A very cheesy press release came across the wires this morning promoting a book called "How to Outsmart the Credit Bureaus." They should just rename it "How to Outsmart Consumers Out of $16 Bucks." Sure, this type of book has a lot of curb appeal; who wouldn’t want to get bankruptcies off their credit reports, remove inquiries or buy a "new Xbox 360?" But, really the whole premise of the book is just wrong. Here is the truth:
There is no way to outsmart the credit bureaus. Or I guess it would be more accurate to say: there is no legal or safe way to outsmart the credit bureaus.
I know this from experience, I used to work for a credit bureau and I’ve been helping consumers to manage and improve their credit for years. Just like trying to "outsmart" the IRS or law enforcement, trying to outsmart the credit bureaus isn’t a good idea. There is no secret to the credit industry or a special way to beat the system.The rules are pretty simple actually:
Rule 1: Accurate information will stay on your credit report for many years. This is true for positive data like on-time payments and it is true for negative data like bankruptcy filings. There is nothing you can legally do to remove accurate information for your credit report before the set expiration date. You can’t outsmart the guidelines established by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Rule 2: Inaccurate data is very different from negative data. True inaccuracies such as records that don’t belong to you, mistakes in your account reporting and accounts that should have expired can be easily disputed and removed from your credit reports. But negative data, no matter how much you would like to see it gone, can’t be disputed and removed before the expiration date.
Rule 3: Make responsible financial decisions and you will have good credit. Make bad decisions and you will have bad credit. Credit reports are designed to evaluate your past financial behavior so lenders can predict your future financial behavior. If you’ve made good decisions such as keeping your debt balances low and paying your bills on time, you’re likely to continue doing so. If you’ve gone into deep debt, missed payments and had debts sold to collection agencies, you are a riskier borrower. Just like a college transcript or police record, you can’t change the past on your credit report. You have to instead focus on the future.
Rule 4: You can’t dispute inquiries. Except for a very few limited cases, the credit bureaus will not dispute or remove inquiry records. It is a waste of time, paper and stamps to try to dispute inquiries. The good news is that these records start to lose their impact after just a few months and fall of your report after 2 years.
Rule 5: Any company promising you things like instant credit improvement, secrets the FTC doesn’t want you to know about, credit score repair, a 50 point score boost in 30-days, erasing negative records, etc is not a good company. If you sign up for a credit repair program, the best case scenario would be nothing happens. The worst case scenario is that your credit is destroyed, you’re broke and you’ve broken the law. Credit repair is illegal for a reason.
That’s it! Those are the basic rules…pretty boring, right? The real world of credit scores and credit reports is pretty basic. As cool as it would be, there are no hidden secrets or short cuts when it comes to your credit. So please, please do me a favor and avoid offers like this book that promise to reveal the "truth." The real truth is available for free on sites including Credit.com, myFICO.com, Equifax.com, TrueCredit.com, Fool.com, Bankrate.com and more. Or by just asking our team of credit experts via tidbits@credit.com.
Credit.com offers straightforward tips and advice to help you make smarter financial decisions. Visit Credit.com to sign up for your FREE Credit Report Card and find out where you stand today!
{ 13 comments… add a comment }
You don’t know what HELL you are talking about. Your entire article is one based off ignorance and anyone can google credit repair forum and go to any one of these and see tons of people who can confirm that everything you said in this article is a lie.
YOU STILL work for the credit bureaus…Ican tell.
HOW TO OUTSMART THE CREDIT BUREAUS is so dangerous that they took the person who wrote it to court to try to prevent its release. THEY LOST!
Credit Bureaus get PAID for you having negative information on your report. Its to their benefit that the consumer remain ignorant and you seem to be a proponent of IGNORANCE.
This man needs to be ignored at ALL COST!
Hi Joe,
Thanks for commenting on the blog today!
I don’t work for a credit bureau anymore, I haven’t for a few years now. And I still believe that there is no way to outsmart the system.
There are little-known facts about how the bureaus work, but these facts are publicly available for anyone willing to do a little reading online.
I would love to hear some of these “secret” ways to outsmart the credit bureaus. If you’d like to inform me, I’d love to investigate.
Emily
First and foremost there are MAJOR diferences in Credit repair techniques which basically comes down to the LAW.
I persnally have seen people eliminate:
*Bankruptcy
*Foreclosure
and host of other negative items from Credit reports.
Credit Bureaus ARE NOT the consumers friend. They are private organizations wo are in the business of making money.
They also do a LOT of underhanded things (Like put a lot of unverifiable negative information of consumer reports (Because this makes them money.)
The secret is in KNOWING THE LAW BECAUSE THE LAW IS ON THE COSUMERS SIDE.
Its funny to see the reaction of the credit bureaus when someone who REALY KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING starts the credit cleaning process.
THEY GO ALL OUT TO FIND OUT WHO THE INDIVIDUAL IS AND TRY TO CONVINCE THEM THAT WHAT THEY ARE DOING WILL NOT WORK.
PEOPLE THINK..EVERYTIME SOMETHING IS REMOVED FROM YOUR CREDIT REPORT THESE PEOPLE LOSE MONEY..DO YOU THINK THEY ARE NOT GOING TO PUT OUT ARTICLES ON THE INTERNET TELLING YOU CERTAIN TEHNIQUES WONT WORK?
Read the book, this book and others have techniqes that work…and you know it EMILY.
Joseph
I love the passion here, Joseph! My review still stands.
Wow Joseph, your knowledge of the credit industry is validated by your use of CAPITAL LETTERS. I’m really glad you’ve come on this helpful forum to attempt to make money with your book that at best will be a waste of money and at worst land the user in jail. Do you also have a book about how to never pay taxes and how to drive drunk but not get caught? Really, that’s all your book amounts too. There’s no simple easy secret around hard work in life – take it from someone who worked very hard to achieve great credit, and is now a proud homeowner. I used many of the tips Emily posts right here on this blog. They’re free, as all factual, honest information is. Imagine that.
Nicole
Come on now, you know this post is not completely accurate.
Tens of thousands of items are deleted every single day because the deadlines are not met (30 day)
Thousands more are deleted becuase collection agents make violations which are caught on tape ant they remove them to avoid suits.
Now, I will agree 95% of credit repair books, companies and forums are a waste, but I know for a fact that some do work…trust me on that one.
Therefore, I think some of your comments should be rephrased for example
“If you sign up for a credit repair program, the best case scenario would be nothing happens. The worst case scenario is that your credit is destroyed, you’re broke and you’ve broken the law”
Is that really the only best case scenario? I beg to differ and can prove it.
Now, there are some dirty little things about this site as well and I choose not to point them out publicaly. Instead I am requesting from one professional to another that you re-word your psot with some qualifiers like
in my opinion, chances are, more then likely etc.
I really love it when people post, ‘I can prove it’ and then don’t.
When there are two side to an argument, and is talking rationally with neutral or possibly bad news, and the other is typing in all caps and claiming to have some sort of inside scoop or secret that only they know, I’m naturally inclined to side with the person who isn’t saying ‘Trust me.’
If there’s proof, produce it. Otherwise you are just trying to make money selling a book full of B.S.
I want a provision to be made in the Fair Credit Act to allow you to just ‘opt-out’ of the credit bureaus and close the accounts. That way, a potential creditor would have to actually do some work and check with your references like your bank and mortgage co., etc. to see how you pay.
‘FICO’ is a bunch of nonsense. And why do we need three credit bureaus? Someone answer that, please!!
Back in the day, there was a credit bureau in your city that kept track of your references. There was no stupid ‘scoring.’ You were rated ‘paid as agreed, slow pay, or delinquent payor.’ If there was a problem, you could call them or go to their office and get it straight in a day. Suddenly, big brother stepped in and now we have the national credit bureaus. And look at all the ads you see on the net and on t.v. about how to get your ‘score’ and to fix your credit and to ‘monitor’ your credit files. Garbage. Just a way to such some money away from the public who are having a hard enough time surviving in this economy.
Let’s just opt-out of FICO and get real again. Credit bureaus get paid when things are posted to your account, so they will put anything in there that comes along and it takes months to get it taken off.
Goodbye, big brother! Let’s kill off FICO!
Credit Repair is a simple process and anyone can do it. I have done it myself and for a few friends. It’s doesn’t matter if it is accurate or not, it can be removed legally. There is no law that says you can’t dispute information as “Unverifiable” which means that you want it verified. If there is no response within 30 days from the creditor or collection agency then it gets removed. It may be morally wrong specially if it’s accurate but this is the system that was put in place for the consumer. If we follow the system then we are doing nothing illegal. An item on your credit report whether it be good or bad can be disputed as inaccurate, unverifiable, not mine, or exceeds the time limit in which it can be reported which is 7 yrs. The best way to dispute something on your credit is to send a simple letter outlining what the item is and why you are disputing it. Along with this letter send them a copy of your social security card, driver’s license, and a utility bill if you have moved within the last 2 yrs. Once they have this in hand they have no choice but to investigate the item REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT IT IS ACCURATE. That’s the sole purpose of the dispute is to verify it’s accuracy. If anyone feels they need further explanation then email me at jerrell.tompkins@iisclaims.com
Take care folks and be nice to each other.
-Tommy
Sorry, Tony but this is WRONG => “It doesn’t matter if it is accurate or not, it can be removed legally.”
The truth is that no one (not even one of the self-proclaimed ‘credit repair’ companies) can legally remove accurate negative information from a credit report.
You’re right about one thing – disputing information in your credit reports is an easy process and something that consumers can do on their own. Although, I don’t know that I’d use the term “credit repair” because it’s usually associated with companies that promise to clean up your credit reports and claim that they can have negative information removed. In fact, it’s a good idea to avoid these companies for the simple fact that all of us have the right to file a dispute to correct or verify anything being reported in our credit reports. The process is actually pretty simple to do and you can do it all on your own. The best method is the old fashioned way of sending in the dispute by mail. Credit.com offers a ton of helpful information in their Learning Center but I think these two articles will explain everything you need to know in order to save yourself the money and file your disputes yourself!
The Truth About Credit Repair:
http://www.credit.com/credit_information/credit_help/The-Truth-About-Credit-Repair.jsp
Correcting Your Credit Report:
http://www.credit.com/life_stages/buying_house/Correcting-Your-Credit-Report.jsp
This guy has got to be a ringer for someone. What a “f” ‘g moron.
Bottom line of “advise: the credit reporting companies are omnipotent, parental figures- and you’d better not question them.
Worthless is an understatement.
I’ll bet “a”hole. “F” you.