Credit Solutions Info

So you are drowning in debt. The creditors are calling all the time, so often that you think about having the phone disconnected each time the ring becomes louder and louder in your gut wrenching soul. You don’t want to get the mail. You know what will be there, bills – past due bills – overdue notices. You know because it has become a routine part of your life to dread any contact with the outside world that you do not initiate, always fearing bill collectors and embarrassment. I know. I’ve been there too. Unfortunately, more than once in my life time. It is one of the worst feelings I can remember having to deal with, just the constant pressing knowledge that you have over extended yourself financially and you don’t know how to resolve it. Well, I’m here to tell you that there are ways to resolve it! They may not be easy, they may not all be options you have at this moment, but over time you can resolve your debt issues and climb out of this awful existence and find some credit solutions that work for you.

One option you can use if you don’t mind the continual hiding and can ignoring creditors is to wait. That’s right I said wait. After seven years credit information will fall of of your credit report, whether it is good or bad. This will actually take more than seven years because once a company believes it can no longer collect on a debt it will sell your debt to a collection agency who will continue the process and they can also post information to your credit report. This is exacerbated when the account gets sold over and over again. Because of this, the wait and ignore option is not very effective, but it can work. I did it the first time I was in my credit nightmare and ten years later I had a clean credit report. I wouldn’t advise this method as it is so tough to hide out and not put any utilities in your name or switch jobs when they find you. Plus it really isn’t a very ethical option either and it does nothing to alleviate the stress you are currently under. One other note, this tactic is primarily for credit card debt, which is an unsecured loan. It will not work for any type of secured loan, as you will lose your collateral and still end up with a mark against you on your credit report.

Another option you can try is debt consolidation. Many times this is an option that requires you to have something for collateral, usually a home. As many of us are not home owners, or our homes may have two or three mortgages without enough equity to sustain a debt consolidation loan this may not be an option available to us at this time. However, if you can find a way or a lender that will provide this option to you even at a much higher interest rate, it can be worth it just to resolve the stress caused by heavy debt burden.

The last option that many people consider is bankruptcy. I know, everyone shudders when they hear that term. There are many drawbacks for sure. Bankruptcy on your credit report is an awful black mark, but it may not be as bad as you might think. The people I know who have used this option, and sadly I know a number of them, have all, without exception, expressed such relief after making the decision, and have all told me that they made to correct decision and would not only do it again but in most cases would have done it sooner. We may take sometime in a future post to discuss bankruptcy in further detail but until we do there are a couple of things you should be aware of when making this choice. One is that you will still have credit options available to you after you declare because lending companies know that you can’t declare again for seven years. You will be surprised at the amount of credit card offers (albeit at a much higher interest rate) you receive after declaring bankruptcy. Another point you should remember is that there are several different bankruptcy options available to you depending on your situation, so you may be able to just reorganize your debt in much the same way you would with a debt consolidation. And lastly, due to some of the legislation that the Bush Administration passed through Congress not all credit card debt is able to proceed through the bankruptcy process. Check with a local bankruptcy attorney for the applicable laws and statutes pertaining to your area, as I am NOT qualified to offer legal advice nor do I imply or infer that this information should serve as anything more than commentary on my past experiences.

Whichever path you decide to take please, please make sure you investigate all your options and make the best decision possible. I still wish I had not spent ten years hiding from creditors. It is time I will never get back, and really time is the most valuable thing we have.

Before you can start down the path to restoring your credit to a healthy state you must know where you currently stand. You will need to get a credit report. In fact you may need to get three credit reports to get the complete picture on your credit history. The reason for this is that there are three major credit bureaus. And you must obtain a report from each of them to be able to resolve all the strikes against you because they may not all have the same information depending on who your creditors are and which bureau they report their finding to.

Here is a listing of the three major credit bureaus and how to contact them:

Experian – To order an Experian credit report call 1.888.397.3742  – If you want it delivered by mail then call 1.866.200.6020

Equifax – To order an Equifax credit report 1.800.685.1111 – or you can write to them at: Equifax Credit Information
Services, Inc. P.O. Box 740241 Atlanta, GA 30374

TransUnion – To order a TransUnion credit report call 1.800.888.4213 – or you can write to them at: TransUnion, 2 Baldwin Place, P.O. Box 2000, Chester, PA 19022

You should be able to do most everything online if you want to, from ordering a credit report to disputing something on your credit report. In fact after you spend some time on these sites you will realize that they prefer for you to do everything online these days (it is so much easier than when I had credit issues and the only way you could contact the bureaus was by mail, and that was the only way they would respond too). You should also be aware that the credit bureaus also sell other services so be careful that you don’t buy credit protection you don’t need, if your credit is already in need of repair.

Due to the the Fair and Accurate Transactions Act (FACT ACT as it is called) you are allowed by law to receive a free credit report from each credit bureau once a year. To request these reports online you can go to annualcreditreport.com and they should be able to assist you with the request. In fact, the web sites of each bureau point to this web site as the place to go to request your free annual credit report. Also, if you are not already aware of this, if you have been denied credit in the last thirty days, you are allowed to request another free credit report from each of the bureaus. I wouldn’t advise intentionally being denied credit just to save the approximate $45 in fees to the credit bureaus because that action will show up on the credit report, and trust me it isn’t worth the small fee in time alone you will spend attempting to clean up your report. Obtaining you credit report is the first step to finding credit solutions that will work for you.

Sometimes, when you are looking for assistance, especially when it relates to credit solutions info it is tough to get the answers you are looking for. Every situation can be unique and different, and it usually is both unique and different from the information provided. I know that when I would search for information relating to my credit problems I could  usually find a piece here that related to my situation and then I might find another article or some info that related to a part of my situation. Rarely did I ever find exactly what I was looking for without a lot of leg work that was incredibly time consuming.

Even though search engines and the Internet have vastly increased the ability to get information out to the masses, it has at the same time increased the amount of completely useless information available to the masses. So now, instead of having to search for the information, you have to search for the information and then attempt to glean from that information what is legitimate information and what is someone just spouting off from the top of their head what they think or what they have been told in the past. It becomes increasingly important to evaluate information instead of just finding it, so paid services tend to offer more reliable information than free services because then they become somewhat liable for the information they offer. This is something to think about when you are spending hours and hours surfing the same information over and over again to no avail.

I would like to attempt to save some of you from this frustration that I have known over the years. I don’t have all the answers, but I have experienced some of the issues that may be facing you right now. Because of this, what I would like to do is offer up a “com port” of sorts to anyone with questions. I tend to relate a lot of things to computers, since I’ve been in the IT field for a decade or so it makes sense to me. You see, a “com port” is short for “communications port” in personal computer lingo. And that is why I’m calling this our credit solutions com port. I want to offer up the comments section for you to ask questions about your specific situation that you are needing an answer or answers to. If someone else has the answer I would hope they would respond. If I have any information that would be helpful, or if I know the answer I’ll follow up with the answer to your question.

I hope to make this as interactive as possible so you can get what you are looking for as quickly as possible. A couple of quick notes/rules:

1. Please do NOT post sensitive financial information. I cannot and will not be held responsible for your privacy concerns if you post anything sensitive or identifying on this PUBLIC blog/forum. Just consider anything you write to be public information once posted, and it will be treated this way.

2. I will not be responding directly to ANY post via email or answer any questions about this topic or post via email. I also will only respond if I have relevant information or insight that I feel may be helpful. Others should follow suit.

3. Please make every attempt to write your questions from a generic standpoint by changing any identifiable information (names, companies, etc.)

4. None of the answers are to be taken as legal advice, but ONLY as informational commentary and opinion.

I hope that we will be able, as a community, to assist each other when it comes to our credit solutions.