Good credit is important in America today because so many of the things that we want
to buy must be financed or purchased on credit.

And once you have had a bad credit rating it is almost impossible to avoid detection.
A network of credit reporting agencies keeps track of every person who buys on credit.
Each time you apply for credit, the prospective lender will check your credit with at least one of these agencies.

But Did You Know…both Employers and Insurance companies also make
determinations about you based on your credit score? That means that you could be paying higher insurance rates, or be passed over for that better job or promotion because your credit score is too low. We estimate the average person with below excellent credit scores could be penalized $12,924.00 or more each year for low credit scores! (See our report “Keeping Bad Credit Costs More Than Repairing It “ for more info)

It is easy to see how low credit scores have the ability to hold a family down, and keep
you from getting ahead.

How Do Credit Scores Work? (The Basics)
A Credit Score is a number assigned to a consumer that, based on 5 principal
determining factors, statistically determines the probability that you will become 90 days late or more on any loan obligation over the next 2 years.

- The FICO score is the most widely used scoring system, and is what most mortgage
lenders use.
- There are three (3) major credit bureaus in the U.S. who have business relationships
with thousands of creditors across the country, and that is why you may have three
"scores" that are being reviewed. Those creditors will "report" the information they have
about you to these credit bureaus at various times. They do not have to report their
information to the bureaus, and some creditors only report to one or two of the bureaus.

Therefore, it is very hard to increase your credit score if you don’t know to whom
your creditors are reporting.

- A credit score is calculated by taking all of the various information about your credit
profile and running that data through a computer model, where points are added and
subtracted based on a "perfect" credit model. (This "model" is proprietary information to the FICO organization) Once the calculation is complete, out pops a credit score for
that bureaus’ credit file on you.
- When we are referring to your credit score in the mortgage business, we are talking
about the middle score out of the three (not an average, but the actual score that is not
the highest or lowest).
- Credit scores are affected by almost everything about your credit data, ranging from
the length of time you have had an account, to the ratio of the balance available vs. the
balance owed. And of course there is the obvious negative impact of any derogatory
history.

The Good News - Rebuilding Your Credit

Millions of dollars are spent to convince you that nothing can be done about your bad credit. But it’s Not True!

If you are one of the millions of Americans who have had credit problems, do not despair. Even with negative items in your credit file, such as collections, late payments, liens, bankruptcies, or foreclosures, we can help! There is no kind of negative item that we do not regularly see removed from our members credit reports.

First Financial Freedom Foundation offers credit repair services through an affiliated attorney network. Everyone knows that under the law, if you are accused of anything, the burden of proof lies with your accuser. In other words, if the credit bureaus are going to promote and sell information about you that can cause you economic hardship, they must back it up to the full letter of the law. An Attorney enforces your consumer rights.

Congress has provided consumers the right to challenge information that is deemed to be inaccurate or information that is not properly validated under the law must be removed regardless as to whether it is accurate or not. Regardless of the accuracy, credit bureaus are often unwilling to invest the resources necessary or unable to get the credit grantor to invest the resources necessary to properly verify the disputed item.
Oftentimes, it becomes a matter of economics. If the case is presented properly, it is
often more difficult and expensive for the credit bureaus to substantiate the item
than to simply remove it.

The law requires more than a form letter to verify that an item is accurate. If the credit
bureau confirms an item on your report, the assigned attorney will “ratchet up” the
intensity of our challenge and represent it. This forces the bureau to invest additional
time and expense to conduct the new investigation.

For more information, visit our website at www.CreditRestorePros.com

Fooled into satisfaction by the fact that they can make a larger down payment on a new home with funds received from the sale of their “old”, some sellers fail to address negatives on their credit reports and thereby suffer such consequences as higher interest rates and additional costs associated with obtaining their new home loan.

Simply put, Home Sellers should repair their credit before selling a home and buying a home. It’s easy to get out of focus when you concentrate on your current home’s selling price. Points, prepayment penalties and higher interest charges on your new home can easily erase all the profits you gained in the sale.”

There is a difference between strong credit and the credit needed to obtain a mortgage. Indeed, you can buy real estate with poor credit but you’ll pay higher, non-prime interest rates. Consider: a mortgage loan of $150,000, 30-year, fixed rate mortgage, interest rate of about 5.72% will cost approximately $870 monthly. With poor credit, the interest rate could easily exceed 9% costing over $1,200 in monthly mortgage payments. That means that, over the course of the mortgage, you could pay the price of a second home in mortgage payments simply because you didn’t take the time to repair your credit.

To review your credit rating, check www.annualcreditreport.com

To repair or improve your credit rating, visit www.CreditRestorePros.com

When buying a home or selling a home good credit can be a big difference in mortgage payments which could help you buy the home of your dreams or purchase an additional property, so do what you can to have the bets possible credit rating.

NEW YORK - A “credit recession” sparked by the U.S. housing market downturn and excesses in structured finance may last more than two years, and the financial sector will undergo “massive consolidation,” leading Wall Street strategists said on Wednesday.

The fallout from deteriorating subprime mortgages and the broader housing and credit crisis will eventually lead to a healthier market, but not until after a prolonged purging process, Jack Malvey, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc’s chief global fixed-income strategist, said in New York.

“We’re going through a tough spell with regard to credit,” Malvey said at a Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association conference.

The “subprime debacle” due to years of excess and easy credit will be followed by years of tight credit, Malvey said.

Malvey spoke a day after his company’s stock plunged to close at nearly a five-year low on concern that Wall Street’s smallest surviving major brokerage may need to raise more capital. On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Lehman is seeking capital overseas.

Malvey said global diversification will be a “good remedy” for investors seeking to offset losses from the downturn. “This is the biggest blowup that we’ve had,” the strategist said.

Financial shares have been among the worst performers this year.

Financial earnings have suffered due to exposure to so-called structured finance debt and collateralized debt obligations, repackaged bonds whose underlying securities may be based on assets such as risky subprime mortgages.

Investment manager Loomis Sayles, one of the biggest U.S. bond fund managers, has been buying Lehman debt over the past several days, its vice chairman said on Wednesday.

“The credit is good at Lehman,” said Dan Fuss, vice chairman of Boston-based Loomis Sayles, which oversees more than $100 billion in fixed-income securities. Lehman’s common shares, which fell 18 percent over three days, are “dirt cheap,” Fuss said.

‘Massive consolidation’
Richard Bernstein, chief investment strategist at Merrill Lynch & Co Inc, said that in the last market cycle downturn, about 25 percent of financial firms — including brokers, banks and asset managers — “went away,” he said, referring to bankruptcies or mergers and acquisitions.

Only 7.0 percent of financial firms have failed or been acquired so far in this crisis, Bernstein said.

Like Lehman, Merrill’s earnings have suffered due to structured finance.

Bernstein also faulted U.S. government proposals to broadly modify U.S. mortgages, which may create a “moral hazard” that encourages future risky behavior, he said.

“Washington is misguided in focusing on mortgages,” Bernstein said. The federal government should focus on “job creation and people keeping their jobs,” Bernstein said. “That is the key to rectifying this situation.”

Five-year credit default swaps on Lehman Brothers widened by about 17 basis points to 275 basis points, or $275,000 a year for five years to protect $10 million of debt, according to data from Phoenix Partners Group.

Lehman Brothers’ bond spreads widened about 10 basis points overall, according to traders.