How to Repair Your Credit Now, before we start, I want you to view this as a challenge and not as a problem. Every time a person completes a challenge, they grow and expand who they are. I want you to have a good time with this. Have fun. Treat this as a game. Here we go. Now, lets cover the exciting part, repairing your credit. In order for us to do this, you must have a copy of your three credit reports. First, take out your phone book and look up the three local credit bureaus in your area. You need to record the number and address for each bureau on a clean sheet of paper. You will need these numbers later. The second thing you need to do is lay out all three copies of your credit reports. OK, look at your first report, pick a business that needs to be deleted or repaired, match it with the other two reports and circle all three. Now that you have circled and matched the business to each report, place a number one in each circle on each sheet. This will help keep you from becoming confused. Keep in mind that your credit reports probably do not match, that's good because that's less repair work for you to do. Now take a clean piece of paper and place a #1 in the top left hand corner and list your first challenge. Write the business' name, account number, balance due, status, and phone number on this sheet of paper after the number one. This, we will consider your first challenge in correcting your credit. Now go back to your credit reports and do the same thing to all of the other unwanted listings. Remember, if you have a business listed on only one credit bureau and not the other two, that's great, less repair work for you. When you do this, try to print neatly. You will appreciate this more later. This sheet will be called your goal sheet and our target will be deletion of bad credit items. Stay away from I-9's and I-8's at this time as we will handle them last. Now, call up your first customer. Sit up strait and feel totally confident and strong. You are in control from this point on. Yet, keep a professional tone to stay in control. Rather sounds like you are selling them something, does it not? As well you are! This process is good for building your rapport skills. Explain to your creditor that their business is on your credit report and that you are not really too happy about them being there. Say to them, "This might be a mistake and if it's not, then I would like to pay off the balance and get this item deleted right away." If your customer says "No, we do not delete anything." Then you say, "Yes, I understand your only doing your job, but this is extremely important. I am in the market for a knew home and I simply have to have this item deleted. So, please take care of me at once." If they still say no then you say, "OK, I understand. Please let me speak to your supervisor." If they say no, then you say, "I insist!" They will put their boss on the phone. Now go through the same process again. Start with your noticing them on your credit report and not being too happy about it. Once you have discussed this with their supervisor and he or she say's they cannot delete this item, you should say, "Well, I hated for it to come to this. Now, you are going to waste a lot of your company's time and my time when we have to go to court to get this cleared up because this deletion is simply that important to me." Explain to them you are not going to give up the right to own your own home because of a small mistake you may have made in the past. Now let this person answer you. If this person asks you who your attorney is, say, "No, that's not important now." You must always sound serious and confident and make certain you are polite. He or she will give you an answer or call you back with one. If they do not return your call when they say they will, call them back. This system worked ninety percent of the time for me. Remember, this is a worse case scenario. The majority of the time, it will not go this far. Now, if they still say no and they cannot delete this item, you should at least pay it off and request that the status of your account be reduced. It is up to you if you wish to take it to court. You can use small claims court to dispute these matters. Remember, you do not tell them small claims court; you just tell them court. When they say, "OK, we will delete this item," then you say, "thank you. Would you please put that in writing and send me a copy of the explanation of deletion." Also, if everything is going well, ask them if they will be so kind as to fax the letter to the local credit bureau. Make sure you give them the phone number and fax number of the credit bureaus. Make sure you send the correct copies to the correct bureaus. Do not send a copy to a bureau on which your creditor was not listed! After they have faxed or you have sent a copy to your local bureau, be certain they understand the importance of time. Remember, you do not want to lose that house you are working on. This was definitely a worst case scenario. The rest will be easier. You must always feel confident and strong. When you have completed with one of your listings and were successful in deleting or reducing the status of the account, write across the line the listing is on; outstanding, super, awesome, or excellent. Use powerful words to describe the incredible task that you just blazed through with all the charm and etiquette of a master. Use this approach for all your challenges. Read repairing your credit over and over until you become familiar with the concept and really understand what we are talking about. You may wish to use a different approach for an I-9 auto repossession. Here's how they work. When you purchase an auto from a dealer, you are financed through a lender. When you do not make your payment, the dealer picks up your auto meaning I-9. If you bring your auto back yourself, this means I-8, voluntary repossession. Now, regardless of how the dealer gets the auto back, the dealer cleans and repairs the auto, resells it and pays off the principal of the loan at the finance company. If the auto is purchased directly through the finance company, the finance company does the same thing. If the dealer has paid the finance company off, the finance company will still usually leave the loan amount on your credit report. Now that you have a good idea of how the process works, here is what you need to do. Read carefully because it may sound complicated, but I assure you it's not. First, contact your creditor and explain to them that they are on your credit report and that you do not care for it and you want them off. When they pull up your account, explain to them that you need to take care of this. Ask your finance company what they did with your auto. If they explain to you that they sold the auto to pay off the loan, say, "Great!" Ask them to zero out your balance. If the finance company says that they sold the auto but only made enough to pay off three-fourths of the auto, say, "OK, I would like to come down and see the bill of sale and get this cleared up right now." Explain the importance of time and that you are in the process of buying a house and need your credit cleaned up. When you go down to clear up this final matter, look and sound confident. Also remember to dress "successful" because dressing "successful" will take you farther then you ever imagined it could. Now, before I get too far, if they say that they sold the auto and it paid off the loan, explain to them the importance of having it deleted. Go through the process we discussed earlier. Remember, when you are at the finance office that you ask to speak to a supervisor. You always want to clear these matters with the supervisor because they always have the final word. This will save you a lot of time. You do not want to waste your time on lesser people. We have bigger worlds to conquer. OK, you are at the finance company and discussing the matter with the supervisor; remember you are in control and confident. Explain to him or her that you want to see the bill of sale and match it against your payoff. Once you have done that, work out a deal for any remaining amount. Explain the importance of the deletion. If they simply cannot say OK, at least bring the status down to an I-3. Try to get this status as low as possible or even zeroed-out. Now let's look at this I-9 another way, when you call the finance company and discuss this, they may say that you need to call the dealer. You say, "No, I already know that I have to clear this with you." If they insist you call the dealer, you say, "If the dealer has already sold the auto and has paid this balance off, I would like you to zero this balance off and I will deal with the dealer myself." They will more than likely say, "OK." You see, if the dealer repossesses a car for a finance company and sells it, they will usually pay off the finance company. The finance company will not usually report it until you pay the dealer back any outstanding balances and the dealer tells the finance company to change the status or zero out the balance. When you become involved, never contact the dealer. The finance company is the only one who is listed on your credit report and the only one who can change the balance and status of your report. So when you contact a finance company about an I-9 or I-8 and the finance company tells you to contact the dealer, that is usually because the dealer has already paid your balance. So insist that the finance company zero out your balance. After the finance company has zeroed out your balance, it is up to you whether or not you contact the dealer. (Personally, I would not unless it was absolutely necessary.) We have covered a great deal since we began this journey. Personally, I hope that you have enjoyed every moment of it. I am certain that you will once you have completed the challenges you have listed on your goal sheet. This process of completion will be the building blocks for your future. The next area we need to cover is collection agencies. I believe these will be your easiest challenges. The reason I say this is because they seem to want their money more than anyone else. With that in mind, you should find it easier to negotiate with them. It is really not necessary to set up a different method for collection agencies, all you really need to do is basically the same thing you did when you contacted your first customer. Go back over the same system until you take care of all of your collection agencies. You see, the system we used the first time will work for every area you need to repair on your credit report. This system will also work for businesses that have been paid off long ago, but still have a poor status report listed. Let me wrap everything up so that you will have a better understanding of how the system works. The system we used when we initially contacted your first listing will work for virtually every listing that you have. All you have to do is modify it, change it around, make it a part of you, and fit it into your own vocabulary so that you will feel comfortable with the process. You can do it. Just remember with any company you contact, all they really want is their money. They do not care who you are, or what your credit status is. I seriously doubt if you are concerned about their best interest either. All you need be concerned about is getting your credit cleaned-up.