How we help mortgage professionals fix their clients’ credit report errors
You have clients with credit report errors — what are your options for fixing these errors?
We help mortgage professionals who have clients with credit reporting errors
As a mortgage professional (broker or banker), it is incredibly frustrating for you to attract a client to your business, spend time with that client, and then not be able to give them the loan they need because some company has wrongfully put errors on their credit reports.
This may be a debt collector on a debt that doesn’t exist or that your client does not owe.
It may be a debt that has been paid off but the creditor or debt collector keeps it on the report as owing a balance when truthfully no balance is owed.
Perhaps it is identity theft or a mixed merged file where someone else’s accounts have been mixed up with your client’s credit reports.
Bottom line, with the false information on their credit reports, you won’t be closing the loan and gaining a happy client or customer because . . . .
You can’t close the loan if there are errors on their credit reports
Here we are in the latter part of 2017 and the lending requirements of the lenders are still strict. Whether this is good or bad is beside the point.
The point is that negative items will destroy your chance to make the loan. If the negative items are true, then that’s simply a consequence that time will have to fix. This is not what we are talking about in this article.
But when the information is not true, then your client suffers needlessly and your business suffers. All because someone has not done their job right.
The errors need to be fixed, but where do you turn to in order to fix them?
Here are some options:
- Do it yourself
- Hire a credit repair company
- Ask the client to fix it the errors
- Have the client contact us to fix the problem
You fixing the problem is an enormous time drain on you
Now certainly there are easy errors that you or your processor can fix very quickly but that’s not why you are reading this article. The problems that take a lot of time pull you away from doing loans and getting new business. They pull you away from meeting with and cultivating relationships with other real estate professionals.
You have to decide if this is a good use of your time or not.
If you don’t fix the problems yourself, then you can hire a credit repair company . . . .
Hiring a credit repair company can be expensive and may cause more problems in the long run that prevent your closing of the loan
This costs you (or normally your client) money. Some credit repair places are legitimate — many are not. Often the problem is the credit repair place will dispute items that are accurate (but negative). This can have bad consequences immediately and down the road as the credit reporting agencies may ignore legitimate disputes from your client if bogus disputes were made.
Don’t give Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, etc. any excuse to ignore legitimate disputes.
So if you don’t hire a large (or even small) credit repair business, you can ask the client to do this on their own . . . .
Asking the client to fix it without any guidance is like doing surgery on yourself — rarely will it end well
You are certainly qualified to tell a client to fix credit report errors. But if you don’t explain how, then 9 times out of ten (or more often!) they will mess it up.
They may only contact the creditor or collector and not go through the credit reporting agencies. As you may know, not disputing through the credit bureaus is normally a terrible mistake as your client loses any legal leverage to force the correction.
They may not include the documents they need to prove the account is incorrect.
They may not keep copies of what they send or otherwise have proof of their disputes.
There are dozens of ways clients can mess up doing their disputes unless they have guidance. It is not their fault — as you know there are just some goofy quirks in how this process works that are (perhaps intentionally) designed to make it hard for folks to fix this on their own. At least without guidance.
This leads you to a final option — asking your client to contact us . . . .
Having the client contact us is the simplest solution for you
Assuming your client lives in Alabama, we can help your clients fix their credit reports. We talk to them and figure out if the negative item is legitimate or if it is false.
If it is legitimate and 100% accurate, we don’t dispute. We can give them some general advice but we don’t dispute legitimate items.
But when its false — and normally mortgage professionals only send us clients with false items — then we fix it without any charge.
Turn to us when you need the errors fixed permanently and you don’t want your clients charged for fixing the errors
We don’t charge clients. (Read below in PS to find out how this makes sense for us from a business standpoint).
We simply prepare proper dispute letters to the credit reporting agencies and make sure the clients properly document their disputes. Often we use a service to mail out the certified letters to make it even easier and quicker for our clients to dispute.
Our normal process is we discuss the situation over the phone so it is convenient for your clients. Then we help them prepare the right dispute letters to the right companies with the right proof.
After this, there are only two options.
The error is fixed or we sue the companies violating the law . . . .
We either fix the problems or we sue the ones responsible
It is simple — the problem gets fixed or it doesn’t.
When it is fixed, we send the client back to you and remind them the only reason they found us was you. So they need to go back to you now that their credit reports are fixed.
But what about when the errors are not fixed?
That’s when we sue the bad guys in federal court under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. It has the amazing benefit of almost immediately fixing the credit report and your client gets paid. And my law firm gets paid by the people who broke the law. Then we send the client back to you to get their loan. And remind them that you are the reason they received the help we gave them.
Feel free to give us a call at 205-879-2447 and we’ll get right back with you
There is no cost to your client and if we can fix it without a law suit, that’s what we do. But if a lawsuit needs to be filed, now the company that did the false credit reporting is in our world and we will make them fix the reporting and pay money damages. And pay our fee.
We are always happy to chat with you — to brainstorm with you — how to fix a client’s credit report. Or to answer any other questions that you have.
We look forward to developing a relationship with you.
Usually, the easiest way is to call us at 205-879-2447 or you can fill out this form and we’ll get back to you ASAP. If you call us, tell the receptionist you are a mortgage professional. Ask for Randi as she works closely with me on any credit reporting issues.
PS — Often we are asked why we don’t charge and how this makes business sense for us. Here’s our philosophy:
- We can help people with credit report problems very quickly.
- If we fix their problems without a lawsuit, we have a very happy client and you are very happy with us. Since we are in the relationship business, that’s good business. Happy clients refer us cases for years to come.
- The smaller number that we have to sue on, these are very valuable cases and we make a good deal of money.
- And we have a happy client who has their reports fixed and money in their pocket.
- That makes you happy also which is good for our business as well.
It is a win win for everyone — except the bad guys who do false credit reporting. But I don’t care about them — their money spends just fine. 🙂 And eventually, they’ll decide it makes sense to follow the law instead of getting hammered in lawsuits.
John