Credit Report (way off topic)

[Mutt]

There was a young girl on my local news this evening that was having problems getting a loan for a new starter home. After several attempts to secure a loan she decided to check her credit report out. Turns out she had over 275,000 dollars of reports that didn't belong to her. They belonged to another women with the same name in NY. The news reported that 4 out of every 5 people have mistakes on their credit reports. :-[ Scary! Anyway there are 3 major reporting agencies, Experian, Transact and Equifax. You are allowed one free credit report from each of them per year. You can log on to www.annualcreditreport.com to access your reports. Be sure and have some account and former address information ready for verification. I just used it and it works fine. However, Transact was the only one I was able to get a report directly over the internet. The others you have to mail in your request. I did find some mistakes on mine but nothing like the girl in the news.

Mutt

[Tiger]

 :) A great posting !!!

I had a similar conversation with my dad yesterday? :o as I do leasing, across North America, for a living. We where putting a lease to-gether for some equipment for his home restoration company and I remarked how we use Equifax for credit checks and that he should check his because of mis-information that can be put on by mistake. You would be amazed at the amount of mistakes that are made? :o. I advise every-one, friends as well as prospective clients, take a look at YOUR credit history at least once a year? ;).

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Tiger.

[Sable]

I track my credit report carefully... the first time I pulled it was when I was buying my truck.. Apparently I had had a Montgomery Ward (how many of you heard of this place?) charge account since 1977 (when I was two years old). Turns out it was my fathers and was removed.
Now, where I work and being the computer geek, I have been assigned to be the department "liason" to the Attorney General's Task Force on Identity Theft. I spend a lot of time investigating identity theft and other types of on-line frauds... Two interesting statistics about identity theft:

* 1 out of EVERY 16 people has been a victim of identity theft!
* The incidents of identity theft has doubled EVERY year since 2000!

If anyone on the board finds anything that is messing up their credit, let me know, I have a lot of resources and information that I can provide. Also, like Tiger says, check your credit report at least once a year. After going through some training classes on Identity Theft, I was so paranoid and signed up for a credit monitoring service (I sleep better during the days now).

~Sable

[MotorPlow]

If anybody ever steals my identity, one of two things will happen... They will lose too much money continuing to use my identity or they will have to file for banckruptcy.? :D

[Lucky]

Really, I WISH someone would steal my identity, would serve them right! lol  it's the same way i keep telling my wife not to worry about the kids ever being kidnaped, i give 'em 45 minuets before they'd bring 'em back! rofl!!

[ps2/bikevision]

yea im in the same opinion let them steal mine. they can only help my rating.

a couple months ago i had an officer knock on my door. he asked me where the trailer was. i was like "what f...in trailer" (it was 9a.m. and i was at the bar the night before) he then proceded to tell me that some one saw me stop on the side of the road and and hook up to a trailer that fell off a truck and they got my plate number.

well the witness said it was a green dodge dakota. first off i had never owned a dodge let alone a green truck. second the county this happend in was 2 hours away. third i was driving a blue, primer gray, and rust colored gmc jimmy. and last but not least is i was in court at the time this happened.

i found out after looking into this that a couple years ago i sold a ford ranger that the clutch went out in and i didnt feel like fixing. i had left the plate on it cause it was expired and didnt think about it. this guy apparntly put this plate on another truck or gave it to some one else.

it was a total pain having to go down to the station and report the plate stolen, then to the dmv to file it with them. then down to the county where this happend and give them a copy of the reports.

lesson learned. even an expired plate can still be traced back to the owner. then you get to show the cops where all your vehicles are parked all over the county, not to mention my storage shed full of crap. just to prove i didnt steal a trailer.

and how does a trailer fall off the back of a truck anyway?

[Mutt]

PS2, the same thing happened to my 84 year old grandfather. He's a real trusting soul. The man he sold his 69 LTD to said he was buying it for his sister and needed to take it to her that day. So he left his license plate on the car. 3 months later the GA state patrol was knocking on his door. The patrolman took one look and knew something wasn't right. The car was involved in a hit-and-run fatality in Atlanta the night before. My grandfather was in a wheel chair and couldn't drive.

Always get your plates!

Mutt

[dchakrab]

Anyone know anything about credit scores / reports?

I was evicted in October, '05. That hasn't shown up on my credit reports yet (thanks for the link, OP). When will it be posted? Will it have a negative impact on my credit score? It was just an eviction, not a money judgement, though I'm assuming the landlord will eventually send it to collections for back rent. At that point, that'll hit my report too, right?

Ideas on ways to improve my score? Right now I'm having a past due gas bill taken off my report, since I moved out of the place and the account should have been closed (the apartment I was evicted from) and I have one Comcast bill that's gone to collections. I'm on a payment plan with one credit card.

The other card, Amex, REFUSES to put me on a payment plan. They just keep hitting me with an over the limit and late payment fee *every* month...which means I'm paying 30% interest plus $60 in fees. If I can't make a $150 payment every month, I have no hope of reducing the balance. Any suggestions on how to deal with that? I'm an Americorps VISTA volunteer, which means I'm limited to a $850 monthly living stipend + food stamps. It's going to be impossible to pay the required amounts to Amex on that.

Advice / suggestions always appreciated.

  Dave.

[Lucky]

Dave, contact "consumer Credit Counceling" (google it for the 800 #) they will combine all your debits into one monthly fee you can afford & should work with Amex too. my neighbor did this.
they are non-profit & i believe there is no fee...
--Lucky

[Tiger]

 :) Good call Lucky.
C.C.C. is the way to go Dave and I applaud any man for asking for help.
Obtain a copy of your credit report as directed by Mutt and take it, along with bill's, legal notice's, letter's (received and/or sent), proof of income, etc to C.C.C. This will put you on the "first step's" to repairing your credit standing.
There is NO shame or embarrassment in asking for help and I applaud Dave for stepping up. Best of luck Dave, keep us posted.

[MotorPlow]

Make sure it is "Consumer Credit Counseling Service" and not one of the other rip off debt reduction companies. Most are scams and if they require a fee from you they are not real. CCCS actually gets funding from grants to offer the service and doesn't take a large part of you payment for their salary. (I think there is a small % that does get taken out, but it's not significant).

Your eviction will not show up on your Credit Report unless your Land Lord is a member of one of the reporting agencies and then again, only of he reports it. When, and if, the judgement is finalized through the courts, the court will report it to the credit agency.  AMEX has already reported to the credit agency and will continue to do so every month with anything from a late payment, over limit, partial payment and anything else they can. According to their card holder agreement, anything you do (even with other company's credit cards) will allow them to raise their rates to the maximum allowed by law and if they thing they can get away with it, even higher than that.

By the way, I have an extra oil filter if you want it. PM me with your address and I will send it out to you.

[dchakrab]

Thanks a lot, guys.

I'm long past the point of being ashamed to ask for help. If close friends hadn't helped me out last summer, I would probably have lost much more than I did, and been permanently homeless...in which case I'm not sure I'd ever have been able to claw my way out of trouble. And I'm currently a full-time volunteer, so almost everyone I know already knows that I'm living in crushing poverty (my contract supposedly keeps me from taking on other paying work, though I've found ways around that).

I appreciate the help a *great* deal. I've avoided debt consolidation so far because the ads on TV always, without exception, looked like scams (like the ones that advertise a "chapter 13 debt payment plan" instead of calling it a bankruptcy). I've worked in corporate search engine optimization, and I know how that industry is crazy clamoring for rankings with super-sleazy website campaigns...that was enough to make me write off the service in general.

Based on your recommendations, I'll give this place a shot, and see how it goes.

Again, thanks!

  Dave.

[Sable]

Dave,
? ? ?I wouldn't worry about the eviction itself being on your credit report. If you owe back rent, and your former landlord knows how to submit the information to the three credit bureaus, then this probably will show up, it's just a matter of time.
? ? ?It has been my experience that utilities, such as natural gas, electricity (and even cable) are not suppose to be on your credit report, along with hospital bills, unless it goes to collection. All you have to do is keep sending them money. Ten dollars here and there will keep them off your back and off your credit report. These are living expenses, not "credit purchases". When I first moved out of my parent's house, I was not able to pay all of my bills on time (actually was only able to pay one of three bills a month). So I was always two months behind at any given time. Never once did my electricity, phone or water bills appear on my credit report.
? ? ?My fiancee went with one of those credit councelling services (not mentining company name) and it actually did more harm than good with her credit report. First of all, they were late paying all of her bills for the first four months. Also, they had a mandatory $30.00 monthly "donation" to cover their expenses. When we looked into buying a condo, we were able to get a mortgate. When we went to get a second mortgage to pay off all of her debt, we were not able to because of her credit history. Having the debt consolidation realy does count against you. Further, you cannot use any of the credit cards that are involved with the plan. I actually sat down and looked at an itemized bill that she was paying. The credit counceling service was only paying an average of $5.00 to $10.00 over the minimum amount due. Meaning she would have been involved with the counceling service for over ten years to pay off all of her debt. Also, I figured out that the counceling service did nothing, their monthly "donation" eliminated the supposed money saved in reducing her interest rate.
? ? ?This is just my $0.02, there are many ways to pay down your credit cards. What I have done in the past was called debt stacking. Which is using your monthly take home pay, take 10% of that. This is what you are alloted to pay debt. Go through all of your bills and make your minimum payments. Now, whichever debt has the highest interest rate, use whatever is left over from the 10% to pay that one down. When that bill is paid off, take the total amount you were paying from the first bill, add it to the payments you are making to the second highest bill and pay that one off next. By doing this, I've paid off over $9,000.00 in debt in 2 years and three months.

Best of luck to you,

~Sable

PS - Whatever you do don't get a Discover Card, I have seen a Discover Statement
? ? ? ?where the person was actually paying 60% interest on it. I can't remember what
       the person did to get the 60% rate, but I know it was a combination of late fees
       and underpayments, but there were other factors as well.

[dchakrab]

Unfortunately, I don't *make* enough for that system to work for me, at this point. I make $850 a month, none of it taxed. After rent, bills, food, payment arrangements on one credit card and an old bill, I'm down to nothing. Not even enough to handle minimum payments on my other card.

That's why I'm thinking consolidating might be a good idea...could bring the total down to something more manageable.

I'm definitely thinking a nonprofit place would be better...the one suggested above seems to have low costs, but I'll have to wait and talk to a counselor before knowing for sure if it's doable or not.

  D.