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Q. I have been refused credit. Can I do
something about it?
A. Absolutely! A significant number of Americans have some
"blemish" on their credit reports. Due to the nature of the credit
reporting industry, those blemishes can be mistakenly included on your
record. Frequently, credit reports contain inaccurate, erroneous or
obsolete entries. Under the law the credit reporting companies must
remove inaccurate, erroneous or obsolete information. You should check
your credit report and see why you were, or may be, denied credit. Then,
as a Hughes & Hughes
Financial Services™
customer, you can do something to correct the mistakes and have your
report corrected.
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Q. Are "credit reporting agencies" a part of
government?
A. No. Credit reporting companies are just that - companies. They
are in business to make money, just like the mega-billion-dollar banks
that run the credit card businesses. The credit reporting business is a
multi-billion dollar industry. They generate their income by selling
credit reports to creditors.
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Q. Is it illegal or immoral to have your credit
profile improved?
A. No. It is not illegal or immoral to eliminate mistakes on your
credit reports. In fact, the Federal Government, under the Fair Credit
Reporting Act, Section 1681e, protects your right to do so.
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Q. How does the credit reporting system work?
A. Today, the credit reporting system is literally millions of
computer files about individual consumers which are maintained by the
three credit reporting agencies. The files contain personal information
about you - how much you owe, how you have paid your debts, your
employer, your social security number, public records, etc.
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Q. How
does information about me get into my credit report?
A. When you agree to accept credit from a bank, most retail
stores, etc., or fill out an employment application - if a credit report
is used as a background check - you give the creditor the right to
provide information to any credit reporting company. Additional
information about you comes from public records, such as court records,
debt collection companies, and even the utility companies.
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Q. How do
the credit reporting agencies work?
A. The banks, retail stores, utility companies, etc. report your
payment record to the credit reporting companies each month. The credit
reporting companies then give that information to a second tier of
regional reporting companies who sell it to retailers and banks or
anyone who legitimately requests information about you.
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Q. Why
should I care what is in my credit file?
A. You'd better care. It is
your credit report that creditors use to determine if they will extend
credit to you. If you have inaccurate information on your report, you
may be turned down for the loan you need or pay unnecessarily high
interest rates.
Click here for free credit repair information!
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Q. Why do
the credit reporting agencies have separate reports for
husband and wife?
A. The credit reporting agencies collect information based on
individual social security numbers. Only by checking both the wife's and
husband's credit reports can we ensure accuracy.
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Q. Who can
request information about my credit file?
A. Under the
Fair Credit Reporting Act, a credit reporting company may only
disclose your credit report if someone is:
Granting credit, reviewing your account, or collecting on your account.
Reviewing you for employment purposes.
Reviewing your application for insurance.
Reviewing your eligibility for a license or government-related benefits.
Providing information for a business transaction, such as renting an
apartment.
A court
order.
An IRS
subpoena.
Someone
to whom you have given written permission.
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Q. How
often are mistakes entered into my credit file?
A. Frequently! Some experts say a significant number of credit
reports contain errors! These are inaccurate, erroneous, or obsolete
information that can cost you the credit you deserve.
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Q. Who
will remove items from my credit report?
A. Only the credit reporting agencies have the power to remove
items from your credit report. But, as required by law, the credit
reporting agencies must correct or remove inaccurate, erroneous, or
obsolete information.
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Q. How can
I add positive data to my credit report?
A. Since the Fair Credit Reporting Act does not require creditors
to report information about you, many do not. That means positive
information may not be reported. As long as the positive information is
verified, it can be added to your credit report.
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Q. How
long does the restoration process take?
A. It may take 3 to 12 months due to the credit reporting
agencies' continuing mistakes and delaying tactics.
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Q. Can
Hughes & Hughes Financial Services™ demand that
information be removed from a credit report which I
have gotten
from a merchant?
A. On your behalf, Hughes & Hughes
Financial Services™ can request that a credit reporting
agency remove inaccurate, erroneous, or obsolete information from your
credit report which can only be obtained by you directly from the three
main credit reporting agencies. Second hand information, such as that
obtained from a merchant, is not considered a report directly obtained
from one of the three main credit reporting agencies.
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Q. Should
I apply for credit while in the restoration process?
A. Do not apply for credit during the restoration period. Each
time you apply for credit, an inquiry is recorded on your record and too
many inquiries can be a cause for denial of credit.
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Q. Can I
speed up the process by directly contacting the credit
reporting agencies?
A. No, it is best to let Hughes &
Hughes Financial Services™ communicate with the credit
reporting agencies on your behalf. If you do receive a request from the
credit reporting agencies, please immediately forward it to Hughes &
Hughes Financial Services.
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Q. Are
credit reports all the same?
A. No. Each of the three credit reporting agencies' reports look
different and may not contain the same information. The companies
maintain their own databases and do not often share information.
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Q Do the
credit reporting agencies own the information on your
credit report?
A. No. But, you do not own the information either. It is owned by
the individual merchant or creditor who put it there.
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Q. Does
paying a past due debt remove the debt from your credit
report?
A. Paying an old debt does not erase the fact that at one time
you were not paying it as you agreed, but it is possible to update your
payment history.
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Q. What happens if new, negative information -
information that
was not on my original report - is added to my report
after
Hughes & Hughes Financial Services has begun work on my
behalf?
A. Hughes & Hughes Financial
Services™ will work on the information in your credit
report as long as you remain a customer.
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Q. Must we fill out separate Hughes & Hughes
Financial Services
Customer Agreement forms even though we are married?
A. Yes. Each individual must be enrolled separately.
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Q. How do
I get my credit reports to Hughes & Hughes Financial
Services?
A. You may mail them to the Hughes &
Hughes Financial Services™ Office at .
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Q. How
will I know the results following the credit reporting agencies
review of my file?
A. You will be the first to know because the credit reporting
agencies will write directly to you.
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Q.
Hughes & Hughes Financial Services™ marketing materials refer to
the Credit Reporting Agency as being able to remove or
amend
items such as: bankruptcies, foreclosures, charge offs,
tax liens,
collections, and late or past due payments. How do they
accomplish this if the item being reported did in fact
happen?
A. If an item appears on someone's credit report, and it is
accurate and verifiable, then the credit reporting agencies cannot, and
should not, remove it. Hughes & Hughes
Financial Services™ helps our customers get the
inaccurate, erroneous or obsolete items corrected or removed.
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Q. Once a Credit Reporting Agency has removed
an item from a customer's credit
report, can it be reinserted?
A. Credit reporting agencies are often reinserting items that
they have previously removed from a consumer's credit report. According
to the
FCRA, one of the requirements for reinsertion of items is that a
consumer must be notified within five days when an item is reinserted.
Most consumers are not made aware when these items are reinserted at
all, let alone in five days. That's one of the benefits to our customers
when signing up for our service for a year. They find out when items are
reinserted, and then we can have the credit reporting agencies verify
that the item is in fact accurate, and that they followed the
FCRA requirements for reinsertion.
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Q. What is Hughes & Hughes Financial Services
definition of improper negative
credit as referenced in your marketing material?
A. Some examples of "improper," or better stated "inaccurate," items
on a consumer's credit report are items that either are 1) erroneous -
don't belong to the consumer, 2) display inaccurate information about
the item, i.e. payment history or dates, or 3) obsolete - have exceeded
the reporting timeline for that item.
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Q. What is Hughes & Hughes Financial
Services™ definition of "clearing up" a
consumer's credit report or improving their credit
profile?
A. We help our customers have inaccurate, erroneous and obsolete
items identified and/or corrected on their credit report, to provide a
more accurate credit profile for both our customers and their lenders.
If a Representative is referring to "clearing up" a consumer's credit
report, this Representative is in violation of our Unity in Advertising
guidelines, and may be suspended or terminated for making such promises.
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Q. What sort of things does your company do to
force a repository to follow the
FCRA and remove an item on behalf of a
consumer?
A. The unique credit repair procedure that
Hughes & Hughes Financial
Services™
uses to help customers correct their credit report is registered as
a trade secret with the patent offices in both the United States and
Canada.
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Q. How is the service provided by Hughes & Hughes
Financial Services for
consumer dispute resolution different or better than
the current processes
being offered by the various Credit Reporting Agencies?
A. The best analogy that we can offer is, if you have a tax problem,
would you call the IRS or would you find and hire a qualified tax
accountant? Most people do not have the time or the resources to fully
understand the
FCRA, nor do they want to. We ensure that our customers have
received the proper protection offered them through the
FCRA. The credit reporting agencies are advocates for their
customers, financial and lending institutions, which by itself is not a
bad thing. We are advocates for our customers, and their consumer
rights.
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Q. How would a mortgage broker or lender feel
about the added unknown risk of
lending their money to an individual whose credit
report has been altered to
possibly reflect an inaccurate profile?
A. We're sure they would not feel very good about this because, in
this scenario, someone has committed fraud. Everyone needs to understand
that, if one of our customers has an item removed or changed on their
credit report, it was removed or changed by the credit reporting
agencies, and they removed or changed the item because it was
inaccurate, erroneous or obsolete. At Hughes
& Hughes Financial Services™, our customers are using our
service, and then re-entering the credit world with a more accurate
profile, not a less accurate profile. This benefits everyone, our
customers and their lenders. Investors should feel better about the
services we provide because they would be looking at a more accurate
picture of a consumer's credit worthiness, and they could then extend
credit to a good customer who may otherwise have been denied.
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Q. How would a mortgage broker feel, knowing
that a major derogatory item, like
a bankruptcy, foreclosure, etc., has been removed from
a credit file, just
because it could be, and yet not disclosed to the
lender?
A. Whenever we are asked, our answer to our customers is that they
must disclose everything. Remember, when our customers complete our
service, they are able to provide a more accurate credit profile, not an
incomplete profile. Keep in mind that the
FCRA was originally conceived, written, and ultimately signed into
law for a reason: to provide consumers rights under the law, to protect
them from inaccurate, erroneous, and obsolete information provided by
credit reporting agencies.
It is our goal at
Hughes & Hughes Financial Services™ to have the
credit reporting agencies provide the most accurate credit profile of a
consumer applying for credit, to enable our lending sources to make the
best decisions, and that is the service we provide to our customers.
There seems to be a "myth" about our credit repair services - that we
are trying to "hide" derogatory items for customers, or artificially
make someone's credit report look better. All we do is work with the
credit reporting agencies to abide by the law. If every credit reporting
agency completely abided by the
FCRA, then Hughes & Hughes Financial
Services™ Credit Repair Department wouldn't be growing at
such an astonishing rate. Perhaps there should be some discussions on
how credit reporting agencies can better comply with the
FCRA. This would do more to further the goal of more accurate credit
reporting than trying to substantiate the myths about the services we
provide.
Click here for free credit repair information! |
