You may be working on your credit at this very moment or you may have done it in the past with some good results, but let’s talk about the success of Lexington Law Credit Repair Attorneys.

I’ve been around since Lexington laws’ inception online. I started out in the online credit arena in 1995 and that’s about the same time Lexington came on the “online scene”. I’ve seen many credit repair agencies come and go since then, most have gone, but one thing remained solid and that was Lexington law’s results.

I remember when they first arrived on the scene and there was a lot of buzz about what they could or could not do. They were especially hated by the credit industry and for good reason. They were a real threat. By having law degrees, these attorneys were free to brand credit repair in a whole new way. A sort of revolution that we hadn’t seen online before.

The credit bureaus and even collection agencies began a massive “words” campaign to combat Lexington’s offer of cleaning up your credit report. The net was buzzing with rumor that they’d be shut down by the credit bureaus and be banned by almost every advertiser.

Little did they know then, that none of that mattered. Lexington stayed true to its promise to help the forgotten consumer and never relied on advertisers for income, so there was no real way of stopping them.

Some figured they’d get a bad rap with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) or be investigated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). But alas, no such luck for those nay-sayers, as Lexington is thriving even stronger today. What those nay-sayers were banking on, was that Lexington would Pre-Charge millions of people for credit repair, which you cannot do.

Part of the CROA (Credit Repair Organization Act) states that you cannot charge for the work in advance before its complete. Lexington never worried about that, because they allowed people to pay on a monthly basis and cancel anytime.

Long gone were the archaic days of credit repair where you could be duped into a lengthy contract and have to fork over up to $1,000.00 per person for the work. Even then, there were no guarantees that the items disputed, would be removed. It was an expensive gamble and millions got taken.

Lexington’s rapid online and affordable system kiboshed both of those situations and the product became more defined and even more technological advanced, giving consumers online access to their progress.

I remember the old days of getting your credit reports, photocopying them, sending them back to the credit repair company by mail, then waiting on them to send out all your disputes and make you sit by the phone and mailbox waiting to “pretend” you sent them and basically do their job for them.

Lexington leveraged the FCRA section that states, we as consumers have a right to hire someone to help us with our credit, so Lexington doesn’t try to hide that they’re the machine behind the consumer. It’s the persons’ right and its perfectly legal.

I’m sure the credit bureaus cannot stand the sheer existence of Lexington Law but most of us credit experts cannot stand the existence of the credit bureaus, so the feeling is mutual.

Their credit report repair soon began to prove itself. As other credit repair businesses began to fold from either lack of business or multiple complaints, Lexington honed its method and used technology to its advantage, thus creating faster, more accurate disputes, which equaled faster removal of negative items.

Once they were able to prove that they were a real contender for the credit bureaus, faith in their product began to rise. Consumers started talking to one another on message boards and chat rooms and asking questions about success others had using Lexington law.

It was clear that Lexington was able to prove their results in writing and post real testimonials (Both are on their website and the deletions record can be downloaded in PDF).

This only strengthened Lexington laws’ brand and made them the leader in online credit repair. I’ve seen some really impressive “looking” websites that try to copy Lexington’s look and approach, but it’s one of those things that you feel in your gut, and you just know, most are copycat web sites looking to coast of Lexington’s good image.

I’ve also talked personally to a lot of consumers who have used them, and that’s whats important to me. When I add up the happy clients I’ve seen, the clear and perfect BBB record, the hundreds of thousands of deletions, and the fact that they’re not afraid of the credit bureaus, that equals a success few can match.

I’m all for consumers taking their credit into their own hands and doing the work themselves. Heck, I was one of the first to create and offer such a DIY program online in 1995, BUT, there simply are people out there who do not want that burden or don’t have the skills to embark on that credit journey. For them, I’m glad Lexington Law is such an impressive and respected outfit, because hopefully that will keep thousands of people from landing in the hands of a fly-by-night or shady company looking to take them for every penny they can.

There’s a lot of consumer experts or so called advocates out there that simply believe no one should ever enlist help in fixing their credit problems, but to them, I say, you are either having your pockets lined by the credit industry or you are out of touch.

Despite most of their claims, credit repair is desperately needed and necessary, not because all of us consumers are losers and flakes who ruin our credit, but because the credit industry is a disaster and its record keeping a shame. That’s why credit repair is in such high demand to begin with. Erroneous collection accounts, misreported trade lines, identity theft messes, duplicate inquiries, incorrect personal information,  and on and on. The credit bureaus are such a monopoly that consumers fear dealing with them.

I, unlike many credit experts, am not paid by the credit industry and I’ve lived the “credit of an American” nightmare and know firsthand how overwhelming and unsatisfying the whole credit system can be. To those people, firms like Lexington are a helpful avenue in a twisting, winding road. 

If I want to take my car to a mechanic, I will. if i want to change my own oil, I will. Same goes for my credit. If I want to pay for a service that I don’t want to have to bother with, then that’s my right, and the credit industry should spend less time worrying about money a credit repair agency makes and clean their own house.

Technorati Tags:
credit repair, debt settlement, do it yourself, fix credit, compare credit cards

It’s not bad enough that lenders make us feel like yesterday’s trash when our credit scores don’t meet what they consider “golden”, but often you’re not even told if you’re getting a good deal or not-  when it comes to the rates and terms.

Many consumers have no idea what a good rate is or isn’t, especially if they don’t use the credit system a lot. Now, a new change may make that easier for all of us by making the lenders tell us that we are getting a good or not so good deal.

People who deal in the credit system on a regular basis often lose touch with this fact, but it’s not your everyday Joe that knows if he’s getting a good deal or not. This change would make the lender tell you that you may not be getting the best deal so you’d at least be able to make an informed decision or go elsewhere before you sign on the dotted line.

 

proposed federal regulation that would force lenders to tell consumers “This isn’t our best deal” moved a step closer on Monday.

Now, lenders offer loans at whatever rates they like, without explanation. Consumers with the cleanest credit reports and highest credit scores tend to get the best rates.

Under the proposal, lenders that decide to offer higher-rate loans based on consumers’ credit reports would have to notify consumers of that fact. The notification would have to come before the deal was done.

The change, jointly proposed by federal regulators in May 2008, is intended to:

• Make lending more transparent.
• Give consumers the chance to review and fix credit report errors.
• Let consumers take steps to improve their credit before committing to a loan.

In short, it requires lenders to say, “Hey, consumer, we’re giving you a bum deal because you have bum credit.” Continue to read the rest here.

If you’ve been contacted by a debt collector, you know how frightning it can be. You often feel you have no rights and that they can do anything and you’re at their mercy. On the rise, is junk debt buyers, who purchase EXPIRED debts and then harrass you in to payment. Here’s a video to help you fight back.

If you’re a serious credit enhancer, like many of us, you were well aware that FICO (the universal credit score company) was going to release its new scoring module in 2008 and get rid of piggybacking account holders.

Piggybacking means that you allow others to piggyback off your credit rating as a card holder or authorized user and they get your good credit rating. Brilliant isn’t it.

As with anything else, shady businesses started taking advantage of this and were charging people to allow piggybacking and thus making a profit from it and claiming it as credit repair. Not only did it cause a great deal of controversy but it ruined it for a lot of consumers who were using the method to rebuild their credit by surfing off someone else’s good credit rating, say a spouse or brother.

Well, apparently FICO received such an uproar about removing this method that they have come up with a solution (so they think) and are going to have it continue on. Long live piggybacking! Let’s just hope the scurges of the world don’t ruin this for us all too.

Piggybacking became so controversial. Consumers used to be the ones taking advantage of this little loophole in the credit system, but like everything else, shady businesses came along and were offering it as a new form of credit repair and guess what, it was legal…

In a nutshell, these businesses were charging a consumer with bad credit to surf off a guy with good credit and quickly improve his credit rating overnight. Suddenly the guy with bad credit could easily have a credit history of very good credit using the other guys credit history. The good guy gets paid, the bad guy pays and everyone benefited.  

It didn’t take too long for consumer watchdog groups to catch onto this, and the worst part was that it appeared a “legal credit repair method. You can read more on piggybacking schemes here.

This might work. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I’ve been educating consumers about credit for over two decades. I’ve seen a lot of issues on a consumers credit report but one of the most common issues I see are the repeated HARD inquires from collection agencies.  While a collection agency has the right to review your credit as a collection tool, they do not have the right to abuse your credit.

When your account is assigned to a collection agency, they will often pull your credit reports to find you, especially if the debt is old and you have not responded to their initial mailings. The credit report will be a tool they use to locate you and thus, collect the debt.

But, what often happens and isn’t always talked about is that once they do run your credit, if they still cant collect the debt,  they will run and run it again. Not because they think they’ll find something new about how to locate you, but because they think you might see all the inquiries and contact them. Savvy isn’t it!

Repeatedly running your credit will not only eventually impact your credit score, but it just looks bad.  Potential lenders, even if you only have one old collection account, may wonder why they’ve seen 4 inquiries from ABC collections and this puts an automatic first impression in their mind and you’re likely to be denied, even if your score hasn’t been severely affected, a closer look will result in denial by a human.

Consumers don’t think they have a right to question this and demand the various other inquiries be removed immediately. I would recommend that any consumer who spots multiple inquires from the same collection agency immediately contact the credit bureaus and send a demand letter to the collection agency that they have violated the FDCPA (Fair Debt Collections Practices Act) by abusing you. Yes, multiple unnecessary inquires are abuse. It’s done purely to punish you and force you into contacting/paying the debt.

You would have every right to file suit against the abusive collection agency and present a case that would prove they harmed your credit over and above what they needed to do in the course of attempting to collect the debt.

Your course here would be to immediately cease and desist the collection agency and demand they remove any duplicate inquiries to your credit. Once they’ve done that, then you may decide whether to negotiate a payoff to them or ask that they validate the debt to you as “accurate”.

Being in the credit field, I am always surprised just how many people don’t know the difference between debt management and debt settlement (negotiations).

I talked with a man the other day who had been feverishly searching for a good debt settlement company before he ran out of time, but as I was speaking to him, I realized he didn’t have any money, so how was he going to settle his debts?

Debt settlement also referred to as debt negotiations is a method to settle your debts for less than what you owe. Debt settlement procedures can be very affective IF you know what you are doing and have some money.

When you want to avoid bankruptcy and get out of debt AND you have some money set aside, you can negotiate with your creditors or use a debt negotiator to do it for you.

Often they will offer 30-40% of the total debt to be considered as settled in full. This can cut the debt in half and consider it case closed. That means no more worrying about the creditors coming after you or worrying day and night about being sued or slapped with a judgment.

You must have money to settle your debts, otherwise there is no “debt settlement”.

Many times the creditors will accept this, especially if you are in dire straights and they fear you may file for bankruptcy and they’d be left with nothing.

A professional debt negotiator has long term relationships with many of the creditors and can work a deal for you, for a fee. You still walk away paying less, even with the fee.

Another option to consider would be do it yourself debt negotiations. If you are equipped with knowledge and understand what it takes, you may be very successful in negotiating your own debts without paying a professional. That can mean even more money in your pocket.

Debt Management is an entirely different program. Credit counseling or debt management is used to cut your monthly payments to your creditors but you still pay the full balance. It’s a good alternative if you are unable to meet your monthly obligations to your creditors and are falling behind.

A debt counselor can set up a program with your existing creditors and in essence “freeze collections” and reduce your monthly payment. This gives you adequate time to repay everyone without the worry of the accounts going into collections or being sued.

A good debt management program will be a not for profit who will work as your counselor and do all the dirty work with the creditor. You simply pay one payment to the credit counseling firm each month and they disburse your payments for you to your creditors.

You can even get many creditors to agree to freeze the interest or remove late fees. Often they will also “suspend” credit reporting while you complete the program.

Debt negotiations is NOT debt management and vise versa.

See more about debt management and the difference between it and debt consolidation.