FAQ
It’s time to get answered to all of your questions!
Your Investment
About Our Costs
We bill automatically each month. This allows us to keep our costs lower and provides you with exceptional service.
Automatic billing keeps costs low and provides more resources to provide exceptional service.
Funds are drafted each month, after services have been performed. You choose which day of the month when you first sign up for our services.
If you cannot afford our services at the present time, we recommend you come back once you have balanced your budget. Our services are in place for clients who have had credit problems in the past and are looking to escape “credit prison” by removing inaccurate information on their credit file.
Your Credit Reports
About Credit Reports
A Credit Report is a report of information maintained by a credit bureau. The report will have information such as your name, address, social security number, and credit payment history. Credit grantors, such as banks, may report positive or negative credit payment information to the credit bureau. Utilities, such as the telephone and power companies, may also report your payment history. Credit grantors may review this information anytime you apply for a loan, including a credit card, to use in determining whether they will lend you money or extend you credit.
Personal Information: Names, present and past address, social security number, birth date, employer, and merchant trade lines. These include all regular credit lines such as department store cards, auto loans, mortgages, and credit cards. If there is any history of late payment, or if the trade line was included in bankruptcy, charged off, or put into repossession, the listing will be considered negative by all credit grantors.
Collection Accounts: When an account is referred to collections because of delinquency or because of a bad check, this appears on the credit report as a collection account. Collection accounts can appear as paid or unpaid accounts. Any type of collection account, whether paid or not, is considered very negative by all credit grantors.
Court Records: Court records include bankruptcies, judgments, liens, divorce, satisfied judgments, and satisfied liens. All court records, including satisfactions, are considered negative by all credit grantors.
Inquiries: Every time a potential credit grantor looks at your credit file, a credit inquiry appears on at least one of your credit bureau reports. If the numbers of inquiries are few over the last two years, then there may be no negative effect on your creditworthiness. However, if there are many recent inquiries showing on your credit report, credit grantors may become nervous and deny you credit.
There is a lot of false information about credit and credit reports and what does and does not lead to the necessity of credit repair and restoration.
Here are some common myths and misconceptions:
$$$$$ Paying cash for everything will help your credit rating. Using cash for all your transactions does not have an effect on your credit (other than you are not using loans, lines of credit or credit cards.)
$$$$$ Paying off collections, tax liens and late payments will remove them from your credit report. Resolving these items is no guarantee that they will be removed from your report. You must continue to monitor the situation until the items are truly removed.
$$$$$ All of your credit reports and credit scores will be the same. It’s not unusual for reports to differ from credit bureau to bureau. Plus, major banks and creditors often have their own method of determining your credit score.
$$$$$ Making a lot of money will improve your credit report and scores. Income is not used for calculating your credit score. More important is how you spend your money in terms of using credit to do so.
$$$$$ Divorce will absolve you of your credit responsibilities. The effect on your credit depends on your divorce decree, settlement and your history of sharing credit accounts with your spouse. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act states that married couples have the right to request separate credit reports and histories, even for joint accounts. And, if an account is listed under only one spouse’s name, the other spouse has the right to rely on that credit history.
$$$$$ Closing credit card accounts will improve your credit scores. This is not recommended because part of your credit score is the length of credit history in your file. Closing a credit card account with a long, positive history will normally result in a decline in your credit score.
$$$$$ The proper and responsible use of check (debit) cards can help your credit reports and scores. Most check (debit) cards do not get reported to the credit bureaus and therefore would have no impact on your credit status. Secured credit cards, on the other hand, are just like debit cards except that they do get reported to credit bureaus. That is why establishing at least three (but no more than five) secured cards is a terrific way to improve your credit score. The credit score model gives greater weight to secured cards with credit limits greater than $1,000.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires that most negative credit items be deleted from your credit bureau file in no more than seven years, except for bankruptcy, which can be reported for up to ten years. These are the time limits for reporting negative credit. The creditor or the credit bureau can choose to have the negative credit information deleted whenever they please. There is no legal requirement to report any information to the credit bureaus unless they choose to do so. Inquiries may remain on the credit report for up to two years.
Most credit grantors are not allowed by the credit reporting agencies to show you your own credit report. You can purchase your credit report from the credit reporting agencies for a fee. Once you receive your credit report, you may find that you cannot read it because the information is listed in an unfamiliar code. TransUnion and Equifax credit reports are very difficult to interpret and understand. Experian credit reports, on the other hand, are relatively easy for most people to read.
With the passing of each year, your credit report is used more and more often as a yardstick to measure your creditworthiness. Prospective creditors will always review at least one of your credit reports before granting you credit. Today it is increasingly common for insurance companies to review your credit before extending auto or health insurance. Many employers now check credit before they consider you for a position but in most cases, they cannot legally do so without your permission. If you rent, you may have already been through a credit check to determine your worthiness as a renter. Unfortunately, your permission is not required when inquiries are made as part of a pre-approved credit offer.
“R” refers to a revolving account, “I” refers to an individual account, and “M” refers to a mortgage account. The creditor supplies this rating. It is their rating of you as a borrower. There are only two ratings that are not negative. A rating of “1″ is good and a rating of “0″ means that they don’t have enough history with you to rate you. Every other rating, “2″ through “9″ is negative. In our experience, creditors don’t look at these ratings when you apply for financing. The creditor usually looks at the late pays or other notations such as “charge off” or “collections.” However, any rating BUT a “1″ or “0″ indicates that you have problems with the account.
When you become very delinquent on an account, the creditor will probably charge it off. This means that they have written the debt off as a loss for tax purposes. This does not mean that they have given up collecting on the debt. The creditor is now likely to either sell the debt or send it to collections.
Credit Reporting And Scoring
About Credit Reporting And Scoring
Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion are for-profit corporations and are in the business of buying and selling credit information and they play no part in the credit repair or restoration process unless they are requested to do so. They are not a government agency, a public service nor do they act as a watchdog and contact you about possible problems with your credit. It’s also very important to know that they are responsive, not proactive companies.
In other words, you have to go to them to repair any false charges or erroneous information. Until you do, they assume all is well with your credit report(s). Every time you ask Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion to look into problems with your credit report (including disputing information or asking that an item is removed), it costs them money so it is logical to believe that they will sometimes take measures to avoid acting on your behalf. But with Great American Credit Repair in your corner, you’ll be able to deal with the “big three” in the most efficient and effective way possible. We have years of experience with these credit bureaus and know exactly how to deal with them to get real results in the shortest amount of time possible.
The credit bureaus play a lot of games to prevent you from having inaccurate items deleted from your credit report. Here are some things you can do to overcome their complex systems.
NEVER blindly send out dispute letters. The Fair Credit Reporting Act makes it possible to dispute and clean up most credit reports. But there are MANY tactics and tools the credit bureaus will use to STOP most disputes the minute they are received. If disputes are processed blindly, the chances the item will be deleted are reduced significantly. Disputing WILL help your credit. But before you first mail a dispute letter, it is important you know and understand the complicated e-OSCAR computer system the credit bureaus use to process disputes.
The FCRA allows all consumers a “Reasonable investigation” for any credit item they dispute. In reality, the credit bureaus will do everything in their power to NOT do any investigation at all.
They insist on disputes being processed through a computer, and they make it their mission to ensure no human EVER is even involved in the dispute process. The credit bureau’s main method of avoiding an actual investigation is known as e-OSCAR (Online Solution for Complete and Accurate Reporting.) This system was originally developed by the CDIA for the purpose of helping credit investigations. Instead, the bureaus purchased this system to replace human investigations, and replace them with a computer that only funnels the dispute directly to the creditor.
When a dispute is sent to the credit bureau they enter the dispute into e-OSCAR and send it directly to the creditor to investigate. The dispute is broken down into a simple “reason code” and this reason code is then sent to the creditor. ONLY the customer’s identifying information and the reason code, or reason for the dispute is ever sent to the creditor. This means you can send an official court document to the bureaus ordering the item be deleted, and that order would NEVER even be seen by the creditor. The creditor ONLY sees the reason for the dispute, and they NEVER see any supporting documentation sent with the dispute. If the letter is sent by an attorney, the creditor would never even know. They ONLY know the reason of the dispute.
Obviously, it is impossible for a consumer to receive a reasonable investigation when no real investigation ever even occurs. Disputes do work, but they must be processed correctly to avoid e-OSCAR altogether. Getting the dispute into a human’s hands is essential to have any reasonable chance of having the item completely and legally deleted permanently.
Below is a breakdown of the main factors used to determine your credit score. These are approximations. For example, major banks and other lenders may use their own systems to generate your credit score.
Payment History (35%)
- Payments due and past due, including how long they are past due
- Your payment history for specific accounts such as installment loans, mortgages, credit cards, and purchases or services
- The number of past due items on file (whether the information is accurate or not)
- Adverse public proceedings such as suits, liens, bankruptcy, wage garnishments, judgments, and accounts turned over to collection
- The time that has passed since any public proceedings
- The number of accounts paid per each agreement with dates and amounts paid
Amounts Owed (30%)
- Proportions and percentages of credit lines used
- How many accounts you have with current balances
- Amounts owing on such accounts
- Installments and the balance (proportion) compared to the original loan
- Amount owed on various and specific types of accounts
Credit History (15%)
- Time since accounts were applied for and opened
- Time since the last activity (payment or purchase) for each account
New Credit (10%)
- Accounts recently opened and the proportion of various types of accounts
- Number of recently opened accounts
- Recent credit inquiries from lenders including retail and credit agencies
- Time since your last credit inquiry
- Restoration and repair of positive credit
Types of Credit Used (10%)
- Types of credit: mortgages, installment loans, credit cards, retail accounts (stores) and consumer finance accounts and the prevalence (percentage) of the different types of credit used
Great American Credit Repair is well aware of how credit scores are calculated and take this information into consideration when deciding how to prepare disputes for individual items on your report. Following this approach, Great American Credit Repair is confident that you will achieve the highest credit score possible.
Despite the hype, the proof is in the results, negative credit items are deleted every day. The United States Congress has enacted a set of laws that protect the consumer and provide that only 100% verifiable, 100% accurate information appear on a person’s credit report. This same law details the rules for how negative information must be investigated and treated should it be challenged. We at Great American Credit Repair are experts on the law and have developed effective strategies that will help you achieve your financial goals. We will be your advocates to ensure that the credit bureaus comply and provide you with the protections that the law demands.
As with any industry, there are companies who provide legitimate services, delivering real measurable results, and there are those who will tell you what you want to hear hoping to make a quick buck off of you through fraud and deceit. Beware of those frauds that make unrealistic promises. The reality is that we can provide a valuable service and help you achieve your goals, but any particular outcome can never be guaranteed. We at Great American Credit Repair can only guarantee that we will work with you to help you enforce the rights that have been provided to you by Federal law. These rights are broad and expansive giving the consumer the tools needed to ensure a fair and accurate reporting of their credit.
When you speak with credit grantors, collection agencies, or credit bureaus, their typically ignorant staff may tell you all this nonsense: The law demands that negative listings appear on your credit report for NO LONGER than ten (10) years of bankruptcy. The credit grantor or the credit bureau can choose to delete the negative credit listing whenever they see fit. You can remove these items much quicker by disputing them.
The credit bureaus have cleverly spread this myth through the news media and government agencies. The truth is, credit bureaus will often temporarily delete a negative listing if they haven’t heard from the credit grantor after approximately thirty days. If the credit grantor’s report is late, say after six weeks, and then verifies the negative listing, the credit bureau will often reinsert the negative listing on the credit report.
This is commonly known as a “soft delete.” Usually, however, the creditor simply fails to respond and the negative listing is permanently deleted. If the credit grantor verifies the item, either before thirty days or after, the account may still be challenged at some future time. Are items such as bankruptcies and foreclosures impossible to remove? Any type of negative item can be removed from a credit report, assuming the right circumstances exist. Bankruptcies and foreclosures are definitely more difficult to remove from the credit report only because of the systems the credit bureaus use. They are, however, removable as is every other type of negative item.
No creditor considers the information given in a 100-word statement. The statement only serves to verify some of the negative listings on the credit report. We make sure that the 100-word statements are some of the first things we get deleted from your credit file.
Some unscrupulous companies and individuals may try to sell you on the idea of changing your Social Security Number or getting an Employer Identification Numberto set up a new credit file with the credit bureaus. BEWARE of this scam! It is not only very difficult to do, but in most instances it is also illegal.
Any amount of bad credit is devastating to your chances of being approved by a credit grantor. Most credit grantors never actually look at your credit report. A computer pulls your credit report, rates your credit standing, income, indebtedness, and stability, and then spits out an acceptance or denial. Even one or two late payments will usually trigger a credit card or personal loan denial. The slightest amount of negative credit will cause the interest on an auto loan to skyrocket. You will probably find that even a little bad credit, regardless of how much good credit you have, is an unacceptable barrier to credit approval.
The most unfortunate aspect of having poor credit is you may have difficulty securing a loan and you’ll pay higher interest rates if you get that loan. Over the course of a home mortgage, for example, higher interest rates brought on by poor credit and a low credit score means higher monthly payments and the fact that you may end up paying as much as an additional $150,000 for your home over the course of the mortgage.
That’s why we will help you restore your credit and put you in a position to secure the best possible rates when purchasing large ticket items such as a home or vehicle. In addition, you may have to pay higher interest rates for credit cards and auto loans and perhaps have to place a cash deposit to secure that credit card and come up with a larger down payment for that auto loan.
Even utilities such as power, water, cable, and telephone service may require a larger security deposit. Great American Credit Repair will help you avoid these additional expenses. Poor credit can also cost you in the sense that it is much more stressful to deal with all the issues surrounding your personal finances when you have credit problems
Here are some of the challenges you’ll face if you have poor credit:
$$$$$ Obtaining an auto loan
$$$$$ Getting a mortgage
$$$$$ Renting an apartment, house, condo or office
$$$$$ Securing a credit card or line of credit
$$$$$ Taking out a life or auto insurance policy
$$$$$ Paying bills online
$$$$$ Utilities (security deposits)
$$$$$ Renting a car
$$$$$ Employment history and securing work
Credit problems often occur because of the lack of communication between the consumer and their creditor. Simple mistakes such as a payment being lost in the mail, errors made by the creditor when entering your information, even computer errors or staffing shortages can cause problems that are not readily noticed.
Some Four and Five Letter Abbreviations You Should Know
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives you the right to review and correct your credit reports. It also controls the proper use of credit reports (determines for what purpose they can be used) and requires reporting agencies to maintain complete and accurate information (this does not mean they always do so).
Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA)
Regardless of race, age, religion, gender or marital status, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act states that all consumers are given an equal chance to obtain credit and you cannot be denied credit based on the attributes above.
Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA)
During the time a credit report in is dispute, creditors cannot report an associated account as delinquent. This act also requires the prompt correction of any errors on open-ended accounts.
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)
This Act states that the collectors of loans cannot employ unfair, deceptive or abusive practices including anonymous phone calls, making threats, using obscene language, making a debt public, or carrying out any kind of harassing behavior.