Repair Credit Score

Archive for September, 2009

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is an amendment to the Consumer Credit Protection Act. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act helps consumers deal with collection agencies.

What is the purpose of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act? What does the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act do?

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act was created to prevent abusive collection practices by third party collectors and to endorse consistent actions by states in order to protect consumers' rights.

In addition to the above, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act was also designed to provent any debt collecting agencies that do not employ abusing collection strategies from being penalized or placed at a competitive disadvantaged to those debt collection agencies that do use them.

Implications of the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act

Debt collectors that are legitimately locating an alleged debtor must comply with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act rules. For example, under the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, debt collectors must property identify himself or herself that he or she is the debt collector and advise the party they are communicating with that this is an attempt to verify the address of the alleged debtor. If called for, the debt collector must provide the name of his or her company. The debt collector must not reveal that the consumer being asked about owes a debt.

Communicating with the debt collector under the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act

Under the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act, when communicating with the debt collector, the debt collector must comply with certail guidelines. Section 604 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act lists the guidelines which the debt collector must comply when communicating with the alleged debtor. Also, unless the debt collector is given permission by the court, the debt collecor may not call a debtor before 8am and after 9pm in the debtor's time zone.

Question: Is the nonborrowing spouse's Credit Score needed for a va loan?

My wife and I are trying to get a house. We have done all the paperwork at the bank and received my certificate of eligibility from the va. The loan is in my name and my wife signed as nonborrowing spouse. Everything was going smooth until today the bank called and told my wife that the va required them to run my wife's Credit Score. My wife told them not to run it because she does not want to be added to the loan. The bank ran it anyway and they said since her score wasn't high enough we couldn't do a va loan so we have to do a FHA loan. That doesn't make since. I have been preapproved (with excellent credit) and the va sent me the certificate.

Answer: The VA does NOT loan the money, they simply back the veteran buyer.
Now if you are simply buying the house in your name only, then there is no need for anybody to run your wife's background. I think you need to find another mortgage broker.

Since your wife signed the application (no matter whether she is listed as co-borrower, co-owner or whatever), since she signed it they need to do her Credit Report.

FYI as long as you do you mortgage applications within a short period of time they (the CRA's will only consider it as a single hard inquiry. (see source)

Hope this helps answer your question;

How does my Credit Score affect my VA loan interest rate?

Should I add a statement to my Credit Report?

If you have incorrect information on your Credit Report and the credit bureau's investigation doesn't resolve
the Credit Report dispute to your satisfaction, you have the right to file a brief statement stating the nature of the dispute.

The bureau must include your statement, or a summary or codification of it, in any report that includes the disputed information. If the reporting agency helps you write the summary, the statement will be limited to one hundred words. Otherwise, there is no word limit, but it is a good idea to keep the statement very brief.

How long should my statement be?

The credit bureau is only required to provide a summary or codification of your statement (not your actual statement) to anyone who requests your file. If your statement is short, the credit bureau is more likely to pass on your statement, unedited.

If your statement is long, the credit bureau will probably condense your explanation to just a few sentences or codes. To avoid this problem, keep your statement clear and concise.

Can I request that my statement to my Credit Report be given out every time my Credit Report is requested?

If you request it, the bureau must also give the statement or summary to anyone who received a copy of your file within the past six months (or two years if your file was given out for employment purposes.)

This service is free if you request it within 30 days after the bureau has provided you notice of the results of the investigation. Otherwise, you will have to pay the same amount as the bureau would normally charge for a Credit Report ($9.50 in most states).