Hmm... I need to find out myself. I don't know what is the answer. I'll do some poking around and get back to you if I got an decent answer. You should email the people at Lending Tree as they probably can help you..

Sounds Good, thanks for the quick reply. In fact, I just received my credit reports and they look horrible and I have a score of 554. Salient aspects:.

1 Judgement in Texas this pertains to the lease agreement I broke and ran..

3 Collection items Phone company and BlcockBuster, Citibank card..

Several accounts tagged as 'revolving', those are creditcards..

What should my priority be in resolving these??..

That depends. What are the dates of the collections. Are you also still in texas...

That's just the way they list credit cards "revolving" is a type of listing, not a negative label or a tag..

Auto loans, student loans, etc. are "installment" loans..

As far as how to deal with the credit cards, it all depends on what the derog is on them.

Are they unpaid (showing a blanace due) and charged off?.

Are they paid (zero balance), but charged off?.

Are they showing late payments?.

There are different strategies for each situation..

As far as the collections any time there is a collection account on your credit report it is bad, regardless if it is paid or not paid..

So you are correct to negotiate for deletion in exchange for payment. Make sure you get it in writing becuase sometimes they'll often say anything to get the money but not follow through on the promise to remove..

I don't know anything about judgements..

Sounds like you are on the right track with the collections ... if you give a little more info on the credit card derogs, I'm sure someone can provide advice..

Good luck!.

Remember patience and persistence!.

Peace,.

Delilah..

Delilah, thanks for the reply: this is the situation..

All my credit cards are showing up as Balance Due and Charged Off (CO). All of them are showing late payments, but the late payments are showing up for the period 1/97 to 3/99. After that it's blank..

Some credit cards accounts do have dual entries, both in installment and revolving accounts, like my Discover Card and my CITI cards. A typical entry is like this:.

NO:4************.

Type: Credit Card.

Condition: Derogatory.

Responsibility: Individual.

Pay Status: Collection/Chargeoff.

Date Opened: 05/01/1997.

Date Reported: 02/01/2000.

Balance and Limit: Balance of $2107.

Payment and Terms:.

High Balance:.

Past Due: $521.

Remarks: Charged off as bad debtProfit and loss write-off.

The same entry shows up again as an installment account:.

Experian TransUnion Equifax.

Account No.: ************** ****.

Type: Collection.

Condition: Derogatory Derogatory Derogatory.

Responsibility: Individual Individual Individual.

Pay Status: Collection/Chargeoff Collection/Chargeoff Late 120 Days.

Date Opened: 10/2002 10/01/2002.

Date Reported: 03/13/2003 01/01/2003 02/2003.

Balance and Limit: Balance of $2434 Balance of $2172 Balance of $2973.

Payment and Terms:.

High Balance: $2206 $2206 $2206.

Past Due: $2107.

So, what should my strategy be?? Please advice once again thanks to everyone in this board for your kind words and encouragement...

Nothing can re-age the debt that way. The debtor sets that date when he fails to make the payment which causes the debt to go delinquent and that date is set in stone and nothing on earth can legally change that 7 year plus 180 days date after which time it cannot be reported again. It's a date set in stone by congress..

I thought you knew that Pic...

Here are a few random applicable tips:.

Your being very optomistic, plan on 12-18 months. I started last August, I still have one negative tradeline left to deal with and I might get it off by the 1st of May..

You should be past the SOL for being sued but check your state laws to be sure..

When you start disputing things on your credit report, your going to have CA's coming out of the woodwork..

Start off by removing your old addresses from your credit reports. Then dispute every negative on it as "not mine". Everything that falls off your credit reports you won't have to pay for deletion..

Since most of your accounts are old, you may have greater chances of success in getting them deleted..

Most of the CC that were charged off won't accept money, the accounts have been sold off to collections..

Validate those collections! Don't send them a dime until they prove you owe what they say you owe..

After completing the previous suggestions, then I would suggest settling for deletion..

Finally when all else has failed, sue for violations of the FCRA, FDCPA, and your states consumer protection laws...

That sounds like a plan, dixie thanks for your response..

A couple of quick questions.

1) How do I go about disputing old addresses??.

2) Please clarify my assumptions here The statute of limitations in all the states I have ever lived in is 4 years, and since there has been no payment to those accounts since 10/98, they cant sue me anymore...irrespective of when they report it to the credit rating agencies...correct??.

Thanks and God bless...

It may be set in stone bill but the CAs could care less about the law. I have seen it happen dozens of times. Then the battle starts all ove again...

I understand that quite well..

Do you know why that is so? I'll tell you why. It is because they have not been made to pay the price for doing it enough times. It is also because up until fairly recently that people have been made aware of that fact. Even so little ago when the FTC sued that collection agency in California for 2.2 million dollars last spring that people were really even aware that one could sue and potentially win large settlements..

Obviously one is not going to get anywhere near any $2.2 million out of each and every law suit against a collection agency for re-ageing their debts but if most of those kinds of law suits were to bring as little as $10 or $20 grand or so and enough people did it the practice would very quickly get so expensive for them that it would stop and not one of them would dare to do it in the future. The cost would be far too great..

The major problem I see is that the majority of people are conditioned to believe they have no power because up until the last few years there has been none whatever and their only hope was to escape being beaten to death (figuratively speaking of course)..

I suppose it may be somewhat comparable to the position of the people of Iraq. They were downtrodden and killed and tortured if they even tried to go up against the regime. Their new freedom will hopefully change all of that..

Here in America many are "cruelly" treated by the collection agencies and credit bureaus. But the day of reckoning should not be all that far away as more and more people learn that they don't have to put up with it any more..

You know, our police use the same exact tactics on those who violate the traffic laws. Make it so expensive on them that they can't afford to break the law any more. Seems to work too. The police stop somebody they will quite often give them as many as 4 or 5 citations just to make it as expensive as possible..

That's about the only way we will ever make them obey the law too. Make it far too expensive to do their illegal deeds and they will stop it. Until that happens there will probably never be an end to it...

Wow, that's quite a story..

First, it's not likely the creditor will agree to delete these accounts in exchange for settlement. Doing so would undermine the credit reporting system they depend on for their profitibility. You did make these mistakes, so what the credit bureaus are reporting is true. Right now, you are a high risk to lenders..

That's the bad news. The good news is that all this stuff is pretty old. Now that things are better, you have the opportunity to step up to the plate, satisfy the old debt, and re-establish your credit..

The way credit reporting works is that recent credit is a lot more important in determining your risk than old credit. Right now it sounds like you don't have any recent credit, but if you establish some and prove that you can handle it responsibly, you can have great credit with just a little work..

The secret is to use credit without getting into the habit of carrying debt. Credit cards are really designed to make purchases easy, not to finance a lifestyle. I read credit reports all day long, and the people with good credit are the people that use their credit cards for their purchases, but pay the balances off every month..

You can spend a lot of time and effort disputing things on your credit report, but you've already let it go for five years, you only have another two years to go on the statute of limitations before this stuff falls off anyway. Why not just pay off the bad debt (do settlements if you have to) and put your energy into making yourself a good credit risk instead of making your creditors say you're a good credit risk? In the long run, that will pay off a lot more...

Mycroft is from the msn money board. IS constantly puts down people. troll alert...

Yes Picantel, I know him well. But thanks for the heads up. Lots may not know him like we do..

That bit of advice has been proven wrong so long ago that most folks around here like to have kicked the slats out of their baby beds when they first heard that one. Folks sometimes like to hear common sense statements and in this case common sense ought to tell those who have any that credit card companies put those pretty little plastic cards out there for the sole purpose of making as much money as possible and those who follow your ideas don't make them much money if any and so they don't get as good of ratings as those who carry a very low balance on their cards so as to keep a good limit/usage ratio and let the credit card companies make at least a little money in the process..

So what? If he goes at it right he very well ought to have most if not all of it off in maybe 8 to 10 months or so, maybe less, maybe more but that would give him decent credit about a year quicker than your advice would..

Because he wants good credit and your ideas will ensure that he don't see any of that any time soon..

Let's see now then. Gotta be some real sharp advice in that..

Make yourself a good credit risk.

Instead of.

Make your creditors say you are one????.

Yeah! Right on! Any monkey ought to be able to see the logic in that..

Oh yeah??? That sounds like one of them there MLM type pyramid schemes to me. Pay me and I'll make you a millionaire instantly..

Man, you got this old geezer a scratchin his head for sure...

Wow, you know me? I'd like to know where from. Do I know you under a different handle?.

Well, if that's been proven wrong, I'd like to see the proof. I've been reading credit reports for about eight years, and every one that I saw that had a score in the 800s was a person that did exactly that. They have credit, they use credit, but they don't carry debt..

Credit scoring is about risk, not profit. Lending is about profit..

Your creditor doesn't decide if your credit scores are high or not. They can decide if they like you as a customer, and they can offer you special deals based on your performance with their own company, but they don't get to decide if another company wants your business or not, that's for the other company to decide..

Lots of people think credit card companies make their money by charging interest on credit cards. The truth is that money just about pays the overhead. Their proffit comes from charging the merchant. The merchant pays the credit card company 2=3% of every purchase, and they do it gladly because accepting credit cards increases their sales..

Do you remember the day when gas stations offered discounts for customers that paid in cash? The discount was the difference the gas station paid the credit card company..

It's been a long time since I've seen someone put forth that "you have to pay interest to the credit card companies to have good credit" theory. It's the exact opposite of the truth..

If you need documentation on that, I'd suggest Myfico.com. They have this great little section that explains it all..

You don't have to wait for all your bad credit to hit the seven year SOL to have decent credit again. What you need to do is establish a good history of on-time payments. New credit is a lot more important than old credit in determining your score..

Still, I havn't yet learned all about the program you sell. I'm willing to keep an open mind that maybe it could be done a little faster..

Bill, I take personal offense at that. I'm a crusader against multi-level marketing. I take every opportunity I can to expose them for the immoral businesses that they are. They lure people in with false promises of riches in a flawed business model, all the while setting them up to buy motivational tapes and books to make a few people rich. The people that get into that are duped into thinking they're a sales force when really they are the market..

Still, I think it's ironic that you level that specific charge in this discussion. Between you and I, one of us could make some money off the OP if they were to convince him towards his point of view..

It's not me...

I'm going to answer parts of your long post in smaller segments to make it easier for folks to follow. Real long posts are a bit harder for folks to follow unless it's absolutely necessary which it often is..

Sorry about that. My comment was not a personal slam or attack at all. It was the logic that I assailed, not the person..

Don't lump them all in the same mudball. There are quite a few nationally known companies who use that method of marketing and they are honest to a fault and will not tolerate any kind of scam. They have products that people do want and in many cases buy each and every day right over the counter. They simply offer discounts that are sometimes fairly deep so they can support the internet marketing efforts they are making..

While I'd hazard an educated guess that a good 99% of all MLM is nothing more than a scam there are those rare exceptions. The main problem people have is almost exactly that which we see in the area we deal with here and that is that people want things to happen far too fast and they don't want anything to be complicated in the least. The failures in marketing happen because people believe that they can get rich without doing any work. Dealing with credit problems and marketing either on or off the internet takes real work and real effort and lots of study. Those who are not willing or not able to do what it takes to win are going to lose every time. The internet didn't really change that at all..

Lots of people desperately need that motivation. It's funny how people will goo and gaw over motivational books like "Rich Dad Poor Dad" or Napoleon Hill's "Other People's Money" and many more sold in bookstores yet holler about the same kinds of material put out in ebook form..

That is quite true. But being the market isn't bad at all if one gets his money's worth in actual product he would use anyway and gets it cheaper because he put in some honest work and got himself a nice rebate on top of that, maybe even an income..

Its when there is no product of any value or shoddy merchandise is sold or worse yet no product of any kind, not even information is sold in the process. Like the old "Dave Rhodes" letter where you send the next 4 people on the list a buck or whatever and you will get rich overnight. Or the present day "gifting" clubs..

One time many years ago I got a letter in Spanish that came out of Venzuela or somewhere in S.A. and it wanted a dime sent to the next 4 people on the list and if you broke the chain the some angel would lay a curse on you instead of blessing you..

That's laughable to most of us but it isn't the least bit laughable to millions of Hispanics living in those countries and quite a few of them living here in the U.S. who came from down there in some of those countries where people have a deep fear of pins stuck in dolls and black magic..

To them such a letter could reeally put horrible fear in them and get them to fall for the letter..

In fact, if you translate that kind of fear into the kind of fear of collection agencies and the courts people here in the U.S. have then the power that the threat of that silly letter can have on those people down there becomes just a bit more understandable..

Don't follow you at all on that. If you would care to elaborate in private email I'll be glad to discuss it with you...

He told you where from. I lurk over there but don't post, at least not as of yet I haven't...

Which is basically what I said. It is pretty well accepted fact that one should carry a very low balance on credit cards. Keeps them active and shows that one can use credit wisely. And I'll bet you never saw any 800 ++ scores on people who are low income or who live in poor areas of town. High scores are tied to how much income one has as well as where they live. If you live in a zip code where the median income is maybe $20,000 or less and your income isn't substantially above that then you aren't likely to have anywhere near an 800 score no matter how you handle your credit cards..

Should I be surprised that you know that? (LOL).

Nothing new or surprising in that either..

From your posts I get the impression that you labor under the delusion that those who are debtors are by the same token dummies...

It isn't the least bit important to most of us here how credit card companies make their money. What is important to us is that they don't cost us a disproportionate amount of our incomes giving us nothing in return except convenience. Each person has to look at any given circumstance from their own perspective and how we are affected. That may not be fair in all cases but that's the way it works..

Not only can I remember that, I can remember when gasoline was 15 cents a gallon and they came out and filled up your tank, washed your windshield and checked your oil and your radiator too. And they didn't charge any more money for doing it either and they didn't try to sell you turtles, girdles and and a yo-yo to pay for their great service either. Like the Smith Barney ad on TV claims. "We make our money the hard way. We earn it.".

While you don't have to pay interest to them to have good credit you do if you want to keep the card for long. If one does not do that they often close the account and that notation "account closed by credit grantor is going to hurt that nice 800 plus score real bad..

Hardly. Seen it happen far too many times...

Obviously..

That does help a whole lot..

Not if that old credit is bad. You have to get rid of that or you won't have the chance to build new credit..

I guarantee you never will. You can't pay me enough money to get me to teach you anything except what I'm willing to teach you for free and that's an awful lot, but you can't buy my course and learn how devastatingly powerful it is for any amount of money. Count on that. And don't feel lonely or picked on. There are an awful lot of people who, like you would love to learn what I teach and I refuse to sell to them under any circumstances..

I turn far more people away and refuse their money than I accept as students. There isn't a day goes by I don't have to refuse people for one reason or another. Quite often it's because I can't help them for one reason or another, other times it's because their problem is one that I can tell them how to fix for free and it isn't worth their spending any money on. Other times it's because they just want to find out what it is that I'm selling for whatever purpose they have in mind..

I try to operate the way the old gas station down on the corner used to do back when. They came out, visually checking the tires as they came and they greeted you with a smile and while they were filling up the tank they checked the oil, the radiator, the fan belt and washed your windshield and they earned their money the hard way. They worked for it. They gave both value and service. They never tried to get filthy rich but they did make a good honest living..

They took care of their business and it took care of them..

I watch out for those who come to me for help and one of the ways I do that is by keeping people who just want to snoop and use it for their commercial benefit from ever finding out about it except the hard way when they violate the law and people's rights..

But just like any other kind of criminal, they never seem to learn..

That's nice of you. Try believing 6 months more or less and you will at least be in the ball park...

No, you don't need to carry a balance, even a low one. If you want to get really technical, an unused account will over time be less good on your report if the creditor stops updating, but it has to be unused for a long time, and if it's a concern to the customer he can just use it for a small purchase..

You would lose that bet. Income and where you live has nothing to do with credit scoring. I have seen people living in the "hood" on welfare who have outstanding credit. Granted, I don't see that every day, but that's more because these people are less likely to finance homes than because they are not out there..

High scores are NOT tied to income or location..

I agree. It's only trivia until someone says something like:.

Then it's important to understand that credit cards don't need you to carry a balance to value your business..

Motivation is good if directed in the right way. If directed in the wrong way, it can ruin someone..

I wish I knew what I said that gave you that impression. Everybody is a debtor, we can't all be dummies, can we?.

At the same time, many people have misinformation about credit and how it works. Case in point, you seem pretty involved with credit, yet you come here and tell me that people need to carry balances on their credit cards to keep their scores high, and that income and where you live is also important to having high scores..

Both of these are dead wrong, yet this kind of information get repeated and accepted as fact..

Believing bad information doesn't make a person a dummy, but maybe continuing to believe bad information when you've been led to good information could...

Probably a determination based on the general impressions you give in your posts. Of course everybody is a debtor and we all become "dummies" at one time or another when we make unwise buying decisions. But there are many kinds of "dummies" and in this case one kind of "dummy" is the kind that is a debtor and has bad credit because he did not meet his obligations for whatever reason. That kind of "dummy" is the only kind we most generally are speaking of here not the kind you are speaking of..

Obviously true..

Well, I learned that here on creditnet. I guess that's what I get for being here on creditnet and listening to experts such as yourself and many more. At least that is the impression your statement might very well lead one to believe, true or not. It is also based on the fact that I have had it happen to me. I once had a credit card company close the account because I wasn't using it and therefore they said that it was no longer cost effective to keep the card open. So they closed it and then the credit reports said "closed by credit grantor." You think that helped my score? Well, it really didn't affect my score because at that time there was no such thing as FICO or credit scores.



Ok. If you claim it don't have any effect then you post the equations for the FICO scoring models and we will then be able to believe what you say. (LOL).

What basis do you have for making that statement?.

Who besides you says they are dead wrong?.

Lots and lots of that out there. Personally it don't make any difference to me or to any of those I advise. Neither they or I are very worried about such things. We live where we live and if that affects the score so be it. For the most part, we worry a whole lot more about the negatives(the problems) first and the postives later. The rest of it is interesting conversation and that's all it is..

Might help a bit in the future but right now we are more worried about the present and the past than the future..

It should be obvious that you and that with which you work is in the future of most, not the past..

Believing bad information doesn't make a person a dummy, but maybe continuing to believe bad information when you've been led to good information could...

Talking more about the "criminals" and how they never seem to learn, let's take at how they try to deal with that which they cannot deal with and fear the most..

Http://www.collectionindustry.com/in...1&news_id=9087.

Here, in this article they are obviously trying to react to one of the things which I am very vehement about. Talking to 3rd party collectors on the phone. Nobody else on this entire internet talks about that anywhere near as much as I do and since it is a weapon they have no way of dealing with they use the media in an attempt to defeat me and that which I teach..

And that is just one of the many things that I teach against which they have no defense except to attempt to use the power of the media to defeat me..

Let's just take the article apart at least to some extent. The first thing is, of course, that the object of their wrath must be made to look as bad as possible. So the article starts off with this little gem..

You bet that what I teach is damaging. They just neglected to say to whom it was damaging. (LOL).

Notice how blithely they call the other fellow "misguided" and "damaging" while referring to themselves as "professionals"? (LOL).

They got that wrong too. The only thing that actually makes financial problems disappear is paying them in full. Once that is understood then it only becomes a question of who is going to do the paying and that sometimes has to be decided in court and sometimes it can be resolved by mutual agreement when those so called and self-styled "professionals" show their true "professionalism" by breaking the law and thereby turning themselves into "professional criminals".

At least they got that part right. (LOL).

Hey! Rippentrop! Wasn't it a Von Rippentrop that was the minister of propaganda for Hitler's regime? (LOL).

That part would be true but I recommend working very closely with 3rd party collectors. They must be off talking about others here who advocate sending cease & desist letters to 3rd party collectors. But the article does at least have some saving grace..

Now here is a real hoot..

Its a wonder this Ribbentrop glueru hasn't broken his arm patting himself on the back..

One quite often needs a very strong set of ear drums and a very thick skin to take the abuse some of these "professionals" put out on the phone..

There you go! But don't hold it too long. You can't ask them the 18 questions and write down the answers while holding your breath..

All I want to hear is him answering the 18 questions. After that he needs to send a letter and quit wasting his time and mine on the phone. And he had best not fail to answer those 18 questions if he hopes to obey the law. Otherwise he has real problems right from the git-go..

Well, he has got to at least pay lip service to the fact that people do have rights, now don't he? At least if he wants to have any credibility at all he does..

Oh Sure! And then why not just go down to the butcher shop and get a nice big thick piece of raw beef steak and go visit the zoo. Once there you can grip it firmly in your teeth and go over and rattle the lion's cage just to prove how smart you are..

Lots of folks been there and did that only to get completely ignored and worse..

So, it's the same old ballgame. If you can't defeat the other guy slam the living daylights out of him in the media and do all that you can to make him look like some kind of fool giving you wrong advice that should not be followed. It's a case of the spider telling the fly to come into his version of the Casbah and using the media to back it up..

All I got to say is keep your list of 18 questions handy and use them each and every time they call you. In the end you will probably be very glad that you did...

First welcome to the board..

Second, you've confused the Statute Of Limitations (SOL) with the 7 Year Obsolescence Period, two entirely different components..

You have a good deal of studying to do before you will be accepted as one who knows what he's talking about on CN...

When I talk about good or bad credit, I'm talking about what changes the FICO score. If you want to talk about what one company does in response to your use of their card, that's a different topic..

If a company decides to close your account because you don't use it, that's a decision that one individual company makes, and the decision isn't based on your credit. The actions of that one company doesn't make a rule, because there are thousands of credit granters and they all decide for themselves what their rules are going to be. Another company may offer you a special deal if your card is unused for a while. Instead of closing your account, they may encourage you to use the card by raising your limit, dropping your rate, or offering you a balance transfer incentive..

You can't look at something this Wachovia does and say that Discover and Chase are going to do the same thing. These are different companies with different markets and they will make different decisions..

Is that LOL because you know that nobody has the FICO equations? Are you laughing because you know that you're setting an impossible standard for verification of what I say?.

That's fine, I can play that game..

Skepticism is good. I encourage skepticism when it comes to important things like credit. There is a lot of bad information put out on the Internet, how is the average joe supposed to tell what's good and what's bad?.

You say you are who you are and you have all this experience, etc. I say I am who I am, and I have all my experience, etc. We both claim knowledge and expertise, yet we disagree. I'm sure we could find someone else who thinks they know what they're talking about who disagrees with both of us..

Fortunately, there are some reliable sources of information available. While the FICO scoring model is secret, Fair-Isaac Company does provide some information as a public service on what goes into the score. Since they are the company that produces the FICO score, they are the authority that trumps anything you, I or anyone else might say on the subject..

On the specific issue of income and location not being a factor in the credit score, let me post a link to the relevant web site:.

Http://www.myfico.com/myfico/CreditC...ICOIgnores.asp.

And for more general information:.

Http://www.myfico.com/myFICO/CreditCentral.asp.

This is the best information available. Anything you find that contradicts what's found here is wrong..

That sounds like it might be important, if I could understand what it means. Do you want to rephrase that?..

Yes, of course. !!!!.

Yes!!!! That should have been "painfully" obvious and I'm quite sure it was..

Good! The name of the game is sometimes humor and that was the name of that game..

That is an excellent question indeed and one that needs definition. Sadly enough there really isn't any way to put FICO scores on gluerus either on the internet of off..

And there isn't anybody out there from the Office of the President of the United States on down to the lowliest hobo hitchiking down the highway who is going to be right all the time. To err is human and we are all going to err many times in our lives. That is just the way it is..

So there are actually no real standards to go by other than common sense and if the "glueru" wants to get paid for his information then what are his guarantees that the information he purveys is valid and will work?.

In the case of Credit repair organizations, the FTC demands that the CRO give a 3 day guarantee or "buyer's remorse" period after which time the buyer may not rescind his agreement with the CRO. Is that fair? If you buy my course can you possibly tell in 3 days time whether or not you want your money back? Of course not! Any such thought is ludicrous. The same is true of 30, 60 and maybe even 90 days. That is what I believe..

So how many "gluerus" out there will guarantee that you will be satisfied with what you paid for and back it up with a 100% money back guarantee of customer satisfaction even up to 30 days after you paid for his information? Name me just one that will. Can you?.

How many vendors of any kind of information will give you unlimited "tech support" for free and unlimited updates to the material you bought as they come out for free forever?.

Can you tell me of any that will do that and not back down?.

How many software programs can you find where the vendor will give you free updates every time they put out a new and improved version and free technical support forever?.

Will Microsoft do it? Who will? Name me a few if you can. Even one?.

I came up with two very effective addition to my validation letter that makes it much more powerful and also lays a solid foundation for the estoppel letter that follows. Any one who has ever purchased my lessons even before I raised the prices almost a year ago is eligible to get those and any other updates simply by asking for them. Who else will do that?.

I've also found a way to put an end to the major portion of taxes on telephone bills including cell phone bills. Any student of mine will get that information simply by asking for it. Its a totally new strategy but it has been tested and proven. Southwestern Bell has actually refunded all of the money they charged for taxes and rebate any future taxes on a contested bill using this strategy. My students will get it for free and over the years it can save them many hundreds of dollars. Who else will do that for their clients?.

Why is it that craftsmen and mechanics buy Craftsman, Cornwall and Snap-on tools? Isn't it because they know that if the tool is broken or ruined they can take it back and get a new one almost no matter how old it is or how much abuse the tool has been given?.

Now do you know what the standard is and how to judge if someone's information can be trusted or not?.

If I have to refund someone's money that's going to hurt me a lot so I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that what I put out is right on the money every time...

Bill, you have me speachless..

On the surface, it seems that message was a response to something I said. At least, that's what I thought when I noticed you quoted me in it..

Then I read through the text...and I can't help wondering if we're having different conversations. I just don't see the connection between anything that you said and anything I said..

For example, what part of "I think skepticism is good" did you interpret to mean, "I want to hear a sales pitch"?.

And what's a "glueru"? I was so stumped by that one, I did a quick search on the internet and I still don't know what it is..

Is that like "guru" only about...glue? I thought we were talking about credit. You said income and location were a factor in the FICO score, I showed you where Fair-Isaac says it's not. Did you follow the link? Should I have copied the page here?.

In fact, let me put the link here again. If you missed it the first time, you shouldn't have to scroll up to find it. That's a lot of text to go through, and even though it shows up in bright blue, it can be missed pretty easy..

Http://www.myfico.com/myfico/CreditC...ICOIgnores.asp.

Oh, I can't agree with that. No standard except common sense?.

The problem with common sense is that not everybody has it. I've met plenty of hucksters that can make something SEEM like common sense when it's not. If it will make a dollar change hands, that is..

Give me old-fashioned fact-checking and verification any day. I'll do the research, I don't mind, I kinda like doing that...

A "glueru" is my invention and is intended to refer to internet gurus and even some of whom are on radio or TV spouting off all kinds of wrong ideas and wild-eyed theories..

As to arguing about FICO with you or anybody else, forget it. While from the standpoint of lenders and mortgage people FICO is vitally important, from my viewpoint it's totally irrelevant..

The reason I feel that way is because I know that if one gets rid of all the derogatory comments and then follows certain well proven and time tested steps to rebuild credit FICO will take care of itself..

I have much better things to worry about than FICO and the like. To me it isn't the least bit important except as a sort of gauge to see how well things are going. If someone starts out with a 500 and ends up with a 700 then he knows he has done the right things. If he starts out with a 700 and ends up with a 500 then he ought to be easily able to realize he must be doing something wrong..

I really don't have time for such arguments...

Bill, I think I've underestimated you. You're a marketing genius..

In marketing class, they teach that it's important to set yourself apart from the competition. I can't imagine how you could do that more effectively than by being a credit-repair guru (glueru?) that says that FICO is irrelevant...

Thank you..

That it is, indeed..

That, my dear sir is where you just screwed the pooch..

I do not do credit repair..

And since I do not do credit repair, yes, to me FICO is irrelevant..

So the first thing to learn is to get on topic, stay on topic and if you get off topic then get back on the topic. Since I have never done credit repair and never will do credit repair then FICO is only of passing interest to me. Especially that part of FICO which deals with it's formulations..

It is a convenient gauge of how bad one's credit might be. It is a convenient gauge of how well others are doing in their credit repair efforts but it's forumlation is not the topic of main consideration to me..

I know what produces results in the quickest possible time and that's all I really care about..

As the old gambler said, "there will be time enough for countin when the dealin is done."..

Ewe!.

Alright, I'll bite..

What DO you do, Bill?..

Credit scoring is about risk, not profit. Lending is about profit..

Mycroft.

===============.

Scoring has nothing to so with risk that's what why lending is profitable..

The END ************************* LB 59..

Did I just see someone express a preference for sheep over dogs ? .

};-)..