Bad Credit Solutions

‘Refinance Scams’ Radar – 6 Ways To Detect And Avoid Them

How To Detect Refinancing Scam Attempts

It is important that you know about refinancing scam attempts and learn how to spot them at early stages. Detecting refinance scams can save you thousands of dollars and can even save you your home. Unfortunately the scammers are shifting their bad ways and techniques all the time, so there might be even now further scams which have not been detected yet. Even though, within the guidelines and tips below you may find enough alert signals to protect yourself from refinance frauds.

Refinance Scams Search For Weak People

Scammers know and understand the weaknesses of human beings, and ride over these weaknesses to rip people off their money. When a person is behind on their mortgage payments, or was recently fired from their job, or have credit card debts piling up their door, they are the perfect victims for a mortgage refinance  scam.

The fear of losing home, or drowning into foreclosure, makes people desperate for any ‘life-jacket’ which is thrown at them. And that is exactly what makes them so vulnerable to fall for mortgage or refinance scams. The scam is not preformed by gang tattooed person, on the contrary, you may be approached by a nice person, who talks ‘financial language’, who say they the solution to your problems, and all they ask for is that you ‘trust them’, and everything will be O.K.

Because people in distress will believe anything, and will have a wishful thinking mode, they are not aware to the scam signs, and even if they see them, they prefer to overlook, as they think they do not have any other hope.

When It Comes To Money Issues – Trust No One

The first rule, is to be suspicious. If an offer seems too-good-to-be-true, it probably is! Even when you decide to put your faith in someone, still maintain your survival instincts, ask question, double check basic facts, verify things with second opinion, postpone decisions to reevaluate, never sign anything under pressure. Trust no one, except yourself.

Here are several tips on how to spot refinance scams:

Beware Of The Direct Approach – If someone has picked you, rather than you picked them.. If someone knocks on your door and offers financial help (without you asking for it), like debt consolidation, or to refinance your mortgage in better terms, say “no, thank you” and close your door. You might have been chosen as a victim. The scammers might knock on all the doors in the neighborhood, hoping for one sucker to be naive and invite them in, or accept their offer.

Advance Payments For Refinance ‘Counseling’ Services – Some scams are very simple, they will send you fancy papers, with graphs and financial data, (which they know you can not understand but looks impressive). They may even agree to meet you at your own home, and will arrive in suits and elegant briefcases. At this time you will not be able to spot they are fraud! 

Their offer will sound like a dream-come-true, and will be FREE too. Except for some ‘fees’ to ‘other people’ which need to be paid upfront. They will say they have to pay an expert lawyer, a great financial adviser, or to order some files or forms. These fees may add up to hundreds or thousands of dollars, and actually there is NO lawyer, No adviser, and No files ordered. Just a plain simple rip off.

Debt Consolidation Solutions – A common refinance scam is to offer the victim a ‘magic’ solution to all their worries, to gather all the debts owed by the borrower, and consolidate them all into ‘One New Mortgage’. The main problem is that, if you are behind your credit card payments, it will damage your FICO score, but will not risk your home. With the new debt consolidation, the new debt to income ratio may increase, and the home mortgage will be at risk of foreclosure.

Not Revealing All Costs And Fees - This kind of refinancing scam is dangerous, because it can be done by legit lenders and mortgage brokers. They get paid every time you process new mortgage loans with them, so they have an incentive not to disclose all hidden costs (like penalty for mortgage early payoff) even if the new mortgage payments get higher than you can afford. If a mortgage agent tries to influence you to refinance with lower interest rates – Throw him away.

Refinance Documentation Scams – Some scams are intended to con you to sign papers which have blank spaces inside them. Once your signature is at the dotted line, new data will be added at the blanks. Now they have your signature on a legal document agreeing to terms different than mentioned face to face. In some cases you will know it only when it is too late, and the application is processed. If you resent they will threat you by legal actions!

Refinance Application Frauds – Because the broker wants their fees, and you might be eager to refinance your high interest mortgage, the mortgage broker may ask you to write false details (income, salary, employment) in the application form. They may say that it doesn’t matter much, or that it is done ‘by everyone’, or that if there is a problem it can be fixed.. The truth is that you have just been tricked to commit a federal ‘false statement’ crime. Another thing is that the new monthly payments may be beyond your financial reach, in the long run, and you will lose your home.

Refinance Scams Conclusion

The best advise is to be a suspicious customer. Not everyone will want to scam you, but when it comes to refinancing your mortgage if you do not spot the refinance scams you may lose your home if warning signs are ignored. Seek professional home-buyer education information and read more on refinancing with bad credit before you decide how to proceed.

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Other Posts you May Find Interesting:

• 10 Signs To Spot Credit Repair Scams
• Your Appraisal Fees Cancellation Rights
•  What Is Refinance Letter Of Explanation?
• How To Get A 800 FICO Score

10 Signs To Recognize a Credit Repair Scam

How To Notice Credit Repair Scams

In this short review you can read and learn how to spot signs for credit repair scams. Unfortunately there are some people who make an effort to scam money out of people who are in a bad credit situation. The scammers take advantage of people who have low credit and are so distressed that they are easy to manipulate.

Below you will see some of the signs of a credit repair scams  which you ought to look out for before you sign any paper or documentation or pay sleazy people hundreds of dollars to fix your credit. The rule number one is ‘there are no free meals’… If the offer sound too good to be true, it is probably is.

Improving Credit Score Should Be Your Quest

It would be safe to say that when you improve your credit score you would save more money than you ever imagined!! Banks, lenders and credit card companies charge much higher interest rate from people with low credit. So when two people buy the same house, the one with bad credit score would pay a much higher price on the mortgage! The difference might reach $30,000 between the two identical loans!

Improving your credit score should be your QUEST!

People who are usually victims to credit Restoration scams are those, who can not achieve a proper mortgage or are getting declined by too many financial institutes. It does not matter if your score is over 500 or below 600 on the FICO scale, if you are desperate to improve your score, you might fall in the greasy fingers of the scammers.

Scams are always succeeding at people who are desperate. People who fail to detect refinance scam attempt, might even lose their home.

How To Spot A Credit Repair Scam Offer

Too-Good-To-Be-True Promises- If the credit repair service promises they can create a new identity for you and get you a brand new perfect FICO report. Or they promise to delete ALL your negative items from your FICO report (regardless of their accuracy). That’s a BEWARE SCAM sign for you.

Pay Before You See Results- If the scammers promise to boost your 500 score to 800 FICO score within a week, but request a $1000 advance payment. It’s a scam!

Switching Your Identity – If the credit repair service offers you to get a ‘new identity’ instead of your Social Security number. Beware it might be a scam in which you might be committing a federal crime and end up behind bars.

Ask You To Pay For Free Stuff - The credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) have a lot of information on their sites and some of the credit repair steps are things you can get for free. Credit repair scammers might ask you to pay for a credit report copy, while you have the right for one free report per year, from each of the three credit agencies.

Recommend No Contact With Credit Bureaus - Since credit scams are fooling people to think that letters are being sent, and phone-call are being made, they will recommend the victim not to contact the credit reporting companies. A simple email inquiry might reveal no letters have been sent, and nothing has been done. Be alert, blow the whistle on their bluff.

ALL Negative Items Will Be Removed – Beware of this one, this credit scam might drown you in deep trouble. First of all no one can delete correct and accurate items off the FICO report. Second, if false information is sent to the credit reporting companies in order to remove accurate items – That’s a fraud attempt, which is a federal crime.

Charge You For Each Dispute Letter – If the credit repair service asks for a fee each time they send a dispute letter then you should have your ‘scam alert’ sirens start blowing. Under the FCRA regulations, writing dispute letters is free! You can write as many dispute letters as needed (as long as they have legit claims) and they all will be free of charge. Writing dispute letters is FREE, unless you are hiring a credit repair lawyer, which will charge you hundred of dollars for each email they send. 

Three Day Rescission Rights – As a customer you are protected by the Truth in Lending Act (TILA)you have the right to rescind within three days and get back a full refund of fees or payments you have been charged. If the scam credit service wants to proceed immediately, be alert, they are not allowed to do anything until the three rescission days are over.

Non Profit Credit Organisations Are Not FREE- People who have low credit are tempted by advertisements made by ‘nonprofit’ credit repair organisations who claim they can help. A non profit organisation may be a deceiving disguise for a credit repair scam. These ‘nonprofit companies’ might ask for payments for procedures that can be done for free (write dispute letters or request the free annual credit report). Con artists love to use the non-profit ‘voluntary’ scheme, and con thousands of dollars from people in distress.

Identity Theft Credit Scams- Some credit repair schemes are based on convincing the person applying that he is treated by professionals who ‘know what they are doing’ and have their ‘secret’ ways to solve every issue. They might ask the client to send them the original documentation for the dispute letters and resolving credit matters (NEVER send originals!!) when they get hold of the victims original documentation, identity theft becomes easy!

Credit Repair Scam Warning Signs

You must be more educated on how to fix your credit problems. Here below are two programs for credit repair, they both cost less than any credit lawyer or repair service, and they will help you step-by-step to improve your score.

• Improve Your Credit Score In 37 Days
• Professional (+Affordable) Credit Repair Software

If you think you spot one or more of these signs for credit repair scams, contact the local or state office of General Attorney! There is nothing to fear from, as there are so many laws protecting you, regardless of your credit score or financial position.  Even if you think you have been tricked or ripped off, it is best you approach the GA office rather than be caught by a cross investigation on attempt for fraud or being dishonest concerning a loan.

How To Negotiate Lower Credit Rates Like John Wayne

Negotiation Tips To Lower Credit Cards Rates

Negotiating creditors to lower credit card rates is not as difficult as most people think. Too many people get cold feet when they come to think of negotiating, and it gets worst when they come to think of negotiating credit card companies. In this short tutorial I will try to teach you some credit card rates negotiating tips so you could call your creditors and tell them to lower your rates… or else… (Do it with a tough voice like John Wayne).

The fact is that the same negotiating principals which works for the pros will be useful and helpful for you too. You do not need to be an oily hair guy or wear a $1000 Armani suit in order to negotiate better credit card terms.

It doesn’t matter if you do not manage to reach best rates. Once you begin negotiating; haggling everything, you will get better terms and rates, and that is worth a lot of money! So check below to learn some tips how to be a Persuasion Expert.

Rule No’ 1 – Negotiate Everything

A very talented negotiator guru named Herb Cohen once said “You will never make money than you would around the negotiating table!” and he was right! Think that you negotiate with someone and press them with a “try harder” pitch line and they cut off $100 from their last offer. When was the last time you earned $100 in 30 seconds?

So negotiate everything, anything, anyone at anytime. You will be saving so much money.

The Negotiating ‘Power Of Options’

Ever heard of the story about the skinny short guy that walks into a red-necks bar, stands like John Wayne at the middle of the bar and shouts “is there anyone here who has the guts to step outside and fight me!” After long silence with everyone just fearfully staring at him.. he walks to the bartender and whispers “I can drink my beer now without being hassled”.

One of the basic powerful tools in negotiation is called the Power of Options. This is the power to ‘walk from the deal’ to ‘leave the table’. You do not have to really walk from the deal, but the other side needs to think you have the option to do that… Most customers feel they do not have any leverage power because they lack the power of options.

When thinking of negotiating credit companies, people feel credit company have many options (customers to choose from) while they have less options (credit companies which will accept them). This would have been true unless the credit company knows what are your real options. So all you need to do is make them believe you have options. 

Credit companies are spending millions on marketing campaigns because they need to show they are expanding. Did you know, most credit cards sales people and account managers have penalties for loosing customers! They NEED you too.

Gather your power to choose between options – Many credit companies will send you commercial leaflets and ‘junk mails’ with super low rates and other very suspicious ‘too-good-to-be-true’ offers. Gather these offers, make some calls, learn there offers. You will be using them in a few weeks or month as alternative options.

Negotiate Interest Rates Like John Wayne

It is no secret that the people who have the highest credit score do get the best rates. Rates you just can dream about will be offered to people who have a 800 credit score. You will not learn here how to get a 800 credit score, but the important thing is if you want to be mistaken as John Wayne, you better learn to walk like John Wayne.

And this means to RAISE YOUR CREDIT SCORE! Here is a three stage plan for raising your credit score.

1. Get Your Free Credit Report - Information is power. By the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) you have the right to get a free annual copy of your credit report from each of the main credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, TransUnion. Study the report see all the negative factors which influence your credit score.

2. Delete Negative Items – There will be many negative items you can do nothing about, but there WILL be many items which are incorrect or outdated. You then begin writing credit dispute letters. By law if the bureaus can not verify the negative item, it will be deleted! Remember NEGOTIATE EVERYTHING.

Write the credit companies or any lender that have negative items showing on your FICO credit report. Ask them kindly to remove their remarks. These remarks will be two years on your report after all late payments have been paid fully. These remarks will stay on your credit report unless you do something to remove them.

3. Use Your Credit Wisely – There are several thing you should begin to do, which will help fix your credit report. If you have unused credit cards, use them again once in a while, using cards with long history is GOOD for your report.

Pay the credit balance so it will be lower than 30%. Try to lower it below 15%, showing you are using small amounts of your balance will help raise your credit. Here is a quick tip… Request your creditor to raise your available credit line, it will immediately make your current usage percentage decrease… $1000 debt from $3000 available is 30%, having $1000 from $5000 is 20%!

There are plenty of other tricks and tips to follow to fix your credit. It might take you a few weeks or month to fix your credit. You can learn here how to raise your credit in 37 days!

Negotiate Your Creditors Like John Wayne

Now when you are armed with a higher credit score, you walk into the middle of the creditor’s bar and raise your voice… Call them and ask them to lower your credit cards rates, because you have now a better credit. If the person on the phone will not lower your credit card rates, ask to speak to their supervisor. Be polite but firm, think how John Wayne would have done it.

Remember they get penalized for loosing customers, they want to keep you on their lists. Keep pressuring. As a customer with better credit score you have now more options! Now you can use the “or else”… let them know that ‘other’ credit companies have approached you, you are holding their offers “right now”.

Be vague about the companies but be correct about the credit interest rates they offer. Request the lowest interest rates! Talk as if you have 800 credit score! Request better terms too!

You Will Never Get Everything You Ask For

If you ask for crazy low rates and show you have high aspirations you will probably get more than if you ask for mild interest changes. Mild changes might be easier to accomplish but less rewarding. Be brave, think of the lowest rates rates you believe they will agree to give you and ask for a rate which is lower than that.

Why?

Because your negotiation first request must NEVER be your target point! Leave some room for negotiating, let the other side feel you had to give up on something too. You wish for 8% ask for 7.5%… be prepared not to get ALL your requests granted, but make sure you know what will satisfy you.

No matter what they offer you, ALWAYS refuse to their first offer! Be ‘offended’, be ‘shocked’ tell them you are ‘disappointed’, say you thought they were trying to DO something… Their offer is shameful. Ask them to ‘try harder’ request the supervisor to speak to his manager ‘see what HE can do’.

Their offer will get better! It always does! They spend hundred dollars to gain new customers, they will be willing to spend just as much to keep you from leaving.

Negotiating Credit Cards Interest Rates Conclusion

Once you sound like John Wayne and walk like John Wayne, the creditors will believe you ARE John Wayne. They will respect your ‘threats’ to move. They will do an effort to keep you on their customer’s list. Most representatives and supervisors have some tolerance given to them exactly for cases like these. So make sure you negotiate lower credit card rates like a pro. You can be a Persuasion Expert if you learn some more basic behaviors. It would be probably the most important investment you ever did.

Think you could make people listen to you and do as you say. Use this knowledge carefully ”If you cannot promise to use it for good intentions, please exit now”. See more on how to be a Persuasion Expert.

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Others reading this article found these articles interesting too:

1. How To Get An 800 Credit Score
2. How To File Credit Report Dispute Letter
3. All About Credit Repair Letters

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How To Get 800 FICO Credit Score

Meet The 800 Credit Score Club

You might think it is impossible or even some kind of magic, but there are many people walking around you which have an 800 credit score on their FICO report. The funny thing is that these people are not necessarily ‘rich’, they are ordinary families and individuals who know the secrets of how to get 800 credit score.

Who Are The 800 Credit Score People

In this short review you are going to learn how these people have archived what others do not even dream about. Getting a clear 800 credit score is something that may help you with most of your personal financial goals. How do I know these people are regular people, because my sister and her husband have a round 800 on all three of their credit reports!

She is not working now (looking for a part time job) her husband was working for a medical institution (administrative) and they have three gorgeous children. 

Holding three credit reports with 800 FICO score on them, is the reason they got a home mortgage with the lowest rates in the country, and had an easy mortgage shopping experience. When they were shopping to refinancing their mortgage all the lenders where begging them to become their customers! They negotiated the best rates and haggled the mortgage broker for lowest fees and costs, as members of the 800 credit score club, they are VIP at their bank.

Where to Start The Journey To The 800 Credit Score

The way to a clear 800 credit score, is not an easy ride. But it is a ride for true believers, people who know that once they live correctly they would be at the top of the world, reach the Everest of the home economy. Working your way to a 800 FICO score means to give up on things you might never thought you could live without, and learn new things about what you really NEED in life.

If you are a married couple or living with a life partner, they need to be with you on this journey, because there will be difficulties and those if not managed together than you might quit right now.

Rules Of Thumb For Getting 800 Score

Only one driver at the driver’s seat - My sister and her husband decided that only one person takes control over the expenses and runs the family budget. The person in charge sees the whole picture, like a business unit, he can see incomes and expenses, and he is in charge of the family budget. This prevents two people buying stuff without foreseeing the outcomes.

Live a Modest Life – The American economy is spinning over people buying stuff they do not really need. Seeing 24/7 TV commercials an being tempted to place the credit number and signature down at the dotted line. Their credit was not always 800. When times where tough, the TV cable network was disconnected, all unnecessary house expenses were cut to zero. Yes this means giving up the Cell-phones even and returning to the good old Alexander Graham Bell machine called telephone.

How To Get 800 Credit Score Tips

Stay In The Cash Zone - My sister and husband do not carry credit payments from month to month. Yes they use their credit card, but buy only what they need and pay all the credit card debts in the following month. No Jack-In-The-Box credit surprises.

Because their credit is always straight and always on time, this has two great effects on the credit report and the creditors:  

• First using credit cards gives you some ‘bonus points’ at the credit report over people who do not have any credit cards. Once you show you are using credit cards the creditors can learn something on your credit behaviors, not having any credit card is suspicious, and even if you have plenty of cash, lenders cannot learn about your debt management and credit behavior.
• The second thing is that having paying all purchases immediately means they are using zero credit balance each month. This makes my sister and husband the perfect borrowers as their credit balance is 0%. It might be not so beneficial for the creditors (who earn interest rates on these credit debts) but it make the lenders drooling to get these couple as mortgage customers.

These two factors have a huge effect on the FICO report. Each of the the three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, TransUnion have a slightly different way to calculate the score, but they all use the same FICO algorithm, in which the credit balance and the usage of credit cards has a significant factor.

Use Different Kinds Of Loans – My sister and husband have several small installment loans. This means that they prefer to pay everything in cash, but they keep some loans going like car loans and education loans. Of coarse these loans are paid perfectly on time and together with the credit cards and very low credit balance usage, make a beautiful picture for the credit bureaus.

Can You Be In The 800 Credit Score Club Too

Well you might be a member of the 800 credit score club, but it would take you some time to manage all the expenses, and learn to live a better planned credit life. My Sister and husband a few years ago were getting some assistance (credit repair software) to help them manage all the credit issues before they have learned to do it perfectly by themselves.

Getting some help at the beginning is not a bad thing, when the goal is a clear 800 FICO score. It actually allowed my sister and husband to focus on the small changes they needed to do, and solved them some issues they had tailing behind them. Starting the way up from a low credit score is quite difficult, improving a fairly good score is much easier task.

I have asked my sister and husband which credit software have they used. They said the best results where with a credit repair software called ‘magic repair’ which is by their experience has done the most effective affect on their score.

Here is where you can read more and get the ‘Credit Repair Magic Software’ .

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