Sometimes when you send a letter of demand to the three credit bureaus for an error or unverified negative item to be deleted, only one bureau deletes it. The other two might send back a form response claiming it was “verified” and remains. Of course, no proper verification was actually done.

Here is your next step:

Send a second letter to the two credit bureaus who failed to delete the falsely reporting item. Say something like this:

On (date), I sent you and Equifax a letter explaining that the late payment showing June 2023 on account # XXXX1234 is reporting falsely and demanded deletion. Equifax investigated and deleted the late pay. I know you pride yourselves in doing work just as excellently as Equifax; therefore, I expect you to also delete this FALSE and ERRONEOUS post on my credit report. Since this is my second request, I will expect a speedy response. Have a nice day, your name and signature

If you can include a snippet or screen shot of the portion of the letter from Equifax that shows the deletion, that will be even better. Add this to your letter: “See Exhibit showing the deletion of the error.

The Biden Administration has set a new rule for the credit reporting agencies. The rule is that medical accounts do not get posted on credit reports, so any that show up there now, must be deleted.

This is expected to raise the credit score for millions of people, anywhere from 10 to 20 to 50 points, depending on their overall credit profile.

The idea behind the rule is that medical bills are not indicative of a person’s credit. A person could pay all their credit cards and loans perfectly, but then get hit with a giant medical emergency. That ginormous medical bill — which they are unable to pay — is not predictive of how they handle their finances. Therefore, it should not be on their credit report.

However…

the rule is not set to go into effect until spring. And meanwhile, the Biden Administration will be replaced with the Trump Administration. This means the Trump Administration could possibly overturn the new rule before it goes into effect.

Why might the Trump Administration do such a thing?! Here’s why…

Not everyone is thrilled with the new rule. Many credit card companies are saying that the removal of medical obligations from credit reports will cause people to say, “Woo-hoo! I’m free of that so now I can go on a spending spree. Now I can charge up my cards! Now I can buy a new SUV!”

They’re afraid people will not manage their finances wisely, get themselves into too much debt, and then default on their credit card bills. Then the credit card companies would lose money, and we all know how they feel about money –!

So there is pressure on the new Administration to stop the rule. Will Trump stop it or let it go throough?

Time will tell. But in the meantime, don’t be shocked if your credit card company suddenly lowers your limit!!! They might do so now as a so-called protection.

And whatever you do, keep hammering away at the medical bill and DO NOT use this as an occasion to go out and pile on the debt! Be smart, be wise, and work toward living debt-free.

When it comes to auto financing, you have to look out for yourself, because the dealer/seller doesn’t care about your finances.

The only thing they honestly care about is their own profit.

It’s crazy the rip-off loans they’ll try to foist off on you, using mperfect credit as an excuse.

Sometimes they’ll try to trick people with excellent credit into taking an interest rate that is too high — higher than necessary.

That’s what happened to me one time when I was sitting in the finance person’s office. He tried to get me to take an interest rate that was 2% higher than the one I ended up getting simply by pointing out that I had excellent credit and therefore deserved a better rate.

But there’s more!

In addition to their greedy astromonic interest rates, they are happy to approve you for a payment that’s much too high for your budget.

Unlike mortgage underwriters, they don’t regard your debt-to-income ratio.

The bigger your debt, the more they like it (at least seemingly).

The sales person doesn’t care if your payment is so high that you can’t afford to buy gas to drive the darn thing!!!

So you need to do your own calculation and decide for yourself what is a reasonable car payment.

Your auto loan should not be more than 5% – 7% of your income.

If your income is $8,000/month, then a reasonable auto loan is $400 to $560/month.

If your income is $3,000/month, then a reasonable auto loan is $150 to $210/month.

If you know someone who is considering buying a new car, SUV, or truck, help them out by passing this on to them. I’m sick and tired of people getting set up for repossession by greedy auto sellers who gave them payments they couldn’t afford.

This information comes from “Set Your Own Guardrail” Chapter 5 in Credit Repair Mindset.

This is a short, fast read that helps people think like a person who has an 800+ credit score. You can check it out here.

Did you know that thousands of people will harm their own credit, lower their credit scores, and jeopardize their finances during Black Friday sales events?

Please don’t be one of those people!

FACTS:

• When you charge more than 50% of the limit on your credit card, your score is penalized by an estimated 20 to 60 points!

• When you cannot pay off your entire balance when the bill comes, you are labeled as a consumer who has overspent their budget, and your score is penalized.

• Worst of all: opening a new credit card. Don’t do it!!! If you have at least two credit cards and one of them is a major card, such as Visa or MasterCard, then you do not need another card. Opening a new one is not worth saving 10% when it penalizes your score for the next six months!

BE A SAVVY SHOPPER

• Don’t buy items just because they are on sale. You’re not actually saving money when you buy things you would not otherwise purchase.

• Don’t go hog wild buying material things for your children. I know it’s tempting, because we love our children and we want to see them happy. But what they need most of all is our attention. They want us to play with them and read to them and have interesting discussions with them. They don’t needs lots of material gifts. Set the expectation ahead of time, and they will be happy.

I hope this encourages you to spend wisely and with moderation. Don’t let the super-rich, greedy creditors win their “Buy More Game.” Keep your finances under control and see how good that feels when January comes.

The key word is UP. Today, mortgage rates are the highest they have been in the past four months. But still, lower than they were a year ago.

So much for “they always keep interest rates low right before an election” — something I have never said or believed.

But I did say that I expected rates to continue to inch downward, and here they are inching upward instead. So as I’ve always said, no one can predict mortgage interest rates with 100 percent accuracy. Things happen that make no sense.

Like now, the data would indicate that rates should have gone down, not up. But the bond market and interest rates don’t always conform to the data.

What are mortgage interest rates today? Depending on if you live in a coastal state or middle America — and inside those regions, there are certain states, like Florida, that are different than their neighboring states — interest rates today are in the range of 6.5% to 7%, with many at 6.75% to 6.875%.

I wish I had a crystal ball, but the truth is that it is impossible to forecast how the election next week is going to impact mortgage interest rates. The only thing we know for sure is that the election has the potential to affect rates by a significant amount. If it does happen that rates swing wildly on the day of or day after the election, history tells us that in the following days, a “correction” will occur in which they settle back to what they were before.

How can a credit bureau offer a debit card when they are not a bank!?! Obviously, you can’t pay for your groceries without money to back it up.

Experian is putting their name on a debit card that is actually issued by Community Federal Savings Bank. Makes me think of a multi-level marketing pyramid.

Why is Experian doing this? Because it gives them license to spy more on your spending.

This does not help or boost your credit score in any meaningful way. So-called Boost is to boost their own knowledge of all your financial workings, not to boost a benefit to you. Think about it: do you expect a for-profit, superrich credit bureau to care about you personally? Or are they working purely for their own benefit?

The New York Times published a lengthy article By Rob Lieber that was printed in The Seattle Times Sunday, Oct. 13 with the same opinion as mine. (You can read it here.)

Speaking of nonsense, why did Taylor Swift’s boyfriend, football player Travis Kelce, sell himself out to advertising the nonsense and deceptive Boost card? When The New York Times reached out to him, all he had to say about it was that it’s “cool.” Does he even understand it? Did he evaluate how it works? Or did he just agree to let them use him for the money he’d get paid? I haven’t interviewed him, so I can only guess.

There is no perk to the credit bureaus’s Spy Card that you can’t get elsewhere without the credit bureau snooping into all your spending. Be smart: when you see an offer from Experian’s Boost say NO.

Here’s an article I posted way back in 2020 on 3 Reasons to Say No to Boost:
https://askcarolynwarren.com/2020/11/18/three-reasons-to-say-no-to-experian-boost/

If you know someone who has a student loan, this is important information.

Facts About Student Loans No One May Have Told You

1. A student loan paid on time every month is powerful for boosting your credit score — more influential than a credit card.
   
   2. A student loan with late payments can devastate your credit score — more than lates on a credit card.

3. Student loans do not count in your credit usage ratio, which is good for you. (The scoring system adds up all your available credit and compares that to the amount of credit you’re using. This is your credit utilization ratio. Since new student loans have a high balance-to-credit ratio, it is good for you that student loans don’t factor in your overall ratio.)

4. Student loans can be sold from one company to another, which is fine, except when they don’t inform you in time for you to switch your automatic payments to the new company, and then your payment isn’t received, and they report you late. This means you must continue to monitor your student loan payments even after they’re on auto-pay.

5. Student loans usually have a low interest rate with a long payment term. This creates longevity for a positive pay history, and can be excellent for your credit score. This underscores the importance of always paying on time.

6. Student loans are not being forgiven or waived by the U.S. government. Don’t destroy your good credit by ignoring your student loans thinking they’re going to be soon wiped out. (Only the private school student loans that were found to be sold to student under fraudulent terms were forced to stop.)

7. The credit scoring system likes to see a variety of different types of credit, such as a credit card, an auto loan, a mortgage loan, and a student loan. So if you have a student loan, recognzie that it helps your credit on yet another level: credit mix.

8. If you find yourself unable to pay your student loan, call immediately and work out an arrangement, either a deferment or a reduced payment. Do not wait until after your payment is late! Do not shoot your credit all to pieces because you don’t know what to do. Call and ask for the department that helps with payment deferment.

9. If you have a co-signer on your studnet loan (which I hope you do not), and you are late, your innocent co-signer’s credit is equally penalized. Therefore, you must handle a financial hardship situation before going late! Have the courtesy of speaking with your co-signer as well as the student loan company. They co-signed in good faith, and you owe them that honesty and transparency.

If you know someone who has a student loan, please pass on this important information to them. Thank you.