One of the provisions of FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act), is the availability of an individuals credit history, who can view, when they can view etc… 

 
Now… here’s the catch… The law specifically spells out who can get a report and the reasons for someone to be able to get it… Unfortunately a Credit Repair, Credit Consulting, Credit Restoration or any other creative name is not specifically named as an entity that has “Permissible Purpose” to obtain a copy of a clients credit report!!!

Sooo… That means, a credit repair company cannot simply contract with a reseller or directly with the credit reporting agencies to quickly gain access to clients credit reports like banks, loan offices, auto dealers can…

Now we can certainly argue that a consumer that grants permission should be able to expeditiously get a report through the conduit of its choice… But the fact is – The credit reporting agencies DON’T like credit repair companies… So regardless of their legal ability to provide the reports to credit repair companies (Which they legally can – if they wanted to) they don’t want to promote credit repair in any way… in fact the credit reporting agencies would rather the consumers have bad credit anyway… * (that’s an article for another time…)

 
Now I know what your thinking… “ I know a Mortgage Guy that can pull reports for me”, “ I know a car salesman that can pull reports for me”…….

 
The truth is that will probably work for a little while… BUT— Short cuts are really long cuts in disguise in the long run… Many have asked me well, what can happen???

 
Remember Credit Reporting Agencies are VERY SMART!!!! They don’t like credit repair companies… They can usually “Smell them from a mile away”—- How?? Well… The Car or Mortgage guy, that has the ability to pull credit, has a permissible purpose- In his current business…. But not for you…. He has a contract with a specific vendor that states what he is allowed to pull credit for… The contract undoubtedly will state that they cannot pull for any reason other than an application for Mortgage or Auto loan,….

 
Now… Here’s what will eventually happen when you take a short cut- The Credit Bureaus SUPERCOMPUTERS will recognize that there are an abnormal amount of credit pulls coming from that certain company…. When they do- they will attempt to establish whether or not the company has expanded (So they can sell them more products)… or whether there is a non permissible purpose problem… Typically the Credit Reporting Agencies won’t care or do anything about a Permissible Purpose problem unless it is costing them $$$$$

 
Now in the example above- The SUPERCOMPUTERS will not only recognize the abnormal (or normal) amount of Pulls… It will calculate the amount of disputes that it receives after a vendor pulls credit…

 
What that means is this:
If the Credit Reporting Agencies recognize (and they will) that it is common to receive a dispute (5 out of 10) after a certain “Authorized” puller pulls a report… then they will SHUT THEM DOWN…. They will ask for proof of the permissible purpose ie; signed loan applications, borrower’s authorizations etc….

I’ve been asked “Do they really do that” … the answer is “Sometimes”…. But do you want to me one of those “Sometimes”???

 
Obviously NOT!!!

 
So.. Don’t try the shortcut… the easy route is never really easy…

 
Here’s the right way….

 
While the client is on the phone with you, go to one of the consumer sites… Consumer sites like myfico or Free Credit Report …. There are a ton of them… The ONLY one that I suggest is Myfico.com, these are the same FICO scores that lenders use…

 
So, while the client is on the phone with you, go to the consumer site of your choice and enter the client details… You will need to have the client on the phone with you because there will be security questions that only the client can answer…

 
Now all of the data can be entered and you can get to view the clients report… You will have to pay something… so have your credit card ready and be cautious of signing up for ongoing services… Make sure that any additional services are cancelled right away or you’ll wind up with a surprise when your credit card statement comes….
This is called a “Proxy” order.. A Proxy order is a completely LEGAL way for the consumer to get a copy of his/her report to you quickly… This is called a “Proxy” order because you are acting as the proxy for the consumer…
You are technically typing and using your computer for the consumer…

 Many have asked me- “Why don’t you just wait for the consumer to do it themselves”
I think we all know the answer to that one… but just in case… Most consumers will quickly lose interest so you must “get’em while they’re hot”…. Strike while you can… Control the situation by knowing how to get the report fast….

Your friend in the credit biz,
Mike Citron

 P.S. If you found this information useful- e-mail me … Give me some more motivation to keep these rants coming to you…

 
P.P.S. If you don’t like these messages Click here to make your computer EXPLODE….

Wow!! Thank you for this great question…

I actually just included this topic in a continuing education lecture that I am performing for a professional organization…

YES!!!!

The deletion of a derogatory item can reduce a client’s credit score. Remember- the 5 main items that encompass a credit score

35% Payment History

30% Utilization

15% Average age of accounts

10% Mix/Variety of Credit

10% Inquiries

If an account that “had” some derogatory information associated with it also had a lengthy history, then your “NEW” average age of accounts will be significantly less…

With the new average age calculation, your client’s credit score can actually significantly decrease!!

Don’t become an ineffective computer… Analyze each situation independently and react accordingly. No 2 clients will have the EXACT same situation… I like to compare clients to Thumb-prints… Each one’s a thumb but they’re all a bit different….

Organize and automate your business… If you haven’t; checked out the free trial to www.DisputeSuite.com, now is the time… DisputeSuite.com software has revolutionized the credit repair industry… Check it out- It speaks for itself…

More to come soon….

Your Friend in the Credit Biz,

Mike Citron

But most of us forget to focus on the most important part of our business… marketing and client retention…

In a couple of days I will share some marketing tips that came to me on a recent trip to L.A.

For today, I’d like to talk about creation of systems and delegating activities to increase your income.

First, I need you to stretch and take a deep breath, because what I’m about to say is going to be tough for many to grasp and agree with… It took me a lot to realize that some of the thoughts and statements of the Guru’s is right… no matter how much I wanted to fight that my way was right….. I continued to learn that it wasn’t—

First, take accountability! Make a “short” list of the things that you do best… Then make the LONG list of things that would be better for other people to do….. Then categorize the items based on the dollar per hour that you would have to pay someone to do that task. Whether it be mowing the lawn, dropping the deposit at the bank or getting a cup of coffee at Starbucks… calculate how much you would like to make per hour, then realize how much it would cost you to do a certain task if you were making that much…

The example that I heard several years ago is what opened my eyes… An attorney was talking to one of his friends and was instilling this same advice- The attorney explained to his friend that he had to have a talk with his assistant… His talk had to explain the importance of her new duties.. her new duties included:

Getting coffee at Starbucks every morning
Taking his car to the car wash
Picking up his dry cleaning
Etc…..

He had to explain to his assistant the value of time, and that it was better for him to give her a raise and a car allowance than it would be for him to spend the time doing it….
In his example he said, a cup of coffee cost him about $229… Wow… How could it cost that… the answer is simple- his billable hourly rate it $450 (+ $4 for the coffee) and he would have to spend about a ½ hour to park his car, get out, and wait in line for his coffee….

WOW!!! What an eye opener!!!

Now most of us, don’t expect our hourly wage to be $450 BUT— if you want to make $100k per year – that coffee will cost you $29 for your ½ hour….

The real problem lies in a recent study of executives… The study found that a high percentage of executives “Actual Work time” is less than 1 hour per day…

So if you’re actual work time is < 1 hour … then how much is that coffee really costing you?

Find a team and work it!!!

Find the strengths of the players and work their strengths, don’t try to make yours or your team member’s strengths into what you want them to be. Focus on the important aspects; trust, commitment and loyalty… The other skills are useless if you can’t count on them….

With these statements in mind, mold your day around your strengths. Mold your day around the activities that are income producing activities. Don’t try to find busy work, revert to your list of strengths and delegate the list of weak points….

Marketing and client retention should be at the top of the list, because without that you won’t have much else to worry about… now don’t say that you don’t need marketing because your business is based on referrals…

A business that is based on referrals is probably the most intensive marketing task… you must continue to WOW your referral partners and continue to provide excellent service to keep that flow of referrals coming….

Provide your clients with options that keep their best interest at heart… Find complimentary revenue generating opportunities… After all most of us didn’t tell our mom’s and dad’s “I want to own a credit repair restoration company when I grow up”
Many of us are transplanted from another business that has changed, and to many Credit is a tool for other sales…

It has been proven that it is far more cost effective to retain a client than it is to procure a client….. so, focus on ways to provide a valuable service to all of prospects that you come in contact with…. I certainly don’t want to stray you away from credit repair!!!!
I suggest having the answers to your client’s financial needs… that may be as simple as writing an article- or making a referral for another service….

The bottom line is- structure your time to focus on the tasks that create income for you. Delegate the tasks that cost less to complete than the hourly wage that you choose to earn…

Calculate your desired hourly earnings by taking the annual salary divided by 2080
Ex. $100,000 / 2080 = $48.08

Your friend in the credit biz,

Mike Citron

The Acronym OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition…. That’s a fancy name for a computer that can read…

An OCR device can “take a picture” of a letter (like a scanner) then read the picture and understand the picture is actually a letter….

WOW…

Computers can do a lot….. But now, the Credit Reporting Agencies are using these super computers to speed up the dispute process… The OCR devices will read each dispute letter and respond according to a pre-determined set of circumstances…

I know what you’re thinking… how can a computer do that? How can a company trust that? What if it can’t read my letter? How many mistakes does it make?

That’s what I was thinking when I first learned of this fact years ago. But I thought more of “How can this benefit the Credit Repair Business”?

Well… first I’ll answer the questions… A computer can definitely do a lot of the work but, most circumstances can not be answered properly with a “canned” response BUT… it’s the law of averages… most people will give up after their first try, so if the credit reporting agencies can use the computer to weed out the non-relentless people, then the computer is a success for the Credit Reporting Agencies…

Trust is a personal opinion BUT, I as a business owner could never trust a computer to make decisions that could drastically affect an individual’s life… The Credit Reporting Agencies apparently are not as concerned…

Mistakes definitely happen- how many? We’ll never know BUT, as you probably know- a recent study reported that approx 79% of personal credit reports in the USA contain errors so, it should be no surprise that these computers will have errors as well…

The IMPORTANT Question is: HOW CAN CREDIT REPAIR COMPANIES BENEFIT FROM THIS???

Well… If you understand how the system works, you will understand how to make it work for you and your clients. When the system cannot read a letter, the letter must be “hand reviewed”- if it is “Hand Reviewed” will you have a better chance of success?

My experience and opinion on why this is the case is simple… the “hand reviewers” like all Credit Reporting Agency employees are tracked and rated based on their version of “efficiency”…

Their version of efficiency is understood to be quantity NOT accuracy… so if more humans are touching the letters and the humans get paid based on how quickly they “touch” them, then I imagine that is why my experience has seen the greater success when the letters are hand reviewed… (Keep in mind “Touchs” means viewing on a monitor- not physically touching”

Now the question arises: “How do we get them hand reviewed”

The secret answer is not “mirrors” but it is a well guarded industry secret…

Again, no one tactic can be the panacea but- a combination of proven tactics along with persistency will prove to be the best!! In order for the letter to be hand reviewed the letter must not be readable by the OCR- To make your letter unreadable or difficult for the ocr to read you can simply….

Well if you want the answer, you can

1. Listent to one of my webinar’s : http://disputesuite.com/demo.html OR
   
2. Take a peek at my website and let me know what you think of it… SIMPLY go to my Credit Repair Software website look over the site then shoot me a quick e-mail with your opinion of it… E-mail Mike @ DisputeSuite.com and put in the subject line ” I want the OCR Secrets”….

And I will send you the info on what had worked for me in the past… I will give you 2 CRITICAL tips that will make your letter almost impossible for the OCR to read it…

By the way… it’s not invisible ink, AND it DOES NOT need to be handwritten…

You can keep guessing or just try one of the above options…

Caution!

Once you try our software you will become a believer!

You WILL get excited by it!

You will make more money in your business!

Your business will be more efficient!!

You will send me a thank you card (Stuffed with my favorite?)

you will want to drink the punch (LOL)