Congressman Lacy Clay and Donna Perkins photographed at an event August 5th as a fundraiser for Congressman Clay's reelection.  At this event, Ms Perkins was representing the National Association of Credit Services Organizations (NACSO), the organization that scrutinizes and monitors the best practices of those Credit Restoration firms who voluntarily participate for the good of

Whoa…what made you think that? Paying old debts gets you to be debt free…but does not necessarily improve your credit score. It is important to understand this distinction. The creditors nor the bureaus have any vested interest in having your credit report be cleaned up. As mentioned in previous emails, the bureaus make the most

Your FICO credit score is only one of many determining factors in obtaining new credit.. Each creditor has established their own set of guidelines and rules for extending credit. A creditor will usually require a full application that asks for many things: your income, your employment history, current level of committed expenses, your spending habits,

  If you paid cash for everything, you would have no credit history. If you have no credit history, you have no credit! Use of credit is important to developing a great credit score. But you must follow the guidelines for keeping it great, which include: 1) keep your debt-to-credit ration under 30% per card

A good credit score is made from the history of charging and paying off credit cards and other debts. But paying off your credit cards each month is not the best way to develop a credit history. You need to owe a bit, and pay a bit to develop it. Paying everything off each month

  This is a common misconception. There are several factors that must be considered when applying for new credit. 1) If you apply for several credit cards at once, each occurrence will result in an "inquiry" on your credit report. Each inquiry drops your score about 7 points. So it would be prudent to carefully

Privacy issues do not come into play with credit scoring. The application that you fill out to obtain credit is actually more encompassing that the amount of information provided to the credit reporting agencies. So if you are going to have a problem with privacy issues, it will reside with the creditor or lender, not

This is another common misconception, based upon long ago history.  Minorities are not short changed by credit scoring. ECOA (Equal Credit Opportunity Act) was put into place in 1974 to solve this problem. The law prohibits lenders from even asking the types of questions that would result in bias related to race, color, creed, sex,

When you are single and apply for a credit card, house or car, you are the only one responsible.  You are the one that affects your credit score…nobody else. When you decide to marry, or team up with someone to apply for joint credit, there are some interesting dynamics you should be aware of.  Everything

In 2013, a new law is being brought before Legislators to help consumers better review and understand their credit scores.   This new amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act has several major changes in it that will help consumers.  Proposed by Senator Sanders, with the help of Senators Boxer, Feinstein, Menendez and Lautenberg, propose the