Did You Know That Most Credit Scores are Fake?

 (The following is an excerpt from my new e-book available on Amazon. You can get your copy at http://amzn.to/1eVnAFq )

TOXIC MISTAKE # 3 

Not Knowing That Most Credit Scores are Fake!

Surprised, aren’t you? Actually there are only two credit scoring models that measure your credit risk that are legitimate. They are the FICO credit score and the Vantage credit score. The vast majority of lenders use the FICO scoring model when granting or denying you credit. Only about 6% of lenders use the Vantage model. Auto dealers and mortgage lenders always use the FICO scores.

So where are the rest of the credit scores that are FAKE? They are the scores given to you by companies spending a great deal of money to pull you in so they can sell you Credit Monitoring.

If you go to:

	FreeCreditScore.com	Fake
	FreeCreditReport.com	Fake
	FreeScore.com	Fake
	CreditKarma.com	Fake
	Credit.com	Fake
	Experian.com	Fake
	TransUnion.com	Fake
	Equifax.com	Fake
	Etc…	Fake

Not only do the men in tights/musicians/bike riding/driving a run-down car want to give you a FAKE credit score to lure you to sign up for an overpriced credit monitoring service, but even the three national credit bureaus want to sell you their own proprietary scoring model (so they don’t have to pay the FICO royalty fees).

The problem is that these scoring models can be up to 80 or 100 points higher or lower than the credit score used by your lender. I call these scores, FAKO scores, because NO lenders use them to determine your credit risk. If you can find the small print, you would see that it tells you that these scores are for “educational purposes” and that, “your lender may (read as: ALWAYS) use a different model”. Here is what is in the fine print for one of the credit bureaus:

“The credit score provided under the offers described herein make use of the Equifax Credit Score™ which is a proprietary credit model developed by Equifax. It may be calculated using the information in your Equifax, Experian and TransUnion credit files. This score is intended for your own educational use. There are numerous credit scores and models available in the marketplace and lenders are likely to use a different score when evaluating your creditworthiness.”   Equifax.com

So how do you get your real FICO score? (The one most lenders use)

Unfortunately there are few options.

1.    If you are turned down for a loan, a lender now has to give you the actual score that was used (and the credit bureau)

2.    If you apply for a mortgage you will receive all three of your FICO scores as required by law.

3.    You can get a FICO score with your report at Equifax, BUT IT’S NOT EASY! First, go to www.equifax.com/home/en_us, Click on “Personal Solutions”, then double click on “Equifax Products”, then click on “View All Products”, then, go to the bottom of the page and click on “Score Power®” and follow the instructions.

4.    You can go to www.myfico.com and go to the bottom of the first or second page and under the 2^nd column, click on “FICO Standard” and you can order all three credit bureau reports and FICO credit scores. Be careful. They will try to sell you expensive credit monitoring if you click on anything else. Every few week it seems they change their landing page. You want to look for "FICO Standard", where you can order just the report and score. Sometimes it on the first page.

If you need to get your Vantage scores go to www.AnnualCreditReport.com. This site was authorized by law and set up by the bureaus to give you a FREE copy of your credit report ONCE each year from all three bureaus. Unfortunately the law did not call for you to get a FREE credit score once each year. You can buy your Vantage scores on the site for $7.95 per bureau. Remember, these are NOT the FICO credit scores that are used by most lenders.

It must be noted that there are additional scoring models being used. Many large lenders/banks use their own internal scoring models that you, the consumer, will never have access to. They may rely on these instead or in addition to the FICO and /or Vantage models.

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We ARE the experts in Credit Repair. Our founder, Daniel Sater, is a Nationally Recognized Credit Expert, Speaker & Author, and a Certified FICO Professional who also trains and coaches numerous Credit Repair Companies across the country and speaks at industry conferences. We are the people that other credit repair experts go to for answers.

With Credit Scoring Advisor you get personalized, not computerized service from someone who will fight for you to improve your credit profile. Dan handles every file personally to ensure the best results for our clients. You have continued access throughout our process to a recognized credit expert. We know how to get the best results.  

We would love to hear from you, give us a call, 631-392-8685  

www.CreditScoringAdvisor.com   www.facebook.com/creditscoringadvisor 

Why You Need to Prepare in Advance for any Major Credit Purchase

Most consumers will apply get a loan for new home, car or have the need for a new credit card, only to find that their application has been turned down. They learn, too late, that they have poor credit. They never checked their credit report prior to applying. 41% of consumers have never checked their credit report and credit scores according to the Consumer Federation of America. Do you really know what is on your credit report and what your REAL credit scores are? The Federal Trade Commission recently conducted a survey only to learn that over 40,000,000 consumers have credit mistakes on their credit reports.

You credit score will drop quickly if you have new negative entries on your credit accounts but doesn’t it seem to take forever for the scores to go back up? Part of what contributes to this is that your mistakes (or someone else’s mistakes) can stay on your credit file for 7 to 10 years. While they are there, they will cause your scores to be lower than they could be.

Most people have read the advice that FICO, the credit Bureaus, and many news articles have told what must be done. I call it “the FICO Mantra”.

-          Pay your bills on time (and get current on ones that are not current)

-          Don’t apply for new credit unless needed

-          Keep your balances low on your credit cards (or pay down your balance)

All good advice, but this advice will not get your credit scores to jump back up for a long, long time.

What many consumers don’t realize is that mistakes on your credit report can’t be corrected immediately. The process takes time. You need time to go after any errors well in advance of applying.

And, to make matters worse, the updating process is out of the middle ages. You see, when your credit is pulled, what you are seeing can be 15 to 45 days old! Creditors only update their files once a month. If you paid an account off one day after they reported to the bureaus, the old balance will be reporting for at least one month. If this balance was close to the credit limit for a credit card you will still be losing points off your credit scores.

You need to review you credit well in advance of applying for major purchases to be able to take action to correct mistakes and for your accounts to be reporting the status most advantageous to your credit scores.

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We ARE the experts in Credit Repair. Our founder, Daniel Sater, is a Nationally Recognized Credit Expert, Speaker & Author, and a Certified FICO Professional who also trains and coaches numerous Credit Repair Companies across the country and speaks at industry conferences. With Credit Scoring Advisor you get personalized, not computerized service from someone who will fight for you to improve your credit profile. Dan handles every file personally to ensure the best results for our clients. We know how to get the best results. 631-392-8685  www.CreditScoringAdvisor.com

How Realtors are Losing Thousands of Dollars Every Year

By Daniel Sater, CCE, CFP

As a Realtor you work hard to find potential buyers.  Here are some of the statistics:

·         In 2012, the typical agent had 12 residential transaction sides.

·         Today, 1 of every 3 consumers has credit scores so low they won’t qualify for a mortgage.

·         According to NAR, for the third year in a row, the difficulty in obtaining mortgage financing was the most cited reason for potential clients being limited.

·         In a recent survey, the percentage of Realtors that follow up and referred their potential credit challenged clients for credit repair was 0%!!

·         Throughout the US, 3 of every 10 credit repair referrals came back to buy a home within 6 months.

The math is simple. All you need do is follow up with your potential buyers that don’t credit qualify for a mortgage and instead of dropping them,  give them hope and help them find a way fix their problems. Be pro-active and let them know you’re on their side. You most likely will get a second chance to sell them a new home and add $15,000 to $30,000 to your income by helping others.

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Daniel Sater, Nationally Recognized Credit Expert at Credit Scoring Advisor is a credit repair expert, speaker and author on credit repair and the FICO scoring model. He can be reached at 631-392-8685

Why it is Hard to Remove Collection Accounts

Why is it so hard to remove collection accounts?

You send in a dispute letter to the three national credit bureaus because you don’t recognize the collection account on your credit report. Almost 30 days later you receive an updated report from each bureau stating that the account is, “verified as belonging to you”, or that, “This item has been reported correctly”. You have no more information than you did before. You’re confused. At this point some people give up; some send another dispute thinking the results will be different. If all this happens, you are among the lucky ones.

The credit bureaus are not on your side.

The bureaus have a vested interest in not having your credit report changed or your credit scores improved. Their real clients, the ones that give them the vast amount of profit, are their subscribers – your creditors. They continuously purchase tons of your personal credit information to make decisions who to market to and who to watch or cut off.

Stalling Tactics

This is why they send form letters stating things like, “We’re sorry we are unable to honor your request – we need more proof of your address (or, the proof you sent is not legible, or some such nonsense). We’ve sent clear copies that are enlarged (for the reading impaired -LOL) and still get this letter. Now and then they just don’t reply hoping you will forget about them. If you continue to pursue them you have lost at least another 45 days! It is all done to get you to give up and build your frustration so you won’t ever try again. Besides, who has the time?  

The credit bureaus don’t always do their jobs.

One day, a client came in with an order from a judge vacating a Judgment in 2008. You would think all you had to do was send the bureaus a letter with the document and, presto, the judgment would be removed. After the bureaus coming back TWICE that the account was accurate and verified, I wrote a strongly worded and threatening custom letter that finally got it removed. How they verified a judgment that no long existed is disturbing to say the least.

The bureaus are not the only ones playing games.

I have an acquaintance that use to own a large collection agency. At one of the national conferences for the credit repair industry, he confided in me that every Monday when he came into the office, he would go onto e-Oscar, (Online Solution for Complete and Accurate Reporting) the software owned by the credit bureaus to communicate back and forth with the data furnishers. He would reply to every dispute from the credit bureaus that the account information was verified as accurate. What he received was a two or three digit code that stood for a specific dispute, and, would send back the code stating the account was verified. He usually took all morning to do this without so much as peeking at any of the accounts. If you sent along documents supporting the dispute, they are never transmitted by the bureaus. I informed him this was an illegal activity. He argued, but eventually admitted it wasn’t quite the right thing to do. If he was taking this short cut how possible is it that others are doing the same? The mentality of some of these collection agencies, that are huge in size, is; if we can get away with it, so what – prove we didn’t investigate your dispute.

A new breed of Collection Agencies

It used to be that Collection Agencies got a percentage of the moneys collected. Today, more and more companies are pursuing a new model – they are debt BUYERS. Known as Junk Debt Buyers they buy huge amounts of consumer debt for pennies on the dollar! One company in a three month period purchased $2.3 BILLION dollars of consumer debt for $121,000,000. Another had, as of last September held more than 34,000,000 individual accounts and paid only 2.54 percent of their original $42 Billion dollar value. There is just too much profit at stake.

A more recent trick is to ask YOU to provide them all information, (even on accounts that are not yours). It is THEIR job to prove the debt, not yours.

With all these tactics is it any wonder anyone can get inaccurate or unverifiable information off their credit reports as required by consumer credit laws. The average consumer has little chance. This is why there is a need for Professional Credit Repair Companies like our company, Credit Scoring Advisor, to even the playing field and aggressively go after tradeline that should be removed. We average 70.2% success rate on removal of the accounts we go after.

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At Credit Scoring Advisor we are the experts. We have trained and coached many credit repair companies throughout the United States and Daniel Sater, our founder, has spoken at numerous trade conferences on credit scoring and credit repair and have created several certification exams for the industry. You have continued access throughout our process to a recognized credit expert. Give us a call for a free consultation at 631-392-8685.

Frustrated by Mortgage Closing Delays by an “IN DISPUTE” account?

Frustrated by Mortgage Closing Delays Caused by an Account Being “IN DISPUTE”?

by Daniel Sater – Nationally Recognized Credit Expert         631-392-8685          www.CreditScoringAdvisor.com

The mortgage industry has gone through numerous challenges, changes, and restrictions over the past 5 years but it is pure frustration to have the “IN DISPUTE” notation come up at the last minute delaying a closing, and worse, cause possible anger and frustration on the part of the home buyer.

Homebuyers Seldom Check Their Credit Before Applying for a Mortgage

This situation happens more time than we would like to see due to the mortgage application and credit pull being the first time many buyers have looked at their credit reports and scores. In the US it is estimated that about 40,000,000 credit reports have errors or misleading information on them.

It is at this point that home buyers start writing the credit bureaus or hire a professional credit repair companies to assist them in removing inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable information from their credit report as provided for by the consumer laws. If an account isn’t deleted the “IN DISPUTE” notation will stay with it forever.

The Requirement to Remove all “IN DISPUTE” Notations

Recently, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have decided that this notation has skewed the FICO scores and demanded that this notation must be removed.  One of the problems is that their assumptions are wrong. There are two dispute notations; the first one is a temporary notation the credit bureau reports during investigation which suspends the scoring model from scoring the negative information. With the new software used to communicate between the bureaus and the data furnishers this may last 5 days. If the creditor verifies the information as accurate they will add a permanent notation of “IN DISPUTE”. Even with this notation the negative information is now scored!

How To Remove the “IN DISPUTE” notation quickly.

A simple letter to the creditor stating that, “This account is not in dispute. Please remove the Compliance Condition Code “XB” from reporting.”

This is the code at the credit bureau that enters on your report “Acct information disputed by consumer under FCRA” and “IN DISPUTE”. If you send a letter to the credit bureaus most likely they will refer you to the creditor and take no action.

We do this for our credit repair clients seeking a mortgage all the time, and now, any mortgage professional can do the same for their home buyer.

Daniel Sater is a Nationally Recognized Credit Expert who founded Credit Scoring Advisor, a national credit repair company specializing in Rapid Credit Repair for their clients. In addition Dan trains and Coaches numerous Credit Repair Companies across the country, he is a Speaker and Author. He last book, "The Top 20 Toxic Credit Mistakes" is available on the Credit Scoring Advisor website. He can be reached at 631-392-8685.