Credit Myth Debunked

I'm not sure if this is a good topic for this forum but on a personal level I think it's an important issue to most americans. The Major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian and Trans Union) along with major US companies including CNN would like you to think that if your credit is bad or fouled up that there's nothing you can do about it. In fact this leaves most people frustrated and feeling trapped, but it's all a lie. A report released today by CNN and other news networks say that:

"1 in 4 reports contain errors serious enough to hurt access to loans, and some jobs, study finds."

To me this seems to add to the frustration that there's nothing you can do about it. Well actually there is. As the reason I decided to write this today is because I used one of those law firms who clean up your credit. They claimed all sorts of of stuff that the average person would dismiss and click off the site once they saw like judgments and bankruptcies can be removed off your credit. Well, to be the barer of good news I got 2 of my 3 reports back today and 4 judgments (traffic tickets) were removed along with 11 other reported negative items. Now I can't say that these results would be the same with everyone butat this point I'm a believer, this is how it works:

You hire a credit law firm (or you can do it your self but I didn't feel like writing 20 separate letters, and didn't know where to start on what to say to accurately dispute the information.) You send them your 3 reports (or you get your reports on-line and give them the access, less work that way) and they put the info on-line for you to see. Than you pick the ones you want to dispute, they send out the letters. When the letter reaches the credit reporting agency they send a request to the disputed companies requesting validation of the debt. If the company doesn't answer in 30 days it gets taken off your report. To be honest I think a lot of debt collection agencies have some underpaid under appreciated secretaries who see the letters and toss them in the trash, or don't care to bother with writing back because for minimum wage they have enough to do (including court clerks.) That's it, that's the magical world of how really not hard it is to clean up your credit, it is contrary to every belief that the media and credit companies want you to believe. It's a scam for the most part to make people think even if they get ripped off in a contract or someone sells them a lemon that they have to pay the price or not have any purchasing power for the next 7 years. I hope this helps some members out because I know this is a common problem.

money.cnn.com...

www.lexingtonlaw.com...


[edit on 17-6-2004 by J0HNSmith]

Excellent Post and I hope it stays.

I've worked in Credit / Collections for 12 years now. I can't tell you how important it is to maintain a good credit history.

I've been ( still am a little ) on the bad side... had the file the big B-k ( bankruptcy) a few years back. It was becuase of my divorce and I absolutely could not make it. I don't regret filing but, sometimes it has hurt, when trying to purchase something on credit.


Aside from getting things removed from your credit repor, know what is on there! Check it about every 6 months, it really is worth it.

Credit report errors may cost you a job

1 in 4 reports contain errors serious enough to hurt access to loans, and some jobs, study finds.

"It is outrageous that inaccurate credit reports could damage one in four consumer's ability to buy a home, rent an apartment, obtain credit, open a bank account, or even get a job," Ed Mierzwinski, director of consumer programs at consumer group PIRG, said in a statement.

The report defined "serious" errors as those that could result in an automatic denial of credit, such as incorrectly marking accounts as delinquent or in collection.

Some of the key findings in the study conducted by PIRG include:


Fifty-four percent of the credit reports sampled contained personal information that was misspelled, outdated or belonged to a stranger. One report, for example, listed a consumer's birth year as 1952, when she was actually born in 1975.


Thirty-percent of those reports contained credit accounts that had been closed by the consumer but were still listed as open. Incorrectly listing closed accounts as open gives creditors the impression a consumer's credit is over-extended.


Twenty-two percent of the reports had the same mortgage or loan listed twice. Again, this gives creditors the impression a person has over-extended his credit, or is delinquent on one loan.


In all, seventy-nine percent of the credit reports sampled contained errors of some kind.

[url=http://money.cnn.com/2004/06/17/pf/debt/credit_report/index.htm?cnn=yes]http://money.cnn.com/2004/06/17/pf/debt/credit_report/index.htm?cnn=yes[/ url]

A spokesperson for a credit industry trade group disputed the claims, saying that credit decisions are based on a consumer's overall credit report and that one negative claim may not have significant impact on the total score.

He also noted that under federal laws credit reporting errors must be corrected within 30 days.


Right after my divorce and filing Bankruptcy, my credit report almost cost me my current job. I was working as a temp and when the time came to get "hired in", the HR rep said to the boss, are you sure about this, have you seen the credit report? The boss told HR, doesn't matter have they seen my work over the past year and the things that I've accomplished.

My identity was recently stolen, so I had a fraud alert issued through the credit bureaus. They sent me copies of my credit reports, and to my surprise only one error was on each of them. I'm in the process of writing the letters to have it removed. Let's hope all goes well!

FYI-No one is safe from identity theft. It's a sad, sad world.

Bangin - no way ! I hope that "they" were not able to do any harm?

Have you seen the Identity theft commercials ? They're hilarious.

Originally posted by elevatedone
Bangin - no way ! I hope that "they" were not able to do any harm?

Have you seen the Identity theft commercials ? They're hilarious.

Fortunately, this person didn't obtain any personal financial information of mine. They were using my identification to write counterfeit checks. :shk: I suspect this information was leaked out of spite by a personal enemy. By the way, those commercials are hilarious! It's too bad that really happens to good, hard-working people.

I urge all of you to obtain your credit reports annually to confirm that nothing is out of place. If you find any errors or want to have something removed, then take JOHNSmith's advice and write a request (or hire someone to do it for you).

Yes, you send them a debt-validation package. Technically, there is no way, even if they wanted to, they could establish a debt incurred. The whole scheme is that they are actually borrowing money from you. When banks lend you money, what they are actually giving you is debt. Paper money is not backed by anything, but represents a loan from the IMF to the US. The more you incur in paper notes, the more debt of the US government you have inherited. Remember this money is not backed by any substance.
So when companies lend you credit, what they are actually giving you is their portion of the debt, they are not allowed to loan their own assets or "substances of value." You pay a promisary note to pay back this "debt", sounds ridiculous doesn't it. The promissary note is used to discharge your debt only when the debt is validated. So you can either fulfill your promissary note, i.e. pay your bills, or you can ask them to validate the debt incurred. This is what the debt validation package is, you ask them to prove they gave you something of substance.

But the debt cannot be validated because they do not loan anything of substance, they give you paper money, which isn't backed by anything. And even more this paper money represents the debt of the US government to the IMF, so in fact they are borrowing you to discharge the debt technically. The more money they have, the more taxes they pay. OK, so even after they would still have money left over, but the only reason that means anything is because people accept money in exchange for goods/services.

If the creditors decided they didn't want the money, they couldn't turn it in to the government, like back in the day, for gold. Instead they will have to turn over this debt to someone else, who then turns it over to someone else, so on and so forth. But never can someone turn it in for something of value without giving someone else the money (debt). Even the IMF, the people who issued will not give you anything of substance back. They say go give it to someone else, we know its worthless, and then they turn around and give someone money in exchange for goods and services, so they incur substance of value, while the other person is stuck with worthless paper.

Anyway, I could keep going on, but does any of this make sense. I borrowed the book Cracking the Code recently from a friend, which describes in detail the UNITED STATES CODE, which outlines all I have said thus far.

But you too can do this, the book contains forms you need for this and where and what you say. BTW, did anyone know that this same concept works for your all caps TRADE NAME? The trade name represents a fictional corporation not you, and you should never have to go to court or do anything else for that matter you don't want to. Right now, the GOV. owns it, but you can take it back!