Repair My Finances.com

You should know that identity theft has become worse with the major problem of shopping online.  There are sammers that are setting up clone web sites like the ones that are very popular to make purchases so that they can fool you to enter your personal information.  You can also have your personal information stolen by not disposing of bank statements and other pieces of mail properly.  You need to shred anything that has your personal account information and social security number immediately.  This will help protect your identity and your good name as well.

Any woman that knows that it is very scary to have your purse stolen. This is going to cause a dreaded nightmare.  You will end up losing your money and all of the things that are in it.  You will have to get all of your personal information cards cancelled or replaced.  You will have to have your debit account closed or changed.  You do not want your bank account to be completely emptied by someone that has your debit card number.  If you do not freeze your accounts and stop this from happening you will be broke.  The other important things that you will need to do are to file a report with the police and place an initial fraud report on your credit report.

You will be taking a chance anytime that you give your personal information on the phone or Internet.  Before you enter your personal information like your credit card number to make a purchase, make sure that you check the web address to be sure that you are on the companies official web site instead of a fake clone with the same appearance but with a very wrong address.  This is something that is often not taken into consideration and many thieves have exploited this issue too many times.  If you see this happening, you should report the fake site to the official site and this can help to prevent any other person from fraud by this company.  This is going to help save your own credit and keep you save from anyone that is looking to take over your identity. 

The right thing to do id you feel that you are a victim of identity fraud is to get an very accurate credit report and look for the activity that you are sure of that is not yours.  In the event that you do find a new account is open or activity is not anything that you did contact the companies and try to get the signatures that was made by the thief.  The faster that you do this means that you will find it easier to keep your credit report safe and unharmed.  Make sure that you are taking note of every action that you take and make sure that you are asking many questions about your credit score to make sure that is all correct as it should be.

If you are having trouble maintaining good credit, you might find yourself being irritated by phone calls from the collection agencies. If your debt has been handed over to one of these agencies, you already have a black mark put on your credit report.  However it is important to know your rights when it comes to being in debt.  Phone calls from the collection agencies are unethical and if you understand the laws regarding good credit, you can protect yourself from the problems and all the illegal doings of these companies.

The most crucial law to know and review if you think that you are being treated badly is the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, or FDCPA.  This is a law that will give you all the information that you may need so that you understand if that company is doing something wrong. If they are not, contact your government officials and police to file a compliant. 

The first thing that you should understand that you have 30 days to review the debt that they are putting upon you.  You should know that people do make mistakes, so this is a 30 day grace period that will give you enough time to make sure that it is all correct and in order.  Before this, the debt collectors should not start to all you and harass you by phone or any other form of contact.  After the 30 days are up, your phone may start to ring so much and this is going to be the collectors calling you to pay your bills.  Be aware that what they are saying is not only unethical it is also against the law.

The debt collector may not threaten you with anything that he or she says.  They do not have the power to do this.  For example, bill collectors cannot threaten to use your lack of good credit to ruin your reputation and tell others like your friends, boss or employer about your debt problems.  Most cases the collector may only share the information about your debt with you and your spouse and the lender.  Anything else is a violation and you can have the opportunity to sue a collection agency if they tell any of this private information to anyone other than that.

The collector cannot threaten to ruin your credit history. This is a very unacceptable threat.  The damage is already been done to your credit report.  Debts are not allowed to be reported for 7 to 10 years and this will depend on your credit-reporting agency.  The federal law does not allow a collection agency to further ruin your credit in any other way.  If they threaten this, or to tell anyone about your debt, the collection agency is in violation of the FDCPA and it is your obligation to report the agency to the authorities.  A collector cannot threaten to arrest you or garnish your wages in any way.

The only thing that a collection agency can do is taking you to court. If they are threatening anything other than this, you should not only get off the phone, you should also call the police and they will assist you in filing an official complaint.  Having good credit is on the line and if a collection agency is not doing their job right, they could be mis-reporting your debt as will. You need to know your rights and protect yourself too. 

If you are checking out your credit report and you see an error what should you do? There are things that you may not realize and this is going to happen all the time.  There are mistakes that are accidental on your credit reports all the time.  However there is something that you can do about it.  Wrong numbers on your credit report may bring down your score and you should make sure that you get this fixed right away by contacting your credit agency.

You do not have to pay a lot of money and see someone to get this fixed. You first have to get a copy of your credit report and circle any items that you think is wrong and make sure that you are inspecting it again very well to make sure there is nothing left out of it.  The next thing that you need to do is write a letter to the credit agency and telling her of all the disputes.  The address for the agency should be listed on the credit report.  You need to be sure that you include all the copies of paperwork that is going to pertain to the disputes that you are reporting and that all of the documents that you are sending are copies and not the originals. You need to keep those for yourself.  You should send this all by certified mail and get a receipt to be sure that it was shipped and it was received.

It is up to the reporting agency to investigate your disputed claim and verify that there is a problem with the credit report information.  If the creditor cannot prove that the information is correct, the entry must be removed with no questions asked. It is probably that it is just an error on their part and they will tell the reporting agency about it and it will be removed from your permanent record.  Once the investigation is finished, and the changes are made, the agency will give you a copy of your credit report free so that you have proof of the changes that have been made.

There are errors that will occur in all stages of life and there is no surprise to learn that credit reports are not any different.  Keep your temper to a low and deal with the mistakes.  Your credit agency should take care of this and help you with no problems.  It is your responsibility to take care of your credit and to review all the paperwork that you receive all of the time.  If you do not go over them you may not even know if your credit score is being affected by these false entries. 

There are three reasons that you might have missed a payment on your credit card: either you can’t afford to pay, the payment didn’t get there in time or you just plain forgot. I sympathise: paying credit card bills is a surprisingly difficult thing to do reliably and consistently. Sooner or later, something is bound to go wrong.

Whatever happened, though, there’s one thing you need to do, and quickly – get on the phone.

Phone and Grovel.

Apologise like you’ve never apologised before. Don’t panic, stay calm, but make it clear to whoever you get through to that you’re very sorry, and things like this never happen to you. If you just forgot, then tell the truth about what happened – and if you can’t afford to pay, then you should say that too.

You will be surprised at how lenient credit card companies usually are if you phone and apologise – after all, the sensible ones want to keep you paying interest to them for a long time to come, so it’s not really in their interest to punish you.

Remember to be very grateful when they let you off, and tell them it won’t happen again. Whatever you do, don’t get angry or frustrated. It’s you that’s in the wrong here!

You have to think and act like you’re a model customer, and be willing to transfer your balance elsewhere as a punishment for them if they won’t let you off this one mistake. Transferring your entire balance to another card will make them sit up, take notice, and start making you much better offers than you ever got before.

Try to Keep It Off Your Credit Report.

You need to do everything you can to persuade them not to add your late payment to your credit report, at least if you want to apply for any credit in the next few years. Remember that any late payment could be a black mark against your name for as long as ten years.

On the other hand, if the worst happens and it does get onto your credit report, don’t worry about it too much. As long as there’s only one late payment, it doesn’t matter too much, especially once a year or so has gone by. It’s the people who consistently pay late who get the truly terrible credit ratings.

In the Future, Always Post Early.

This goes especially for the people whose payments didn’t make it in time, but it’s good advice anyway – it saves you trying to find money at the last minute. It is a bad idea to wait until the day before the deadline to make your credit card payment, as there are just too many things that can go wrong.

Also, it’s generally a bad idea to let bills of any kind stack up until you get around to them, because bills aren’t fun, and you just won’t. Pay your bills on the day you get them, and you’ll live a much less stressful life.

If you’re in a really bad situation, and you just can’t even make your minimum payments this month, don’t worry. You can negotiate your debts, and pay back much less than you owe – as long as they get their debt plus interest in the end, no-one is expecting you to pay the full amount when you just can’t afford to.

Settling your debts takes a lot of time, and many people find it intimidating. If you do it right, though, you’ll be surprised at how kind your creditors (that is, the people you owe money to) can be.

Close my account.

It might feel bad, but if you can’t afford to pay that credit card, you’ll have to close the account – that means you can’t borrow any more money with that card. To close the account, you’ll have to negotiate something called a ‘payment plan’.

A payment plan turns your credit card debt into a plain old loan. The company might take as much as 50% off the amount that you need to pay back. It might seem strange, but they’re happy you’re paying at all – there are plenty of people who just don’t pay and have to be chased, costing their creditors time and money. They’d rather hear from you if you’re having trouble, so don’t bury your head in the sand.

It’s in your creditors’ best interest to take whatever you can offer them, within reason. Their alternatives are lengthy court proceedings, or paying collection agencies to come round and intimidate you. They know that your offer will probably be the only offer you make before you do something more extreme that could result in them never getting any money back.

Write a letter.

Phoning companies to ask to negotiate your debts isn’t a good idea – it’s too easy to get flustered and say the wrong thing. They’re professional negotiators, and you’re not. You need the advantage of having time to think, which is why you should always negotiate with them by post. Getting it in writing also means that you can hold them to what they say later on. Here’s a sample letter:

“Dear Sir or Madam,

I regret to inform you that I can no longer afford to make my minimum payments of $100 per month on my credit card account with you (account number 111-222-333). I would like to request the closure of my account, followed by the settlement of the debt on a monthly payment plan. Please advise what kind of terms I could expect from such a plan.

Yours faithfully…”

The Damage to Your Credit Report.

You will rarely be able to negotiate over your debts without doing some damage to your credit report. If you’re willing to pay a bigger percentage of the debt, though, you might be able to persuade the creditor to say that it was paid off to their satisfaction, instead of recording that they accepted less than they wanted. It’s up to you just how much you feel your credit report is worth – if you’re planning on getting a big loan anytime soon, this could be something to consider.