What Can I Do If I Am A Victim Of Identity Theft?

What can I do if I am a victim of identity theft?

You apply for a credit card and are turned down because of a low credit score, yet you know that you’ve always paid your accounts on time.

A debt collector calls to demand payment on a six-month overdue account for a credit card you have never had.

You receive a credit card in the mail that you’ve never applied for.

What’s happening? You could be the victim of identity theft, where an imposter is using your personal information to obtain credit illegally. Then when the thief does not pay the bills, the creditor itself or a debt collection company contacts you to demand payment. As a result, your credit reports are likely to contain negative information about your bill payment history and your credit scores have probably been lowered considerably, making it difficult or impossible to obtain new credit yourself.

Victims of identity theft must act quickly and assertively to minimize the damage.

Here are a few things you can do.

1.  Notify all 3 credit bureaus and establish fraud alerts.

2.  Monitor your 3 credit reports for any other fraudulent accounts or inquiries.

3.  You may want to place a security freeze on your 3 credit reports.

4.  You may want to notify law enforcement.

5.  You may want to notify the Federal Trade Commission.

What to do with new credit accounts opened by the imposter. 

1.  Contact the credit bureaus and creditors immediately to notify them of the fraud.

2.  Ask businesses to stop reporting fraudulent accounts to the credit bureaus. Ask the credit bureaus to delete fraudulent accounts. (Sending a copy of your police report or FTC identity theft report can help.)

3.  Fill out fraud affidavits.

4.  Ask for a letter stating that the disputed account has been closed and deleted from your credit reports. 

You can work to correct the effects of identity fraud on your own (it's your right), but you can also hire a professional to help you if you feel to overwhelmed or even simply too busy to handle the process alone. HOPE4USA educates and assists our clients in remedying the effects of identity fraud. If you would like to know more please call us at 704-499-9696. We are waiting for your call.

More Warning Signs You Are In Credit Card Trouble

Today we are continuing with the thoughts of our last post. It is so easy to get into financial trouble. It can get out of hand before we know it.

Let's look at a few more financial warning signs and see if any of these describe the situation you are in currently. If so, you may need to take action immediately. 

• You Can't Make Minimum Payments. This one speaks for itself, but if you can't make minimum payments on your credit cards, you're in big credit trouble. Keep in mind, credit card companies don't set up minimum payments to get you out of debt quickly. Rather, those minimum payments are meant to keep you in debt as long as possible and pay the most interest!
• You're Using Credit Cards for Necessities.  If you're using your credit cards to buy groceries or put gas in your car because you don't have the cash, be very careful. If you use your credit cards for household expenses for convenience, and then they pay the bill in full each month, that's fine. But this only works if you have the money and the discipline to pay your credit cards off in full each month, and most people don't. If you are struggling with financial discipline consider paying cash for your household expenses, and don't give the credit card companies a chance to get their hands on your wallet. (NOTE: That does not mean you should close your credit card accounts as this can hurt your credit scores too.)
• Are you constantly using different cards based on which one has credit available at that moment? If so, that's one of the surest signs you're in serious financial and credit trouble. You make a few payments on one card to free up some credit, then you run that card back up to its limit while you're making payments on other cards. The problem is, you're making all these payments, but you're doing nothing to get yourself out of debt. Plus, you're hurting your credit and increasing the chance that you'll get hit with a nasty "over-limit fee."
• Have you ever heard someone say, "There was too much month for my money?" What they mean is that they ran out of cash before the month was over. How about you? Are you running out of cash before the end of the month? Do you find yourself needing groceries or gas, but having no cash to pay for them? Well, you can't make the months shorter, so you're going to have to make your money last longer. The only way to do that each and every month is to set up a budget – and stick to it! 

These are just a few more warning signs that indicate you may be in credit and financial trouble. At HOPE4USA we guide our clients everyday toward healthier credit principals. If you would like to know more please call us at 704-499-9696. We are waiting on your call.

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Ron Lambright is an expert with over a decade and a half of experience in credit repair, credit improvement, credit reporting, and credit scoring. Ron is called upon weekly to speak at various seminars educating attorneys, loan officers, Realtors, other professionals, and consumers regarding the complex subjects of credit reporting and credit scoring. He is regularly featured on talk shows and podcasts and has been published in countless articles, educational handbooks, and blogs. He is an expert at teaching consumers and business owners how to achieve their credit related goals. Connect with Ron on Facebook here. 

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Warning Signs Your Credit Card Debt Could Be Out of Control

As credit experts we often hear people say, "I don't know how we got into so much debt."

In truth, all the warning signs were probably there – they just didn't know what to look for or refused to see the warning signs. We don't EVER want this to happen to you. So let's look at some warning  signals that you could be headed for serious financial and credit trouble.

Look closely at these warning signs and be honest with yourself. If any of these signs look familiar, we've got advice for you on how to stop the madness before it becomes out of control.

• Are you playing the balance transfer game? It all sounds so great – in theory: "Pay off a high interest rate credit card balance with a low promotional rate, and you'll save a lot of money!" The problem is that most people don't pay off the balance before the promotional rate ends, and then the interest rate shoots up like a rocket. Making things worse, people often run up the balance on the credit card that they paid off using the transfer, so now they owe twice as much debt.
• Have you lost Track of How Much You Owe? Without looking at your statements, do you know how much credit card debt you owe? If you can't answer correctly within a few hundred bucks, you're probably not paying enough attention to your debt. Credit cards are among the most expensive debt you'll ever have, so you need to know what you owe on them at all times. Keep track of what you owe to the penny so you can put every extra dollar toward paying down that debt.
• Have You've Been Turned Down for a Loan or Credit Card? if you've been turned down for a loan or credit card recently, that's still a pretty sure sign you could be headed for credit trouble. Being turned down means there's something about your finances that lenders don't like. They believe doing business with you is a bad risk. 
• Do you check your credit card statements thoroughly each month? If not, why is that? Perhaps you figure if you don't look at your credit card statements, you won't have to worry so much about the debt. "Out of sight, out of mind." Right? That might sooth your feelings of stress in the short run, but it's a recipe for disaster down the road. Running from a problem will not make it go away!

These are just a few warning signs that indicate you may be in trouble. At HOPE4USA we guide our clients everyday toward healthy credit principals. If you would like to know more please call us at 704-499-9696. We are waiting on your call.

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Credit Reports

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Ron Lambright is an expert with over a decade and a half of experience in credit repair, credit improvement, credit reporting, and credit scoring. Ron is called upon weekly to speak at various seminars educating attorneys, loan officers, Realtors, other professionals, and consumers regarding the complex subjects of credit reporting and credit scoring. He is regularly featured on talk shows and podcasts and has been published in countless articles, educational handbooks, and blogs. He is an expert at teaching consumers and business owners how to achieve their credit related goals. Connect with Ron on Facebook here. 

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How To Improve My Credit Scores?

How to improve my credit scores?

As a credit expert I answer dozens of questions a day. Many those questions have to do with repairing bad credit.

Here's the bottom line, pure and simple: no matter what anyone promises you, there is no "instant fix" to repair damaged credit.

BUT, there ARE plenty of things you can do to improve your credit. You can start making an impact right away.

There are simple, real-life steps you can take to improve your credit standing. Don't waste any more time fretting about your low scores – instead take action today and, before you know it, those dings and dents in your credit reports could become a thing of the past!

HOPE4USA specializes in helping our clients learn the steps to earn healthier credit. We would like to teach you these principals as well. There are certain things you can do which may potentially cause your credit to improve significantly in a relatively short period of time.  If you would like to know more, please call us at 704-499-9696. We are waiting on your call.

How Do I Deal With My Debt Collectors?

How do I deal with my debt collectors? We truly hope that you are never in the situation where you are dealing with a debt collector. But as this financial crisis has gotten even more serious (millions of jobs lost!), more and more people are finding that they can’t keep up with their bills. 

This is an incredibly stressful situation, made much worse by aggressive, relentless and sometimes unethical debt collectors. If you are dealing with debt collectors, we want you to know your rights. Debt collectors have a job to do, but that doesn’t mean they legally can harass or intimidate you. 

There are detailed rules that debt collectors must abide by and there are ways for you to respond if they are not following those rules. They are not above the law. There are also ways for you to dispute claims if you think the charges are wrong.

Remember, you absolutely have the right to try to deal with credit problems and debt collectors all on your own. However, you also have the right to hire professional help as well. At HOPE4USA we help our clients everyday deal with collectors, incorrect credit reporting, and many other credit related issues. If you would like to know more please call us at 704-499-9696. We are waiting for your call.