3 Ways To Crush The Credit Bureaus & Improve Your Credit Score During The Corona-Virus Craze

My name is Stephanie Lawrence and I’m a Credit Score Improvement Specialist. I help real estate investors establish the credit needed to fund their business so they can double their purchasing power, increase their cash flow and 10x their business growth. I use my 12 years of expertise to help improve the credit score in 5 simple steps. 

Through credit education and the right strategies, I believe that you can bounce back from your financial mistakes and build the business that will allow you to have financial freedom.

There’s so much going on with the economy right now so I thought it was important for you to learn how you can benefit and position yourself to be able to reap the benefits that great credit has to offer so that you can have a brighter financial future. 

FYI...The Federal Reserve has cut its benchmark rate to nearly zero to try and boost the economy during the corona outbreak.  

This means if you have great credit that you can borrow money at a very cheap rate and that annual percentage rates could also drop on your credit card. So we’re going to jump into the top 3 ways you can take advantage and start improving your credit score today! 

1. Check your credit reports 

Guys, if you are not monitoring your credit reports on a regular basis or do not have credit monitoring, you’re doing things backwards. You definitely want to monitor your reports especially now. This is a prime time for hackers and for identity theft to attack. I can speak from personal experience that a close family member of mine has been recently attacked. Someone has used his identity to apply for a Verizon account. He’s never had an account with Verizon. If he didn’t have credit monitoring to be alerted of the new inquiry he would never known this had taken place. By the time, he would have found out, major damage could have already been done to his credit report and he would have to work his way out of it as if the negative delinquent account was his and had to fight to get it removed.

So, this is a prime example that you want to be aware of your credit and guard it as well. The best way to take care of your credit is to prevent negative things from happening: like missed payments, unauthorized inquiries, etc. Your credit is a necessity in today’s society so you need to protect and maintain it.

You can sign up for credit monitoring with Identity IQ for $1 today and then $21.99/month after 7 days. Click here to obtain your 3 in 1 credit reports.

2.  Start negotiating your debts 

There are many companies that are working with consumers during this crisis. You can call your phone company, mortgage company, utility companies and ask for recovery programs that they have to offer if you’re struggling financially. Remember it’s important to reach out to your creditors before you miss a payment. One 30-day late payment can cost you anywhere between 30 - 10 point drop in your credit score. And we don’t want that.

Here is a list of companies offering help to their customers:

• Apple Card is allowing you to skip March payment and incur no interest. 
• All Capital One customers are eligible for assistance which may include help with minimum payments, suspended fees, and deferred loan payments. You should contact the bank directly.
• All Chase customers affected by the coronavirus can call the phone number on the back of their card for help making payments.
• Eligible Citi cardholders can request a credit line increase and use forbearance options.
• Qualified Discover customers can get support with late payments, fees and timing of payments.
• PNC Bank can contact the bank to discuss assistance programs. 
• Wells Fargo can call 800-219-9739 to talk with a trained specialist about your options.
• Comcast is offering free service to XFinity for 60 days. 
• Utility companies are suspending disconnections. 
• Bank of America is allowing mortgage payments, auto loans to be deferred.
• If your 2019 tax return was taken due to defaulted student loans, you can call 800-621-3115. They’ll give you 75% of what was offset due to the economy hardships right now.

** Everyone should be calling their mortgage companies and credit card companies if you have financial difficulties.

Reach out to your phone, cable and mortgage company and see what type of relief programs could be useful for you and your family. 

The next thing you want to do is start negotiating settlements with your old debts.  For example, Capital One is working out deals during this time so let’s say you have an old debt with Capital One on your credit report. 1. Create a plan of what you want to spend. So let’s say the debt is $1,000. And you want to offer no more than $200. 2. You can now reach out to them and start your offer at $25. Remember they’re going to ask for way more so if you start low, then that will give you the best chance of arriving at your end target number anyway. They get some money and you pay only what you intended on paying. Your max offer should be .20 on the dollar. 3. Remember to negotiate the terms. Don’t just cough up the money now. Remember YOU have something THEY want. So, don’t pay them without you getting anything out of the deal. So when you reach an agreed upon number, ask for what you want.  

• Do you want the account taken out of negative status? 
• Do you want the account removed from collections?
• Do you want the account to be reported as current, pays as agreed, so that you don’t lose the account/payment history if you’ve had the account for a long time. 
• Do you want the account removed from your credit report altogether?
• Ask for what you want in return.
• Get the agreement in writing. Pay with a money order or a cashier’s check. Do not pay over the phone with a credit card. Speak with a supervisor if the representative isn’t able to help you or is giving you a hard time. Be diligent. 

3.  Start writing dispute letters. 

The way the system works at the credit bureaus is that they have workers that scan your letters into a computer system and type in dispute codes according to your letters. The super scanner will either kick out your dispute because it recognizes it as a template letter and sends you a stall letter or a verified update or it will get forwarded to a person who will actually reads and investigate your letter. However, with this pandemic going on they don’t have enough employees at work. And guess what, they also don’t have a contingency plan for when a pandemic like this strikes. 

So now what does this mean? The Federal law called the Fair Credit Reporting Act states that the credit bureaus have 30 days to investigate your dispute. And they are supposed to respond to you within those 30 days with your results. If they do not respond within those 30 days, by law those items must be removed from your credit report. If they don’t have any employees to do the work and they receive millions of dispute letters, what do you think is going to happen? 

They’re going to have to remove those items from your credit report. So now is the time to flood the bureaus with your disputes.

So, how do you write an effective dispute letter. Talk like you’re talking to me about your credit. If you just found you your score dropped 100 points - you’re going to be confused, upset and want some answers...right? So that’s exactly what you do in your letter. 

Write like a disgruntled consumer, who needs answers and wants their credit report to be corrected so that it reflects 100% accurate information. Don’t write like an attorney. Don’t threaten to sue if you don’t plan on it. Don’t quote the law - they already know the law. Write like you’re talking to a third grader. It needs to sound believable and it needs to sound like it’s coming from you. 

• List the name of the account
• List the account number 
• List what error you found with the account. Ask them questions about it. 
• And tell them exactly what you want them to do. Update/Correct/Delete

Make it short, simple and straight to the point.

This is the best time to get on the ball and stop being afraid to fix your credit. If you know that you have goals of home ownership, starting your own business, getting a personal loan, re-financing an auto loan, and your credit is the obstacle in the way. If you are a business owner and you’re struggling to say afloat, improving your credit score can be your lottery ticket. You can start applying for higher limit credit cards to help keep your business running during these hard times. You can apply for a personal loan to help cover expenses that you can’t afford to keep up while trying to run your business.  

If this is you, then you don’t need to wait any longer. You don’t need to try and watch multiple YouTube videos, and post in endless free Facebook groups, You need to get off the fence and take action. 

Your pockets and your future self will thank you for it. 

BONUS TIP

As a bonus, the last way you can jump start your credit is to apply for a secured credit card. If you are lacking credit and you’re afraid you’re not going to get approved for a credit card because of your credit score, then you want to apply for a secured credit card and start rebuilding your credit today.

If you have a credit score under 600, I recommend applying for a Credit Builder Card. This is a guaranteed approval resource and there is no credit score requirement so you don’t have to worry whether or not you’ll get approved.

If you have a credit score above 600, I recommend applying for a Discover secured credit card. Discover is also a great option. This card has the potential to turn into an unsecured credit card over time and they offer a FICO score along with the account so you can see where you stand under the FICO score. The FICO score is the scoring model that most lenders use when determining your credit worthiness. 

Now that you’ve heard how you can crush the credit bureaus during this corona craze, you have two options. 

You can do nothing or you can take advantage of my Ultimate DIY Credit Repair Guide to Having Confident Credit: 12 Easy Ways To Repair Your Own Credit.

It’s a 100 page guide that walks you step by step the 12 easy ways to repair your own credit. 

As a bonus, you’ll get a 4 part video series that walks you through obtaining your credit report, how to read and identify errors, and how to write an effective dispute letter that’s going to help you get results. 

It will also provide you with multiple resources you need to rebuild your credit if you’re lacking accounts that will add points to your credit score. 

Some people fail to realize that only disputing negative items doesn’t help the score, it only cleans up their credit report. But the real credit score increase takes place when you add positive accounts to your credit profile and this guide covers how many accounts you need, what type of accounts you should apply for and exactly where to get them so you can get approved today. 

So if you’re interested in fast tracking your credit success, then take advantage of my Ultimate DIY Guide to Having Confident Credit, which is the type of credit where you can get approved for the things you want without the fear of rejection. 

If you want to find out how you can improve your credit score a lot faster and you would like help my professional help, then feel free to reach out for a free Boost Your Credit Score Game Plan Session where we can review your current situation, discuss your goals, create a personalized game plan on how to improve your credit score within the next 90 days.