Credit Bureaus

All licensees for real estate licenses are given minimal data about credit bureaus; we licensees need to help home owners get their listing agreements signed, or, if a buyer’s agent, help our buyers get qualified for a loan to buy real estate if in fact, our buyers do not have enough cash in the bank to cash out the seller.

When a buyer does need a loan, he/she fills out a lender’s application and this data carries the “subscribed” credit bureaus data score. When I was naive, I thought it important to help make sure the borrower applied under the “correct” circumstances and kept the right balance of debt to income and made all payments on time.

I, like all others in my business, thought credit repair firms could help anyone get their scores to rise 5-15%, which always provoked a lender to lend.

The respire firms I learned, were doing nothing. They kept their fee and called the lender who then made the loan. Only rarely would a repair fair return the cash and say “sorry, borrower, your bankruptcy is too recent.”

I have reviewed my own scores. Prior to buying my house, I was at 825. I was happy. It has never been as high again and likely will never again. Why is a story onto itself. The important part I have had to swallow; the bureaus are prime investors in legislator’s camp gains and thus, are currently invulnerable to anti trust lawsuits.

A credit score is almost a useless thing to have; all scores rise. Period. All scores, if a payment is late or a ratio increases, drop. Period.

The person seeking a good score can do nothing but keep making payments on time and keep the loan to income ratio low. How low? Unknown.

Facts about your credit file:

It is likely to have errors

According to statistics from research agencies, over 70% of credit reports carry errors. This can’t possibly be acceptable by any business in existence EXCEPT for those who do not care – those who think they are invulnerable to competition or the law. Imagine, in some industries, an error rate of ½ of 1% is unacceptable!

The company will arbitrarily choose to correct the errors or not correct them.

I went to Experian’s site and went to the area for corrections and made two challenges and two changes that seemed wasteful but they were more accurate. When I went to names, social security numbers, et al, I was told that I would have to call the company; personal changes were not available. The company said they would not change/correct obvious errors.

The score you are “given” has no correlation to anything.

While it is true, that income, payment history and the number of open accounts Do create a score, your wanting to improve your score BY a set amount is impossible. IT is so because the bureaus will not divulge their scoring matrix and thus, you could make specific changes in your life and as such, change a score by a single digit or by a score of 50 – you will not know until their software score affects your score in 30-45 days.

Nothing you do can specifically improve or lower your score;

If you pay down a credit line, pay off a balance – it has no direct meaning to any score. While credit counselors or repair services CLAIM to the contrary, NO change you make will provide a specific score number change at any certain time.

In seven years, regardless what you score is today, it will be perfect if you make perfect payments to creditors starting today, and if you keep your ratios perfect. Paraphrasing, [excluding some states where bankruptcy lies on your records 10 yrs] if you have the lowest score possible and every single debt owed is paid on as agreed from the next month onwards, within seven years, you will wind up with the highest score that the system will give you.

If you buy credit repair services, it will be a waste because Experian will not adjust any score or correct anything they choose not to.

While most companies have leeway on how they operate, the federal government has entered the credit bureau picture [not sure why]. Regardless, NOTHING you or anyone else does will change your score an arbitrary or fixed/specific amount. YOUR scores rise or fall by a hidden value, every month.

IF your score is 5 or 10 points off from your being given a loan, either walk away from the loan or wait 30 days because your score will arbitrarily rise.

All credit is a time oriented thing; in time, ASSUMING you are always paying your bills on time, regardless how low your score goes, if you do not seek more credit, [called CREDIT PULLS] every month for the next seven years, your score will rise – by an ARBITRARY amount – set by the credit bureau’s software

IF you offer to sue or even hire an attorney to sue Experian for fraud or misrepresentation, it will do you no good. Experian does not care what you do or say; and they will ignore any judge’s judgment.

I hired an attorney to find out why my scores were so arbitrary. THE letter I got said “we do not respond to 3rd party queries.” A legal judgment is a 3rd party query order.

The banks are in cahoots with Experian as they also know your score is meaningless.

The first bank to stop using the tri-merge group will capture an unheard of amount of new business. Those that continue to use them are making FORDs out of themselves. [Ford is facing Ch 11]

If you seek help from your state attorney general, or federal representative or senator, none of those people will help you either.]

Tried that and got “we can’t help you” responses when I filed a query “this agency is violating both state and federal law.”