Okay, so as you probably already know, um,
the wide variety of different reasons as to why
you need good personal credit.
So I'm not gonna really go into a lot
of detail as far as that goes.
But as I always say to everybody, no matter
how bad your credit is, you can actually fix it.
Um, including getting rid of judgements, getting rid
of charge offs, delinquencies, collection accounts.
And in some cases you can get rid of bankruptcies,
liens and repossessions.
Those are a little bit harder to get off of your credit,
but, um, you can always, uh, always take a shot at it
because you never know.
There's always a, uh, a small percentage
or a chance that you can actually have those things removed.
So, yes, we're, this, this always does this, by the way.
I'm not entirely sure why.
Okay, so right now
you're creating your own perfect storm, if you will,
which is deleting the bad stuff while adding good stuff.
And then at the same time, you create excellent credit.
I think a lot of my students, they sort of, uh,
misunderstand how fixing credit works.
They think that they only need to, uh, try to chisel off all
of their delinquent items when in reality
what they're supposed to be doing is not only chiseling off
the delinquent items, um,
but also they need to start adding good credit as well.
And this of course means, you know,
opening up new credit accounts, even if it has
to be a secured account, open up yourself,
a new credit account, uh, you know, any type
of credit accounts that you have right now,
make sure you make all
of your payments on time from this point forward.
So it is a perfect storm that you have to create.
You can't just chisel off bad stuff.
You have to also create new stuff,
which is good stuff on your credit report at the same time.
So my experience with credit,
and the reason I know so much about all of this is that,
you know, I had perfect credit until my first divorce.
And then, um, my first divorce happened back in 98.
That was how long ago it, it had been.
And my credit started its downward spiral in 99
because of a bunch of joint accounts that we had
that he linked up together after the divorce.
Now knowing what I know now, obviously, um,
I would've been able to have those things removed,
but I, I was really ignorant to the process.
Didn't know anything about how credit worked.
And so I actually, uh, had an attorney, um, convince me
to file for bankruptcy in 2003
because it was the last year
that you can actually wipe the slate clean
before the legislation
for bankruptcies actually changed after that year.
So it was sort of like a, you know, he sort of told me,
listen, it's now or never kind of thing,
and I just sort of jumped on it
and I probably shouldn't have.
Um, it was probably the one
of the worst mistakes that I made in my life.
And my bankruptcy,
even though it's officially off my credit, uh, report,
it still does come up every so often when I'm doing, uh,
business loans and, you know, uh, stuff like that.
Because what they'll do is some banks will actually pull a
lifelong credit report.
So this will actually exceed the 10 year timeframe.
They'll actually pull your total credit report,
which will include anything
that happened even after 10 years.
And so I still have to deal with the explanation on
that bankruptcy.
So, which I, I should have done was not file for bankruptcy,
negotiated with any creditors,
disputed all my joint accounts that I had
and disputed every single one of those accounts
that was open after the divorce dissolution, uh,
was received by me.
And then of course, any difficult delinquencies, um,
could have fall fallen off after the seven year timeframe.
So that's what I should have done, knowing what I know now.
But this is why I am giving you this information so
that you can not make the same mistakes that I had made.
Um, you know, and avoid all of that.
Filing for bankruptcy is almost never recommended.
Now, of course, I can't give you legal advice.
So when I tell you then that if it was me
and it was a replay of my life, I would not have done it.
So you could take it or leave it for what it's worth,
but I, I would not have done it.
Um, so I don't know your personal situation
and if you think bankruptcy is an option for you,
but, um, it's gonna screw things up for a long time.
And it's not just a 10 year timeframe,
it's actually beyond that.
So think about it heavily, um,
and try to find as many different
alternatives as you possibly can.
Um, you know, and don't always listen to
what an attorney tells you, especially a bankruptcy
attorney, because they're not gonna, they're unfortunately,
they're not gonna give you the correct advice.
So, you know, if you have any friends or family
or anybody you know that's considering bankruptcy, you know,
tell 'em to think twice about it
because it really will screw
things up for a really long time.
So how I was able to fix my credit was disputing any
negative marks that I had on my credit
report over and over again.
I secured some credit lines, uh,
or I'm sorry, secured credit cards.
I got a car loan, um, and I paid everything on time.
Um, I always also paid a hundred percent
of my credit card balances every single month.
So if I charged a thousand dollars,
I was paying a thousand dollars when I
got the bill in the mail.
So that's typically how I work.
I don't, I didn't carry any balances over,
I didn't pay any interest.
So this is why credit card companies typically hate me is
because I never carry a balance one month to the next.
Um, sometimes I'll take advantage of 0% a PR stuff, like,
uh, for example, I have a couple business credit cards
that I opened with Bank of America a few weeks back.
And so they're offering me a 0% a PR until I think fall.
And so I take advantage of that making the minimum payment
'cause that's a 0% a r but that's the only time I,
I carry a balance, otherwise I'm not gonna let them get
any interest from me.
That's just how I operate.
So make it a habit
to pay your credit card payment if you can, every two weeks.
Um, even if it's not the whole thing,
even if it's a, just a partial payment.
And then you wanna add a new credit card every year,
even a low balance department store card to start off with.
Um, you know, until you get maybe like
four or five credit cards.
And then after that, after you,
after you get about five credit cards, you should sort
of cap off on getting personal credit cards.
I have so many personal credit cards, it's ridiculous.
And I wish I didn't open up that many accounts
because I wish I would've focused on opening up more
business credit card accounts.
And so I know that now.
So I'm passing off this information onto you
and letting you know that you should have a maximum of four
to five personal cards, including department store cards.
And by the way, any dis any department store card you do
get, it should be a department store you actually shop at,
because I have a bunch of them I don't ever shop at.
Um, I think I have a JC Penny card
and I, I never go to JC Penny's for anything.
Um, you know, I have a Home Depot card.
I use that maybe every three months, you know,
and I have a, uh, Kohl's card, which I use a lot
'cause my daughter likes that store.
So, I mean, try to get,
if you're gonna get department store cards, try to try
to get cards that you're gonna use a lot
and not cards that you're just gonna sit.
Let's sit. Like for example, I got a Finger Hut account
and I never, I mean literally never.
They had to threaten me, um, this last fall
by basically saying that they were gonna close my credit
account if I didn't buy at least something
because I hadn't bought anything in like
three years from Finger Hut.
And so I just bought some little thing for my daughter
for Christmas, some little makeup box just to keep the, uh,
the, uh, a credit account open.
'cause as you know, you, when you close a credit account,
it does affect your FICO score.
It actually damages your FICO
for at least six months after that.
It'll lower it for a little bit.
So I just wanted to keep the Finger Hut account open just
to not affect my credit score.
But once you have all of these accounts,
that's the problem is that now you're stuck
with them all basically for life,
unless you wanna damage your fico.
And so be very careful
and cognizant of the accounts that you do open.
So don't get a bunch of department store cards,
especially ones that you're not gonna use.
So get yourself at least two
or three different Visa, MasterCard, um,
maybe one American Express
and then one department store card,
or maybe two department store cards, two Visa or American,
or I'm sorry, two Visa or MasterCard.
And then one American Express.
However you wanna divvy it up
because the majority of what you're doing this for,
to get your mid FICO over that 700 mark if possible, is
to be able to get business credit going
in business credit cards.
And you're always gonna get a larger, uh,
credit limit on those anyway.
So your personal credit card should only be for the purposes
of building that business or building that personal credit
to get that business credit.
So you don't wanna have pile of cards to do that.
And then you wanna restrict your new account hard inquiries
for to two per year.
Um, so a hard in inquiry is when you actually walk into a
car dealership and fill out a credit application
and they run your credit, that's considered a hard inquiry.
Or if you have, you fill out a credit application out online
and, and click the submit button.
That's a hard inquiry.
A softer inquiry is when they do those pre-screened offers
and they send you a pre-approval thing in the mail
that's considered a soft inquiry
and that that doesn't affect your score,
even though they pulled your credit to, to get that,
um, pre-approval.
Okay? So then you have to let time take away.
And then, um, you know, as, as I learn, um,
you know, over, over time I found
that there's some definite credit repair techniques
and strategies that we all can use to drastically
and dramatically accelerate the credit rebuilding
and repair process.
So that's one of the things
that I'm gonna be talking to you about here.
I actually had a $1.3 million judgment taken off my credit
report and I didn't pay a single cent for it.
And, you know, the judgment was actually a
fine from a lawsuit.
So basically what happened was I had a lawsuit that I lost
and they just threw it on my credit report
because I wasn't gonna spend hundreds of thousands
of dollars in court.
I had already spent two years in court
battling this particular lawsuit,
and I, I just decided I wasn't gonna fight it anymore
because my legal bills were just astronomical.
So I just let them file a judgment against me.
And the judgment was just from some aberrant amount
that they just decided to throw on my credit report.
It wasn't actually based on anything,
it wasn't anything I owed anybody.
It just was some fine thing
that they basically threw on my credit report.
When anybody files a lawsuit against
you, it can be for any reason.
They can literally file a lawsuit against you.
'cause they don't like your, the color
of your hair, basically.
And if they really wanna follow suit with it
and actually want to pay the money for the lawsuit,
they can, they can file a lawsuit against you for anything.
And if you don't have the money to keep shelling out
for your attorney, then you know, ultimately
what happens is it, it does go into a default, uh,
and then a default judgment will end up on your credit
report if they follow through with it.
And so that's exactly what happened in my case.
And so what I kept doing was disputing it
and it fell off of, um, Experian right away.
And Equifax and TransUnion were hanging onto it forever.
And finally, ex uh, Equifax let it go after a year and
after a year and a half, TransUnion let it go.
And I was free and clear of the judgment
and I just kept fighting it and fighting it and fighting it.
So that's how I know
that you can literally have anything taken off your credit
as long as you're willing to keep going back
and forth on this whole dispute process.
But you do have to be a little consistent
with the process process.
I was a little lax, you should be doing it every 35 days.
I did it every quarter. So every 90 days I,
I did my disputes 'cause I'm busy
and I just wanted to do it myself.
I didn't want my staff to be doing my
personal business for me.
So I actually did my own disputes
and I did 'em every 90 days.
So you can decide what schedule you wanna be on,
but if you're very consistent with the process,
like every 35 days, you'll be able to get
probably the majority of your stuff
Off your, your credit. Don't
worry about getting everything off
because I have some of my students that are like, oh,
I wouldn't, I wasn't able to get absolutely everything off,
but you know, my, my FIO increased
by 200 and something points.
It's like, well, so
who cares if you didn't get everything off?
I mean, you're going to aim to get everything off,
but the likelihood that you're gonna get everything off is
probably not as high of a percentage as you think.
But it doesn't matter. 'cause eventually it'll all fall
off anyway with time.
Okay? So you have to understand one thing about this
and that this is a process that doesn't happen overnight.