Be careful with your credit – Military Identity Theft

While those of us who serve in the American military may be used to some extra risks in life; it is the unexpected ones that can really surprise us. One such risk is the larger chance for identity theft.

Douglas Aaron, a credit repair lawyer states that, Military are often focused on by criminals for credit identity theft because they are usually out of the country for long periods of time. Thieves who go to the trouble of stealing other individuals information don’t like to be quickly shut down. People who go on a tour-of-duty for a year or more allow such an opportunity.

Once a criminal has obtained your particulars, including your social security number, name and birthday, they will start opening new lines of credit, taking personal loans and buying cellular service.

More sophisticated identity theft will add some form of picture ID for larger bank loans, car loans or camper loans.

Anyway, returning home to a huge amount of bills or trying to make purchase with your credit only to realize it has been ruined by thieves is something no one should have to deal with. To add insult to injury, fixing the situation often requires months to a year or more to iron out all the problems created by this type of theft.

Cory Baker, a North Carolina resident said: “I served my country for two years, out of the country. This was not the type of homecoming I hoped for. Proving to the courts that I did not make $7,000 in phone bills to Greece takes a lot of time and is utterly distracting.”

Many of these types of problems could have been prevented or stopped a lot sooner with a little more attention to ones finances, especially monitoring ones credit report.

Knowing what is on our report, cleaning up and fixing mistakes, constantly trying to increase your credit score, is something we can all benefit from doing, says Douglas Aaron. If you don’t know your score, how will you know if its gone down?

At the very least, order your scores today. Today’s economic problems demand our attention; they demand we are prepared for emergencies.

Is your current credit situation making you consider filing for bankruptcy? Filing bankruptcy is a “last-resort” option for people who are experiencing extreme problems paying their bills.

Frequently, someone who files for bankruptcy has many bad credit marks on their credit report. They often have been rejected for credit recently, have creditors calling them and have multiple bills which they pay late or not at all.

Often there will be a home or vehicle which has been repossessed, or under the threat of repossession.

If you are experiencing debt problems such as these, then surely you are looking for relief. Not being able to pay your bills is stressful and truly exhausting.

If you are considering bankruptcy, it is critical that you learn the permanent consequences of a bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy laws were made with you in mind. When you file for bankruptcy, most or all of your debts will be closed.

This happens after your assets are divided amongst your creditors. This is possible, through bankruptcy, even if your assets don’t pay all your debts.

This procedure is called liquidation, or Chapter Seven (7) bankruptcy. Chapter 7 bankruptcy is the most common type. A “trustee” takes care of all the administrative and supervisory duties of the proceedings.

Chapter 11, 12, or 13 Bankruptcy provide rehab to your business, and choice of using future earnings to pay lenders. Once you begin the bankruptcy proceedings, creditors can no longer collect on your debts.

Also, you will not be able to transfer any assets that are part of the estate (so, forget about hiding your savings account or gold coin collection with a trusted relative or friend!) Further, transferring ownership of assets prior to filing bankruptcy typically does not work, and many are invalidated.

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that retirement accounts do not have to be included in your assets that are liquidated.

Regardless of which bankruptcy you choose, it will likely be on your credit reports for 7 or 10 years. Filing for bankruptcy frees you from your existing lenders, but not from any future lenders.

If you do file bankruptcy, it will narrow your choices. High credit is possible to restore, but it will take some time and patience.

Some things to remember:

1. Any derogatory credit item can potentially be removed from your credit report.

2. New, current good credit lines will make your score improve.

3. Old, derogatory credit falling off your report will also boost your score over time.

4. You must monitor your credit reports regularly – and dispute questionable derogatory marks such as charge offs, collection items, and late payments.

You do not have to just wait for negative marks on your credit report to fall off. You can remove them and improve your credit score.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act says that you can dispute any item that you do not believe to be accurate on your credit report. It also says that any item that can not be verified must be removed from your credit.

To dispute an item you must create a dispute letter and send it to each credit bureau. You can hire a service to create this letter or do it yourself.

The bureau will receive your dispute and investigate. They will contact the lender and ask them to verify the dates on the account and the balance.

If the creator is unable to verify the account then it must be deleted from your report. The easiest items to remove have been learned to be a charge off, repossession and a late payment after they have aged for two years.

This is because the creditor has gotten some form of payment for your debt. For example with a charged off credit card the creditor has sold your debt to a debt collector. Therefore the creditor has no reason to save records of your account.

With judgments, bankruptcies, tax liens and recent delinquent accounts it is more difficult to remove these items from your credit. If you have one of these we suggest a service because they have more tactics they can use to remove an item.

A service can use more advanced methods to remove an item if it is verified by the lender. A service can use; creditor direct intervention, escalated dispute information requests, and debt validation.

You can also help your credit score by opening a revolving unsecured credit line. This will help your score because you can create a positive payment history and improve your ratio of debt to available credit.

In sum you do not have to wait seven years to repair your credit. You can have a good credit score by removing derogatory items and building a positive payment history.

The baby phat rush card is a prepaid credit card. It was created by Russell Simmons he co founded the popular Def Jam record label.

This is how the rush card works; you deposit money into your card/account, then you use your card to make purchases, money is taken out of your account to pay for those purchases. This card does offer guaranteed approval.

There is no chex systems check or a credit check. The rush card comes as a black card and the baby phat rush card is a pink card.

With this card you have free direct deposit. To enroll in this you only have to fill out a form and turn that into your employer or payroll department.

Then your paychecks will be directly deposited into your rush card account. You will still receive pay stubs to inform you of hours worked and what your deposit is.

This card can be used at ATM’s over 800,000 locations throughout the world. In addition you get free online account access.

You can make purchases using your rush card online and over the phone. You can also use your account and write physical paper checks.

To use this feature you visit the website and input the person or business that you want to write a check to. This includes name, amount of payment and address.

Then press send a real physical check will be sent to the business or person. This can save you money by not having to buy money orders again.

With bill pay you can save money on buying money orders. If you use direct deposit you will no longer have to pay check cashing fees.

However, we do not recommend the rush credit card. This is because they have many fees that other cards do not have.

An example is the convenience fee. This is a fee you are charged every time you use your card.

You will be charged $1.00 with a maximum charge of $10.00 a month. However during a month you will be charged $1.00 for every transaction you make using your card.

Then at the end of the month all the extra charges above 10.00 will be credited back to your account at the end of the next calendar month.

That can end up being a full 2 months before you are refunded. This is unbelievable especially because many of us use are card more than ten times in a month.

It’s hard to believe that someone can be charged these fees. In addition having to wait so long to get your refund.

Also to use bill payment you must enroll which is $2.00 then every check you write is another $1.00. There are other prepaid credit cards that offer free bill pay and no fees.

The rush card claims there are no hidden fees however that seems to be a very contradictory statement. Especially when you are forced to read the fine print to discover that you will be charged one dollar for every purchase you make.

In sum, stay away from the rush card. There are many other prepaid credit cards available that have lower fees and better benefits.

To dispute a bad credit item on your TransUnion credit report you must use the dispute process. This is done by hiring a service or creating a dispute letter.

Be aware that if you dispute an item with TransUnion you should also dispute that item with Experian and Equifax. You must dispute the same listing with each credit bureau on its own.

In your letter you need to include what item you are disputing and the reason for the dispute. Reasons include; item out of date, information is wrong, account paid, and more.

When TransUnion gets your dispute they will conduct an investigation. During which the lender is contacted and asked to verify the dates, the account, and the balance.

If the lender is unable to verify the account then the item must be erased from your credit report. Often an investigation will result in the removal of a bad credit item.

Should your item be verified a service with lawyers on their staff can use advanced dispute techniques to remove negative items. These techniques include; debt validation, escalated dispute information requests, and creditor direct intervention.

Often people are concerned with the legality of credit repair. This is 100% legal, the Fair Credit Reporting Act which was passed by Congress made it your right to dispute any item on your credit report that you feel is inaccurate.

It is a good decision to save all your communication with TransUnion. The credit bureaus have begun to allow people to dispute items on their credit report online, however we do not suggest you do this. We have found that disputing your report online is ineffective.

Be aware that the 100 word statement that you can place on your credit report is never a good thing to fill out. In the past this is where consumers could provide a brief explanation as to why an account became delinquent.

Today it is very rarely looked at by lenders and is more often used by the bureaus. The bureaus see this as an admission of guilt and will ignore any letters you send to dispute and remove this item; your letters will be deemed frivolous.

In sum you can remove bad credit items from TransUnion. This is done by disputing the item.

This card is a sub prime unsecured card. This means the Continental Finance Card is designed specifically for individuals looking for a second chance with credit.

Your card will be issued with an initial credit limit of $300. However you will be able to received semi-annual credit limit increases, with a maximum limit of $2000.

This card does report monthly to all three credit bureaus. It is frequently used as a second chance credit card.

This will help your score because it will improve your ratio of debt to available credit. In addition you can create a positive payment history by paying your monthly bill.

If you can improve these two factors you will improve your score. This is because these two factors are weighted almost as much as derogatory items on your credit report.

This card is unsecured which means there is no initial deposit, however because of your low credit score they will charge you an annual fee. Unfortunately this is an unavoidable cost and you will have a fee with any credit card you open with a damaged credit score.

It does offer 9.75% APR, which is well below the standard 19% APR that most sub prime credit cards offer. It is accepted at millions of locations worldwide.

There is an easy approval process, and can be used by people with a bankruptcy on their credit history. You will get the results of your application with seconds of completing it online.

This card is issued by the First Bank of Delaware. This bank has been a leader in sub prime lending for years.

With this card you will have free online account access. You will be responsible to pay your monthly bill and keep your balance below your limit.

The alternative is a secured credit card. However with this card it will take you longer to rebuild your score because this card is reported to the bureaus as a secured line of credit.

Or you can get a shopping card. We do not suggest these cards because they come with monthly fees, a large deposit and often only report to one bureau.

In sum we do suggest the Continental Finance MasterCard to anyone looking to re-establish their credit rating. This card will help by improving your ratio of debt to available credit and can build you a positive payment history.

A judgment is also commonly referred to as a default judgment or credit card judgment. This is simply a variation of the same meaning.

You have been found to be legally responsible for a debt. This will happen in a court of law.

Your creditors’ attorneys went to court and filed a lawsuit against you and won. This means that you wages can be garnished to pay this debt.

This is a very severe mark to have on your credit report and will cause your credit score to go down dramatically. This can happen with any sort of unsecured debt; credit cards, automobiles, phone bills, etc.

A judgment will last for 7 – 10 years depending upon the statute of limitations in the state that the court proceeding was held in. However it is becoming more and more common for creditors to renew judgments.

This makes it possible to never be able remove a judgment. However with some savvy credit repair attorneys and a little luck you may be able to remove a judgment without paying it.

I recommend you first disputing the judgment with the credit bureaus. This is done by writing a dispute letter in which you explain why the listing is wrong and should be removed.

The bureaus will then hold an investigation. They will try and verify the debt and the amount of the debt with the lender or collection agency.

If the debt is inaccurate or is not verified then the bureaus must remove it from your credit. Frequently investigations result in a negative listing being removed.

However a judgment is such a severe mark that it doesn’t have as good of chances of being removed. This often means you are stuck with the listing.

However in some instances a judgment is wrong and inaccurate. Thus it should legally be removed from your credit.

This is when I recommend a credit attorney. They will be able to use their expert knowledge and when necessary go to court to prove that the judgment is not right and should be removed.

Surprisingly you can hire a professional credit repair law firm for reasonable rates. A leader in the industry Lexington Law can be hired for less than $100/month (premier service).