy. With the national unemployment rate at 9%, a fair majority of people are unable to meet their basic obligations, let alone pay for new furniture or a sleek new sports car. The result is late payments on your credit report, which are there for seven years unless you take definitive steps to have them removed through credit repair.

Credit repair is a mystery to the regular consumer. We have a difficult enough time getting the credit card companies to move our due dates or possibly forgo the occasional late payment. We don’t speak the credit company’s language, nor are we educated on the credit laws that protect consumers. The three credit reporting bureaus are no help as they are not in the business of sympathizing with debtors.

There are many ‘non profit’ credit consulting companies that offer counseling. They are many times sponsored by the credit card companies themselves and do not have your best interests in mind. A typical strategy a credit counseling company will offer is to consolidate your bad debts and pay them off. Despite the fact that you continue to make payments on the debt, the credit card companies report the debt as compromised or show short payments on your credit reports. Clearly, the consumer does not benefit from that arrangement.

There are many do it yourself credit repair packages that are available on the internet. While their methods are sound, they offer a ‘one size fits all’ solution to your unique credit situation. After spending a few hundred dollars on one of these programs, you spend countless hours drafting form letters to your creditors and credit reporting agencies demanding that your credit file be modified. As a general rule, the credit card companies are not responsive to such requests as it is obvious they are dealing with an amateur.

The quickest and most efficient method of repairing your credit is by hiring the services of a legitimate credit repair company or law firm that specializes in credit repair. They are highly skilled negotiators, who get the attention of credit card companies. Furthermore, credit card companies spend more money responding to letters from lawyers because they utilize their in-house legal department and not the collection department. This provides additional incentive to quickly resolve your issues.

I hired Lexington law firm to repair my credit report. Unlike the credit card companies, Lexington law firm treated me with respect. They did not judge me for my past credit problems. Instead, they empowered me to utilize the credit reporting and consumer protection laws in my state to quickly improve my credit score and get my life back on track again.

What is a Judgment?

A judgment is a legal case of action taking against someone by a creditor who has not received payment. If a person goes an extended period of time without paying their debt to the creditor, the creditor has the right to sue to recollect the debt. Those who are served with court papers as the result of debt should never ignore them. When the case goes before a judge and the debtor loses the case, the judge will place a judgment on the credit report to reduce the score and alert other creditors to the issue with the people who are being sued.

How Judgments Affect a Credit Score

Judgments are extremely negative on a credit report. They show potential creditors borrowers have not been responsible with their previous debt obligations, and as such, lower the score to a point where it is next to impossible to get credit extended.

It can be difficult to obtain credit for a credit card, an auto loan or even a mortgage if there are judgments on a credit report. As each judgment could reduce the score by up to 100 points, even one has the potential plunge excellent credit to fair. Fair credit will almost always plummet to bad. As time passes after the judgment, it will not affect the score so adversely, though it will still cause difficulty when applying for credit.

Depending on the state a debtor lives in, and the statute of limitations for that state, the judgment may stay on a credit report for seven years, or the length of time allowed by statute, whichever is longer. In California, for instance, a judgment may stay on file for 10 years, and be renewed for another 10 years, for a total of 20 years.

Credit Repair Options after a Judgment

Just by paying off a judgment doesn’t mean you will improve your credit scores. Satisfied (or paid) judgments can be removed from a credit report, but this does not mean they will be automatically removed. This is why many people who have paid all their judgments still suffer from a bad credit rating. Even non-paid judgments can be removed from your credit if you know how.

While it is possible for a person to do his or her own credit repair, it is a difficult process to undertake alone, which will entail a lot of time and research.  Dealing with the credit bureaus directly does not usually prove helpful for most private citizens. This is why many people hire a credit repair firm to assist with removing judgments to improve an overall credit rating quickly.

Lexington Law Firm has been in business for over 19 years, having served over 500,000 clients in that time. They have removed 1,013,469 negative items from their client’s credit reports in 2009 alone. Here are some of their statistics from last year:

Items removed from credit reports:

• Bankruptcies: 9,713
• Charge Offs: 158,531
• Collection Accounts: 485,147
• Foreclosures: 2,567
• Judgments: 28,564
• Late Payments: 213,538

Visit Lexington Law’s website here or call 800-496-3604 to speak with a credit professional from Lexington law about your situation now.

What is a Collection?

A collection is an unpaid bill, passed off to a collection agency by the original creditor. After the original creditor has attempted to collect the debt on several occasions, the company will “charge off” the account and send it to a third party collections agency who will then continue to collect the debt. Debts in collections can often be negotiated for a lower portion of what a person owes, though they may be charged income tax on the difference between the amount owed and the amount paid. Collections should not be confused with judgments, as this the stage before the creditor takes the debtor to court.

How Collections Affect a Credit Score

Collections are negative on a credit report, though they are not as harmful as judgments.  It can be difficult to obtain credit for a credit card, an auto loan or even a mortgage if there are collections on a credit report. If the debtor makes an effort to pay off the collections, the credit score will improve.

Depending on the state a debtor lives in, and the statute of limitations for that state, the collection may stay on a credit report for seven years, or the length of time allowed by statute, whichever is longer. In California, for instance, collections may stay on file for 10 years, and be renewed for another 10 years, for a total of 20 years.

Credit Repair Options after a Collection

One of the biggest mistakes that you could make when trying to repair your own credit would be to simply contact the collection agency and pay off an old collection account reporting on your credit report. By paying off a collection, the collection agency will label the collection as paid in full on your credit report, but this also updates the last date of activity on the negative account. Lets say you had a two year old collection reporting on your credit. If you pay it off, your credit report will change to reflect a RECENT paid collection. Your score will actually lower instead of raise!

The best way to deal with collection accounts on your credit report is to hire a professional. We recommend the Lexington Law Firm. Lexington Law Firm has been in business for over 19 years, having served over 500,000 clients in that time. They have removed 1,013,469 negative items from their client’s credit reports in 2009 alone. Here are some of their statistics from last year:

Items removed from credit reports:

• Bankruptcies: 9,713
• Charge Offs: 158,531
• Collection Accounts: 485,147
• Foreclosures: 2,567
• Judgments: 28,564
• Late Payments: 213,538

Visit Lexington Law’s website here or call 800-496-3604 to speak with a credit professional from Lexington law about your situation now.

What is a Charge Off?

A charge off is what happens when a creditor has written a debtor’s debt off as a loss for the company.  Though it is easy to believe this is the creditor “canceling” the debt, this is not the case. All debtors are still responsible for the debt even after it has been charged off. A charge off usually happens after there have been 6 months, or 180 days of either no payment, or less than minimum payment made on the account. A charge off happens before the debt is sent to collections, which happens when another agency attempts to continue collection efforts on the debt. When an account is charged off, this means the borrower no longer has access to it to continue using it.

How Charge Offs Affect a Credit Score

Charge offs are negative marks on a credit report. When borrowers allow a lender to run their credit report, they will be able to see all the charge offs, and will use this record to determine whether or not they should lend to the applicants. When a creditor sees a lot of charge offs, they will not be able to extend credit because it shows the applicants do not have a good payment history. Though circumstances may have changed, most creditors won’t take the time to listen or see how applicants are different and dedicated to their debt repayment now than they were the when the account was charged off. The more recently the account was charged off, the worse it is for the credit score.

Depending on the state a debtor lives in, and the statute of limitations for that state, the judgment may stay on a credit report for seven years, or the length of time allowed by statute, whichever is longer. In California, for instance, a judgment may stay on file for 10 years, and be renewed for another 10 years, for a total of 20 years.

Credit Repair Options after a Charge Off

Even if paid, charge offs will stay on a credit report, marked “settled” or “paid as agreed” to show that the person eventually settled the account and paid off the debt. Even though the debt was finally paid, it can still have a detrimental effect on the credit rating. With a bit of professional help, charge offs can be removed from a credit report all together so it looks to potential future creditors as though they never happened in the first place.

Lexington Law Firm has been in business for over 19 years, having served over 500,000 clients in that time. They have removed 1,013,469 negative items from their client’s credit reports in 2009 alone. Here are some of their statistics from last year:

Items removed from credit reports:

• Bankruptcies: 9,713
• Charge Offs: 158,531
• Collection Accounts: 485,147
• Foreclosures: 2,567
• Judgments: 28,564
• Late Payments: 213,538

Visit Lexington Law’s website here or call 800-496-3604 to speak with a credit professional from Lexington law about your situation now. They will help you get all your charge offs taken care of with ease.

What is a bankruptcy?

A Bankruptcy is a federal court order obtained by a debtor (individual or corporation) to obtian protection from creditors. Traditionally whenever a person is unable to pay his or her debts they “voluntarly” file bankrtuptcy declaring their inability to repay their debts.

How does a bankruptcy affect your credit rating?

After filing a bankruptcy, the majority of your creditors will write off the debts and report the accounts as “included in bankruptcy” on your credit reports. However more than likely a few accounts will still have an overdue and open status, and or balances.

The actual bankruptcy public record will stay on your credit report for 10 years from the filing date. The credit report should be updated to include the discharge date of your bankruptcy as well. This is not always the case.

Having negative and inaccurate information on your credit report after filing bankruptcy will add to the damage that your credit score has already taken from filing. It is your responsibility to repair your credit reports so that they are accurate.

What are your credit repair options after bankruptcy?

Essentially you have two options when dealing with a bankruptcy on your credit reports. You can handle cleaning and repairing your own credit report or you can hire an expert. Anyone can repair their own credit with enough information and time. If you do not want to learn the ins and outs of the consumer credit laws you should seek out the help of a professional credit repair company.

If you are interested in repairing your credit yourself check out this credit repair self help guide.

Which credit repair company should I hire?

We recommend Lexington Law Firm. Lexington Law Firm has been in business for over 19 years. They have served over ½ a million clients in that time. The shear amount of negative items they have removed in that time is staggering. In fact, they removed 1,013,469 negative items from their client’s credit reports in 2009! Here are some of their statistics from last year:

Items removed from credit reports:

* Bankruptcies 9,713
* Charge Offs 158,531
* Collection Accounts 485,147
* Foreclosures 2,567
* Judgments 28,564
* Late Payments 213,538

You can visit Lexington Law’s website here or Call 800-496-3604 to speak with a credit professional from Lexington law about your situation now.

What is a late payment?

A late payment is simply any payment made after the due date has passed. The lender may or may not report your payment late to the credit bureaus. Most creditors also don’t report the account as “late” until after it is 30 days late.

How will a late payment affect my credit score?

Late payments stay on your credit report for 7 years from the date of the initial missed payment. Payment history is 35% of your overall credit score… just one late payment can decrease your credit score over 100 points!

What are my options once I have a late payment?

Your first option is to try and remove the late payment yourself. Most creditors will forgive one late pay, no matter what the reason, just as a matter of good business. The first thing you might want to try is simply calling them or writing them a letter asking them to remove it. It doesn’t work most the time, but sometimes it does.

The second option is to hire a professional credit repair company to handle repairing your credit scores. Most professional credit repair companies have years of experience dealing with creditors and the credit reporting bureaus (Equifax, Experian and Trans Union). Not only can they remove late payments, they also can remove:

• Bankruptcies
• Charged off credit cards
• Judgements
• Repossessions
• Foreclosures
• Collection accounts
• Medical collections

Which credit repair company should I hire?

We recommend Lexington Law Firm. Lexington Law Firm has been in business for over 19 years. They have served over ½ a million clients in that time. The shear amount of negative items they have removed in that time is staggering. In fact, they removed 1,013,469 negative items from their client’s credit reports in 2009! Here are some of their statistics from last year:

Items removed from credit reports:

• Bankruptcies 9,713
• Charge Offs 158,531
• Collection Accounts 485,147
• Foreclosures 2,567
• Judgments 28,564
  
• Late Payments 213,538

You can visit Lexington Law’s website here or Call 800-496-3604  to speak with a credit professional from Lexington law about your situation now.