Eliminating credit bureau disputes by empowering consumers & credit restoration to directly engage creditors – all through the power of SmartCredit’s patented Action Buttons. – SmartCredit Mission Statement Consumers have been trained for decades to review their credit reports for accuracy. Then when a mistake is found, to lodge a dispute with the credit bureaus directly. While historically and in some cases today it might be necessary to write each of the 3 major credit bureaus, in the majority of cases a dispute directly to the source of the problem is the better way of disputing. Fortunately all Smart Credit memberships come with the power of patented Action Buttons, the easiest and most efficient means for direct to creditor disputes. Why SmartCredit’s Action Buttons Are Better · “Data Furnishers,” those creditors that report to the credit bureaus, are bound under the Fair Credit Reporting Act by the same rules as the credit bureaus. Therefore, just as a dispute to the credit bureaus must be resolved in 30 days, so must a dispute directly to a creditor. · Credit bureaus reject or ignore a significant number of disputes on technical grounds. However a dispute directly to the data furnisher eliminates the potential for credit bureau rejection. · A single dispute to a data furnisher promotes clarity. Writing to 3 different credit bureaus could result in 3 varying interpretations of your disputes. In turn, conflicting information is sent to a creditor. Moreover, each bureau processes disputes at different times so the creditor may get requests at different times. All of this has the potential to create inconsistent information from bureau to bureau. · Processing a dispute is faster with Action Buttons. Why mail disputes to a credit bureau who takes valuable time to process them only to later communicate with the creditor? That unnecessary step can add 1 – 2 weeks to your dispute. Eliminate the middleman and stop wasting time. · Permanent results. Anytime a credit bureau makes a change there is the risk the creditor will undo the change when they next report to the credit bureaus. Let’s say you believe your payment a few months ago was never late. Despite that belief the creditor is reporting it as late. You mail the credit bureaus a dispute letter with proof you made the payment on time. The credit bureau then removes the late based on your proof. Good news for you except the creditor never fixed their records. Now the late payments reappear on your credit reports when the creditor reports next month. Communicating directly to the creditor with Actions Buttons fixes the problem directly at the source. · Automation is not your friend. When you write to the credit bureaus they will typically condense your concerns in to a few codes. Next they electronically transfer those codes to your creditor. Credit bureau employees, now in a matter of minutes, have reduced that long letter you spent hours perfecting, and detailing a mistake, in to a two digit code. Uninformed, the creditor then, only seeing that 2 digit code, responds to the credit bureau that the information is not wrong. By disputing directly to the creditor you get your dispute outside of the unhuman automation. Better yet, in to the hands of real people who will get your real dispute, not some code. http://www.smartcredit.com/credit-monitoring.htm It is always better to go directly to the source and closely monitor your financial accounts. Sign up for Smart Credit today and leverage the power of Action Buttons. About The Author Steve Reger is the Vice President of Sales, Data Breach and Fraud Prevention at SmartCredit.com. He is a 26 year veteran of TransUnion and an expert on credit reporting, identity theft and financial crimes. Steve has frequently testified in civil and criminal trials and is one of the only experts to have worked with the credit reporting industry and law enforcement for 3 decades. Contact Steve directly at [email protected]. Original Source: https://blog.smartcredit.com/2016/11/03/direct-to-creditor-disputes-are-better/ from https://smartcredit2.blogspot.com/2020/06/direct-to-creditor-disputes-are-better.html
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It may be time to divorce your spouse, but there’s no divorcing your current credit score. Major financial decisions are made while emotions are high and budgets are slashed in half. It’s critical new divorcés understand the importance of maintaining a good (a great) credit score during and after the legal split. From buying a new home to cars and sending children to college, your new single tax filing can carry some serious financial baggage. But with help from financial advisors, divorce attorneys and your own budget-conscious, there is such a thing as divorcing with good credit. www.smartcredit.com/credit-monitoring.htm 1.Understand Your Credit Accounts, Especially the Joint OnesDepending on the marriage length, many people forget about the Macy’s card they enrolled in to save on a present from six birthdays ago. Pull your credit report and take note of the account labels: individual, joint or authorized users. While the forgotten Macy’s card should be debt-free, that’s likely a unique case. Any debt in the individual accounts will be your sole problem with your new single status. However, if you live in one of the nine community property states any “individual account” acquired debts count as joint debt. That may or may not be good news depending on your former partner’s spending habits; joint debt means both parties are responsible for paying it off. Finally, authorized users grants the person access to the finances but by legal definition says they aren’t responsible for the balance. While this often applies to older children, it also applies to spouses or through some medical credit lines, like at the dentist\’s office, for example. The biggest thing people tend to forget about is co-signing, according to Phoenix divorce attorney DeeAn Gillespie. Her first reminder to clients: a divorce is a deal with the courts, not the lender. If your ex falls behind on monthly car payments a year after the divorce, it will still pop up on your next credit report. To avoid future damage, and in some more extreme cases of revenge, you’ll have to transfer the remaining debt into an individual account (a new one, especially for those in community property states) so one person assumes full responsibility. Part of the divorce proceedings will include who become the “individual”- not the friendliest of divorcé discussion topics, unfortunately. While divorce attorneys will fight for the best interest of their client, mediators and the courts tend to go off a “check and balances” system 2. Agree to Pay Your Share and No MoreDivision of debts and assets is part of every divorce. In some scenarios, for multiple reasons, one spouse will agree to take on a larger part of the debt than the other. However, it’s important both parties agree to what they can realistically afford. Some divorce attorneys will advise clients to meet with a trusted financial advisor who can outline their current lifestyle and set a post-divorce budget. Deciding who gets the house, if anyone, is a monumental decision that can also be met with compromises. For instance, if the wife gets the house she may be asked to give up spousal support or be asked to pay more credit card debt. Initially this may seem great; however meeting with a tax advisor before agreeing to such an arrangement could be critical to starting your divorce with financial security. Are there mortgage payments? Are the monthly bills too high for a smaller income? Is money lost in the divorce worth the house- money unable to be spent on groceries or back-to-school necessities? These are just some important questions to consider when deciding who gets the house and all other debts and assets. 3. Don’t Give Into Spontaneous SpendingWhether it’s to relieve stress, to buy things while you can or just purchasing items the two of you were planning on buying anyway, stop. “By doing so, it may appear that you are attempting to sabotage the other party’s creditworthiness,” Phoenix divorce lawyer Scott D. Stewart says. “And if it’s your account at the end and you have difficulty paying the bill, you’ll be sabotaging your own creditworthiness.” To make sure neither of these scenarios happen, as unlikely as they may sound now, open your own checking account and start depositing your paychecks in it. Also consider any auto-payments for joints accounts to come from this new individual account to make sure there’s no surprise “late fees” down the road. If you don’t currently have a salary, there’s still ways you can start building your own Smart Credit. 4. Keep Tabs on Joint AccountsBecause credit accounts are through lenders and not courts, they can’t always be transferred into individual accounts. Even if the divorce agreements name the other spouse as the payee, ask the lender to send you a copy of the statement each month. If the person is defaulting on their payments, pay the bill and contact your divorce attorney immediately to go over your options. In some states, the courts generally order the defaulting spouse to cover all out-of-pocket and legal fees for resolving this issue. Finally, change all your PINs and bank account passwords so no one else can access your finances and monitor your accounts. Don’t forget to add new and unknown security questions as well. This adds a necessary security level to your now independent and fresh financial beginnings.
Original Source: https://blog.smartcredit.com/2016/11/07/4-tips-to-maintaining-good-credit-during-a-divorce/
from https://smartcredit2.blogspot.com/2020/06/4-tips-to-maintaining-good-credit.html |
About UsWe are a group of fun and creative people building unique and patented technologies for the consumer money, credit & identity space. We started in 2003 with the idea that technology should allow consumers to interact with their banks, creditors and other institutions using a simple button. So, we noodled a lot and built the SmartCredit.com® system to make better users of money & credit. Archives
October 2020
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