New advice on credit: never let the collectors get the upper hand!
Clean Up My Credit Report: How to Get Rid of Collections
By Irena Bocheva
"How to clean up my credit report?"-that's the question which bothers most of the 35 million Americans with less that perfect credit. According to the popular myths fixing credit takes years, financial effort and careful budget planning. There are, however, far easier and smarter ways to fix credit report. The only thing needed for fast credit repair is credit knowledge.
Here are 3 simple tips that will show you how credit knowledge can be useful in order to clean up your credit report.
1. Never pay collections in full. Always settle for less.
Collection agencies make a bank out of the huge crowd of misinformed people with bad credit. Debt collectors literally pay pennies for every dollar you owe. If the debt was recently charged off, they pay 5-6 cents a dollar. If it's an old debt-they pay 1, 5-2 cents a dollar. Old and out-of-state accounts are usually sold for less than a penny per dollar. If you do the math, you will realize that collection agencies still make a pretty handsome profit out of you even if you pay them 25 % or less. And this gives you pretty good leverage when negotiating.
2. Validation of debt.
Under FCRA( Fair Credit Reporting Act) all credit bureaus, collection agencies and original creditors are required to provide validation of debt upon the request of consumers. If they fail to provide proper documentation, they have to remove the negative item from your credit report. Since most of your debt gets resold to various agencies down the road, most of them don't have the right paperwork to validate your debt. Use this fact to pressure collection agencies to remove an item from your record.
3. Payment for deletion.
This is the best thing you can do in order to raise your credit score. A paid collection will not necessarily raise your score. Quite the opposite-it may lower it. A deleted collection, on the other hand, will boost your score instantly. Negotiate with collection agencies and promise to pay them only if they remove the item from your record. Make it sound like a business proposal and remind them of the handsome profit they would make out of you.
The answer to the question "how to clean up my credit report" is simple-learn more about the credit system and the various loopholes in it. Once you start thinking outside the box, you'll be surprised to find how easy credit repair actually is.
Author: Irena Bocheva
http://fix-credit-score.info/
Do you really think that fixing credit takes a long time? Click on the link above and learn about the fastest ways to raise credit score.
Article courtesy of: Irena Bocheva
This DVD available from Amazon.com promises to help guide you through the process:
Fix Your Credit DVD - How to Fix Mistakes on Your Credit Report and How to Improve Your Credit Score (Credit Repair)
