Credit card issuers have the ability to bring your account current and wipe out your entire record of late payments using a procedure called “re-aging”. Re-aging, if managed properly, can be a fantastic credit repair tool. The re-aging guidelines were set by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) in June of 2000 for the purpose of helping “borrowers overcome temporary financial difficulties, such as loss of job, medical emergency, or change in family circumstances like loss of a family member”.

The Policy Background

The FFIEC is a formal interagency body empowered by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and others, to prescribe principles and standards in the supervision of financial institutions. The re-aging guidelines are observed by all credit card issuers with the understanding that they can take a more “conservative” stance at their discretion. Credit Unions did not opt to adopt this policy, but if you have a credit card with a credit union it does not hurt to ask if they have a re-aging policy.

Some Plain English

It sounds great so far! But how does it work? Re-aging is defined as “returning a delinquent, open-end account to current status without collecting the total amount of principle, interest, and fees that are contractually due”. And it means what it says. If you meet certain, very reasonable, guidelines your credit card issuer will wipe out your bad credit. What are those guidelines?

Nuts and Bolts

There are a few basic rules. The account has to have existed for at least 9 months, you have to offer to make three on-time payments or an equivalent lump sum payment before the re-aging will be finalized, you cannot re-age an account more than one time in any 12 month period and no more than 2 times in any 5 year period. Working on credit repair? Please note that there is no limit on the number of accounts that you can re-age. But I suggest you complete one effort first to get comfortable.

Your Part of the Deal

Just so you understand, this process is designed for cardholders that have a renewed willingness and ability to make payments in a timely manner. Like any credit repair effort there is no point if you fall behind again. It is also designed for cardholders that have experienced a financial hardship. Remember the list of hardships that constitute acceptable causes of past financial problems: loss of job, medical emergency, and change in family circumstances like loss of a family member. There may be other equally acceptable events. But since the re-aging process is taken seriously you should not expect that your request be honored if you say that you just didn’t want to pay your bills!

Getting Started

Are you ready to get started? Call the credit card issuer and ask them to explain their re-aging policy. Some issuers use the term, “curing”. If the person on the phone does not know what you are talking about you should ask for a supervisor. You will want to organize your thoughts in advance. Remember that you need to communicate the reasons for your past delinquency and your renewed willingness and ability to pay on time from now on.

The Deal

Re-aging deals can differ from one issuer to the next. You will want to make sure that all derogatory information will be deleted from your account. It is also a good idea to get the details in writing. Anyone who has made a credit repair effort knows that verbal agreements with creditors have a pretty poor record of success. If they won’t put it in writing, at least take careful notes including the name and direct phone number of the person that you are speaking with.

A Caution

Removing derogatory information from your credit is a great thing. It is the goal of every credit repair effort. But it is important to keep your FICO score in mind as well. If the issuer resets the opening date on your account when they remove your derogatory information you may lose points, depending on the number and age of other accounts on your report. Ask the issuers specifically if they will reset the open date. Some do and some don’t. If they will, you’ll want to consider the impact on your scores. FICO loves old accounts. If you have plenty of accounts with many years of history there is no problem. But if your credit is young and limited resetting an older account could be a set back, at least temporarily.

Jim Kemish is the president and founder of Power Mortgage, a Florida mortgage broker based in Delray Beach, Florida. Power Mortgage Corp was established in 1989 and serves the states of Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Virginia. Jim is also the President of Sky Blue Credit, a national credit repair business. For great mortgage and credit tips visit the Florida Mortgage Blog

Related posts:

1. Credit Repair Scams
2. Credit Repair Made Easy
3. Improve Your Credit Scores

Your next step is to run your current credit report and get your credit score. One place to do this is at www.myfico.com. You will get your FICO score and a credit report from each of the 3 credit agencies: Experian (www.experian.com), Equifax (www.equifax.com), and Trans Union (www.transunion.com). If this list (not including the persons you owe money to) is different from your credit report, your credit report is the list to go by, unless you know for a fact there is a mistake on your credit report.

The next step is to consolidate all your debt and lower your interest rate as much as possible. Before you do that, call your credit card company today (ask for a supervisor) and ask for a lower rate. Most of the time they will work with you. If they give you a hard time, let them know you are switching your card to another company. This will lower your interest payment right away. Consolidate your credit cards to as few cards as possible. To look for permanent low-interest rate credit cards, check out www.bankrate.com. I am not a fan of the “balance transfer game”; transferring your balance from one card to another, specifically 0% cards that then jump up to a higher percentage rate (i.e. 14%) after a period of time. Most of us end up missing that transfer period time and lose everything they saved by having a 0% interest rate for a short period of time. If you can, stick to a permanent low-interest rate credit card, preferably under 7-10%.

This is the most important step you can do to pay down your debt. Setup a payment plan to pay off your debt and stick to it. For example: If you owe $10,000, have a current interest rate of 6%, and pay $400 monthly, it will take you 2.3 years to pay off your debt. To find out your debt repayment plan, visit www.kiplinger.com/tools/ debt calculator. You also need to find the $400 a month to pay off the debt and the only way to do this is to change your spending habit. Find a budget that works for you and stick to it.

There are a few more points that are essential to paying off your debt. Stop using your credit card and debit cards – now! Get yourself on a cash only basis. I can’t stress enough how important this is. This is the key to keeping your budget! If you are paying off different credit cards, pay off the ones with the highest balances first. Save your student loans for last. If you are not able to pay off more than the minimum balance on your credit cards and are truly in over your head, you might need to work with a debt consolidator. There are many unethical ones out there, so visit the National Foundation for Credit Counseling www.nfcc.org. They are a government agency that can recommend one in your area.

Finally, enlist a friend or family member for support during this debt repayment time. Having their moral support will really help you towards being debt-free in no time!

Galia Gichon, Founder of Down-to-Earth Finance, demystifies personal finance – particularly to women – through unbiased financial education. With over 14 years experience in financial services and an MBA in Finance, she does not manage money or sell investment products. You can subscribe to her weekly e-mail newsletter at DownToEarthFinance-On@zines.webvalence.com for smart tips to save more money and independent advice about mutual funds and retirement. She can be reached at 212.734.0433 and http://www.downtoearthfinance.com

Related posts:

1. Three Proven Strategies for Getting Out of Debt
2. Free Bad Credit Debt Consolidation Loan –Quote to reduce extra burden
3. Consolidate and Live Debt Free

Our nation is in chaos and the root of it all stems from good graces of man. Credit is deeply rooted into our history, it stems from a person’s or merchant’s product or service is priced too high for the average consumer. When payment from the patron for the item(s) was not convenient at the current time arrangement could be negotiated. This was the birth of the consumer credit program.

Let’s look at a typical California House priced at $395,000. The builder, in order to make a profit, needs to sell many of these homes at this price. How many of us have $395,000 to plop down in one lump sum?

If the builder only sold homes to people who could pay the lump sum, they would not sell many homes and the price would skyrocket to $3,395,000 due to the need for the builder to earn an equitable profit. On the other hand the builder would not make any profit if the homes were sold at $4000 or even $40,000.

2. What’s it going to cost you?

The homes must be sold at a price that is consistent with perceived value and quality, but still needs to make it available to the average consumer. This is the reason the mortgage business is so huge.

Let’s look at another example. This trend is deeply rooted in our history. Have you ever gone to a store and realized you didn’t have the money to purchase an item? Remember asking the store clerk to put it onto your account?

Actually you can still find this type of system where the merchant would allow the consumer a period of up to 30 days to repay the debt; when payment for the goods or services is not convenient.

3. How did this all begin

This began back in the days of the general store where a patron would come by and pick up a few items, charge them to a personal account and the patron would agree to pay the entire account by the end of the month.

4. Does this all still exist?

You can still find this type of environment but it’s gone for the most part replaced by the modern day credit card and department store card. This is a system designed with the theory that you never have to pay off the balance in full. This is called a revolving credit or charge account; pay off some, then spend it to the limit.

5. What happened to the people

This is where people get in to trouble everyday, late payments piling up, and debt occurring from interest added stress. I don’t know of anyone who wants or needs this. As an evolution of this process, it was natural that some type of credit reporting system would be created. Then suddenly the dawn of the credit bureau began.

Creditors or merchants were concerned about doing business with bad debtors; they needed a way to report problem consumers and a way to get the information about them before they established an account for them.

6. With the dawn of the credit bureau trouble had only just begun.

Now that the bureau had been born they began tracking information on individuals and businesses, selling that information to subscribers (creditors) and receiving information as well.

Late payment and other types of errors started occurring on peoples personal credit reports. After a while the errors were so bad that certain individuals were forced to go bankrupt and lose their families to divorce or worse.

People were always in a hurry and rushing to keep up with the Jones’………………or should I say

(___________________________________________________flat line)

Does this sound like you? Do you need help in mastering the ownership of your credit?

We can help; we have the proper solution for you. If you need a free credit report you can get one here at www.raise-my-fico-score.com/freecreditreport.html. Finding out where you stand is the 1st part of understanding your credit history. Knowing your credit history is easy especially since you know your financial situation. If you want to find out more on how to fix your credit, boost your scores and stay on the safe side of the credit barrier.

Related posts:

1. Five Mistakes to Avoid After Bankruptcy
2. Credit Card Traps To Avoid: How the New ‘Universal Default Clause’ Can Hurt Your Pocketbook
3. Quick and Easy Ways To Improve Your FICO Score

While bad credit may be obvious to someone who looks at credit reports all day, many times a customer may not realize what their credit issues may be. Credit counseling is an effective way to maintain control of the special finance sales process. If the process is done correctly, an applicant’s expectations will be kept at a reasonable level.

So first of all, what exactly is bad credit? Numerous types of credit report problems are considered a sign of bad credit and could cause a lender to reject an application for a loan. Such problems include: missing a credit card payment, defaulting on a prior loan, filing for bankruptcy in the past seven years, or not paying taxes. Other black marks on a credit report include a judgment filed (perhaps for non-payment of spousal or child support) or any collection activity. To many special finance customers, these may be regular occurrences which they do not consider to be bad credit.

The credit counseling process begins with the customer interview. The credit application should be reviewed during the customer interview. Take the time to find out if there are any potential pitfalls. Look for gaps in residence or employment. Find out the particulars regarding the customer’s living arrangements. Do they rent or own; is the monthly expense split with anyone else? Is the income correctly stated and is it verifiable. This process starts the conversation in a non-confrontational manner. Not only do you get to know your customer better, but this process gets customers talking freely about themselves.

Once the application has been fully reviewed, it’s time to move onto the credit report. Remember the objective here is to keep the customer focused on the “credit decision” and away from a “product decision”. Take the time to explore their credit file to see if there is an explanation for any issues which may present themselves.

All too often, reviewing a credit report with a customer consisted of simply marking all derogatory information with a big, red magic marker. Raise all the red flags possible and beat the customer into submission. Public humiliation was supposed to get customers to acknowledge their bad credit, and make them accept that fact. All this is the name of big profits!

Effective credit counseling involves getting a customer to acknowledge their credit issues without the humiliation. Review the complete credit report, mentioning not only the derogatory information but the positive accounts as well. Look for a positive credit reference which can be used to build a case to present to a lender. A previous auto loan paid reasonably well, or even an auto loan that was paid well for long period of time before it was repossessed can be used as a positive reference. Look for patterns of good credit that may have preceded their current credit problems.

Ask your customer if there was something that happened to them that led up to their credit problems. A catastrophic event, such as a major illness, an employer closing or going out of business, a military call-up, or any number of personal tragedies can lead to credit issues. Now is the time for your customers to tell you their story, so you can relay it to your lenders. Review each line on the credit report with the customer. Ask for explanations and make notations where appropriate.

This may take a little longer than you’re used to but it helps set the stage for reasonable expectations from your customer. It also shows them how much work you’ve got ahead of you to get a loan approved for them.

Take some time to explain the process. After the credit review, explain how a lender determines whether to approve an application. Review the S.A.W. principle most lenders use to consider an applicant. – Stability, Ability and Willingness to Pay. Remember that many “D” tier lenders look at more than just the credit score of an applicant, and in many cases, these lenders do not consider the FICO score of an applicant in their approval process. Marginal lenders look at the total applicant picture to determine if the will approve a deal. An applicant with a stable employment and residence history and a decent income stands a better chance of getting approved for a loan, even with a spotty credit bureau, because the lender knows they will be able to collect the payments, even if they are a little late each month!

Explain “debt to income” and “payment to income” ratios to your customers and how lenders use them to determine what vehicles they will qualify for. Many customers want much more vehicle than they can qualify for, their logic being “I can afford to pay that much”. Explain how lenders, using all the data available form the vast number of loans they make, have determined which loans are most likely to be repaid and base their decisions using this date. They know that any payment which is more than 20% of an applicant’s income has a much more likelihood of leading to a default and repossession. Lenders want to collect payments, and structure their approvals based on the data they have. This is especially true if a customer has had a history of slow or late payments on their previous auto loan. The lender figures “if they couldn’t make that payment without some problems, I want my payment to be lower than that!” Explain that excessive monthly obligations eat up a substantial portion of their income, and most lenders will only consider applicants with less than 50% of the income being used to pay their monthly bills, including rent. This is especially true with a customer that already has an open auto loan and was not planning on trading it in. In either case, explain that the lender typically will ask for a co-signer, but you will submit the application and see what they say. Place the decision in your lenders hand, and let your customer bear the burden of meeting the lender’s requirement for approval.

Take a few minutes to explain how equity can help an approval along. Lenders like to loan less than the book or wholesale value of a vehicle to marginal customers. Sometimes a large down payment can convince a lender that an applicant will make the payments, since they have a stake in the loan. Remind your customers that, while many lenders may consider a loan with no down payment, they typically like to see the taxes, tags and fees paid upfront by the customer. Many customers, who say they don’t have any money available for a down payment, will have cash set aside to pay these fees. They do not view these as down payment, so make sure to ask how they plan to pay the taxes, tags and fees for the vehicle they are trying to buy.

Many customers will go from dealer to dealer trying to get a loan. Often times, they apply to multiple web sites touting easy credit approvals for bad credit customers in the hopes that someone will approve a loan for them, or give a better approval than they may already have gotten elsewhere. As a credit counselor, explain that, for the most part, dealers work with all the same lenders. While there may be one or two new lenders out in the market, you know and work with virtually all available lenders. Explain that the call back from these lenders is based on the information provided, and as such, will not vary from dealer to dealer. As a matter of fact, explain to them that multiple applications can lead a lender to turndown an application due to “excessive inquiries”, which may cause a lender to think that the customer is trying to buy multiple vehicles at different dealers.

Setting customer’s expectations to reality is sometimes the hardest part of the counseling function. Explain to a customer that lenders aren’t in it just to help a dealership sell a car, but to insure that they can collect on the loan. Giving a customer a loan that a lender thinks the customer can’t afford does no one any good. Lenders don’t want to make a loan today only to repossess the vehicle tomorrow; they make their money only if they can collect the payments. Explain that, in order to help rebuild their credit; customers with credit issues must “crawl before they walk”. This is all part of the process of rebuilding their credit. There has to be a strong foundation to build on; no one builds a house from the roof down!

Lenders realize that credit challenges usually result in setbacks for these customers. Your job is to help them overcome these setbacks. This is typically the beginning of the process to rebuild their credit. They have to start out with a vehicle that not only will fit their budget, but provide reliable transportation while they rebuild their payment history. Once favorable payment history is on their credit bureau, they can move up to a better vehicle with more favorable terms.

Let you customers know your dealership will be there in the future to let them know when the time is right to make that move. As their automotive credit counselor, you are in touch with to help move them along the path to better credit! Not only will they get an auto loan with your help, but by paying this loan on time, they are well on their way to a credit card and maybe even a mortgage. You can even provide them with a list of banks that provide Visa or MasterCard accounts to folks with credit challenges, or with information which may help them improve their credit reports for free, instead of throwing money away on a scam “credit repair” company.

To review the credit counseling process:

• Review the credit application
• Review the credit bureau
• Look for positive as well as negative references
• Explain the process
• Explain SAW and how a lender looks at the application
• Review debt-to-income and payment-to-income ratios
• Determine the available down payment
• Set the customer’s expectations to reality
• Review the qualifying vehicles
• Review how to improve the loan
• Explain the credit rebuilding process
• Explain “credit shopping”
• The effect of excessive inquiries

Being a credit counselor before the sale will help you close that many more special finance sales. Take the time to talk to your customers about their credit situation and show that you can provide some answers to their problem. If you do this up front, you will establish a relationship with these customers that will allow you to maintain control over the sales process, which is essential for special finance. Not only that, but it prevent you from educating a customer you thought was a no sale, only to send him somewhere else to buy a vehicle.

Geoff Cohen is a seasoned auto professional, with over 30 years experience. He has done it all, from sales rep to F&I Manager, New Car Manager, Used Vehicle Manager, up to GSM and GM. He has also worked as an area sales manager for a major sub-prime lender as well as run his own BHPH and Auto Leasing/Brokerage company.. He is the National Accounts Manager for AutoLending Network and is a contributing author to several blogs about Special Finance solutions for auto dealers as well as F&I Magazine and World of Special Finance Magazine

Related posts:

1. Secured form of Car Loans for Bad Credit requires one’s car to play as the collateral for the finance while unsecured option does not want any
2. Auto Finance Tips for People with Bad Credit
3. Bad Credit Secured Loans: Finance Your Urgent Needs Easily