Congressman Lacy Clay and Donna Perkins

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 the industry.

Ms. Perkins serves as a member of the Board of Directors of that organization, and as the chair of Membership.  It is vitally important that the general public understand the kinds of things going on in the industry.  That is why, as a board member, Ms. Perkins supports Congressman Clay who is working with other members of Congress towards a solution.

It is well known, and now documented by 60 minutes, that the three credit reporting agencies:  TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian are attempting to influence Congress to change the consumer protection laws in their favor.  They want us to believe that we would be better off if THEY are the only ones who can solve credit report problems.  But consider this:  if the people who gather the data, decide what information to use, then arbitrarily decide what your credit score will be, then report different information to the lenders – have control over fixing their broken system, how will the public benefit?  Can you say "wolf guarding the hen house"?

Congressman Clay is gathering infomation to take back to committees that he sits on or chairs in order to formulate an answer to this outrageous request by the 3 bureaus.  If they are allowed to have their way, all people in the US will suffer.  The banks who lend money to us rely on the information provided to them by the 3 bureaus.  If it is not accurate, every American will be allowed less and less credit.  The way our banking system sits today, that means that the 3 bureaus will make more and more money selling their data to the banks.  The banks rely on the 3 bureaus for accuracy, and recently on 60 minutes, it was reported that 40 million mistakes are to be found within the 3 credit reporting agencies.  Ms. Perkins and others involved in the credit restoration business, are dedicated to working out a solution to this conundrum.  See 60 minutes video here:  60 minutes:  40 million innacuracies.

Donna Perkins

With 23 years in the business of credit restoration, and more than 110,000 happy customers, KC Credit Services can solve your credit report problems.  Contact us today!

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, and your credit history.

If you falsify any part of the application, you have committed credit fraud. The creditor will subjectively review all facts available, and make a decision for or against giving you credit based upon their own review criteria.

You may never know what that criteria consists of. Remember, this is not an OBJECTIVE decision. It is SUBJECTIVE. That means that the creditor may make any decision he wishes, except where the law dictates his actions (as in race, color or creed discrimination.  New credit can be granted even though your current score is weak, if other factors support it.

Donna Perkins

So your FICO credit score is only one of many facts that the creditor will consider in reviewing your application and granting credit to you.

Let us help you with your credit restoration needs so you can once again qualify for new credit lines.

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 review the offers you receive and select one or two to apply for.

The inquiry shows up on your report regardless of whether or not you are granted credit. But the bigger issue is that all of your creditors see the inquiries, and this indicates to them that their involvement with you may be at a higher risk. Because you are seeking additional credit lines, you may be expecting to spend more money on credit. This can put their balance with you at risk of default. Therefore, there may be negative consequences to frivolously applying for multiple cards within a short time span.

Donna Perkins

2) If you are trying to purchase a car, and go from dealership to dealership filling out applications at each one within a short time span, each application will result in an inquiry on your credit report. This is usually viewed by your creditors as only one inquiry for the purposes of risk assessment. The same holds true for real estate. However, you may need to apply to the credit bureaus to remove those extraneous inquiriies could take some time. You may need your Credit Concierge's(tm) help to make this happen.

Let us know how we can help you.

ECOA[3] (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, sexual orientation, and more, as well as people with little or no credit history.

The Bureau's claim that their scoring techniques have proven to be an accurate and consistent measure of the ability to repay loans for all people who have some credit history, regardless of whether they are in the main stream or have a minority history.

Donna Perkins

There is no scoring model that can distinguish race, color or creed based upon a name or it's spelling, where a person lives, etc.

So for all of you out there who consider yourself a minority, there is nothing to this myth.

Having said that, minorities may suffer from the methods the bureaus use to group people together.  It has nothing to do with race or any other marker, but what it is based upon is your score.  If people in the group you are in have a general lowering of their scores, it can affect your overall score.  This is common across all levels and has nothing to do with ethnicity.

Many people ask us "will bankruptcy completely screw up our credit report"?  The answer is, of course, complicated.  The short answer is "yes", and the longer answer is "it will get better".

Having a personal bankruptcy on your credit report will affect your score as much as 200 points, and last for 2 years.  If during that two years, however, as you establish new credit and pay your bills ON TIME, your credit score should begin moving upwards at the two year mark.

Although bankruptcy will remain on your credit report for 7 or 10 years, by establishing new credit the RIGHT WAY, you can mitigate this to a certain extent. 

If we do not learn new skills and techniques after a bankruptcy, we are doomed to repeat the process that got us there in the first place.

Donna Perkins

  Ask us how we can help guide you to step-by-step restore your credit score.  Or ask us how we can help you simply and easily create a buisness credit file, and never again use your social security number to personally guarantee a loan!  CLICK HERE to be contacted.

Some people don’t have that “right score” so they are denied rights that they normally should have, like getting a loan approved or a new credit card.

“Scores”  were first started by local department stores and financial institutions who would share their information about their applicants to see if potential new customers were credit worthy.  Later, this practice morphed into what we call the “Bureaus” or Credit Reporting Agencies. 

Do you remember the Welcome Wagon ladies? They weren’t really there to welcome you to the neighborhood. They worked for the local credit bureaus and were told to go and get what ever information they could on the new family that just moved into town. The Ladies would come with baked cookies to make it seem friendly, and innocuous.

With some of that gathered information, it wasn’t uncommon to discriminate against people with what is known as “red lining”. Red lining is drawing a line around a neighborhood of people and denying them certain services or rights for unspecified reasons.

We now have many laws in place to protect the public from this practice.  That doesn’t mean that the Welcome Wagon Ladies don’t still come to see you…it’s just that “red lining” is prohibited for any reason.  Still, the information that they gather, along with the information on your credit application, are used to determine what kind of risk you are.  Your history in obtaining credit, and how well and faithfully you repaid that loan, make all the difference in how you will be treated when you try to obtain new credit.

That’s why it is so important for you to KNOW what your credit report says about you.  Once you have pulled a copy (available for free from www.annuacreditreport.com) and you notice that there is inaccurate, misleading, old, or unverifiable information…it is important to get that corrected as soon as possible.  In this way, applying for new credit will be much faster and easier, and you will gain the peace of mind that comes with KNOWING that you can qualify.

Another important issue is your score.  The Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) model is still the accepted version of credit scoring with most

Donna Perkins

lenders in the United States.  Your FICO score is going to be different at each of the Bureaus:  Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax.  There are a myriad of reasons why that is true, but the most important is that until you get a copy of your report, you don’t know which of you creditors is reporting to which bureau.  Some report to all three – some report to two – and some only one.  This skews your numbers, and is the reason why most lenders take an average of all three to determine the level at which they will grant you credit.

What do I mean by levels?  FICO says that an excellent score is between 700-850.  If you fall within these boundaries, you can usually get the very best interest rates available for car loans, home loans, and unsecured credit.  The next level is 680-699 which is called Good.  You will pay a slightly higher rate in this category.  Fair falls between 620-679.  If you fall into the fair category, you will have a little more trouble getting credit and you will pay higher interest rates.  Below 620, the categories are Poor and Bad, and at these levels, credit is nearly always denied to you. 

Knowing what your report says, and taking action to have it accurately reflect what you know to be the truth about your history, can make all the difference in obtaining any kind of credit.  To learn more about how I can help you, please contact me:  CLICK HERE.