This is part of my presentation at the MSHDA Building Michigan Communities Conference.  We had the third largest crowd and we were the highest rated on our exit surveys. Thank you MSHDA for having me back again this year….

There are three major repositories plus Dun and Bradstreet they are a business database and the first credit company in the country.

D&B started by hiring researchers to go out to investigate people and their businesses. Investigators like Abraham Lincoln would write reports and create a credit score. Factors included in the first credit score were:

Drunkenness, How drunk is this guy?

Gambling, from a credit perspective if they are gambling they might not be creditworthy.

Adultery is ok, provided there was no second home for the mistress, this has been going on for a long time. Adultery ok in the first credit scoring model.

That brings us to Equifax, 

Credit Repair Reviews and my Top Ten Credit Repair Warning Signs. Are you considering using a credit repair company? Well you want to be very careful if you do. In this video, I cover the top ten warning signs that let you know if you should trust a credit repair person. Do not consider hiring a credit repair company or anyone in the credit repair industry unless you watch
this video.

As far back as I can remember, Fannie Mae’s DU system has been incorrectly reading one of the repositories codes for a “settled for less than full balance” account as a FORECLOSURE! There by unfairly punishing former home owners who made attempts to sell their home at a loss, rather than just walk away and go into foreclosure. The Repositories were reporting on the settled account correctly as a short sale. What was happening is that DU would upgrade the coding from an 06 (short sale) to a 09 (FORECLOSURE). Unfortunately, many would be home buyers were keep out of the home market because of this technology error. Starting November 16th lenders will now have the ability to correct this error manually and provide documentation of the settlement. This is a big win for millions of US Americans (Ms south Carolina reference) that they will now be able to re enter the real estate market. to see the DU update click this linkhttps://www.fanniemae.com/content/release_notes/du-do-release-notes-11162013.pdf

How many points does a credit inquiry lower your score?

 Recently, data was released stating the true impact an inquiry has on your score and it showed that 57% of people’s scores are not affected at all. In fact, only 4% of consumers lose more than 20 points in their FICO scores because of a creditor pulling their reports, according to Frederic Huynh, one the scientists at FICO

This is another clip from my speech at Eastern Michigan University. I cover how Trans Union, Equifax and Experian were created. I discuss how Guy Woolford was the father of the modern credit industry. How the two richest people in the world both owned Trans Union, and how D. Van Skilling made 300 Million in just 3 months on Experian.

This time we are going to talk about about Credit Card VS. Debit Card and the recent data breach, which one is better and which one you should stay away from. You may have heard about the retail security breach where somebody clearly from the inside stole all the pin numbers, account numbers and credit card numbers of all the charges that went through during the holiday shopping season.

There’s a big difference between having your credit card stolen or your debit card stolen, If criminals steal your credit card (you have to check the Terms your own individual agreement) but usually you’re only responsible up to fifty dollars provided you report the breach right away.

Conversely with a debit card once a criminal has you debit card and security and if they have your pin number they can actually clean out your entire bank account!  That puts you into a completely different situation.  With your bank account cleaned out, now you’re trying to get your money back.

The bank will tell you “well it is withdrawn”  that is the reason why I would not want to use a debit card.  Criminals  could clean out all your bank accounts and now you are trying to get your money back.

If they seal your credit card they are stealing the “credit cards” money you have not paid the credit card bill and your report the theft to the credit card company. Then you are only liable for a certain amount.  That is why say stay away from a debit card, only use a credit card.

Don’t even get an ATM card with a visa logo on it and every time I use my ATM card I’m sure cover up my hand when entering the pin because in the past criminals put video cameras above the keypad and then they have a card reader on the ATM swipe area.  Then they make a duplicate card and they have your pin.

Criminals then gain access to all your accounts  That’s what you want to be careful of you don’t want to give people access to your bank account because you used a debit card. If you are going to risk someones money it is better to risk the Credit Cards Companies money than yours.

A debt card doesn’t count toward your credit score at all  like good use of a credit card will.

This is Dave Sullivan for the CreditGuy.TV so you with a a little bit of me we are going to change the credit industry!  thank you

Expatriate Credit Report?

What address do I use for an expatriate credit report? How do you protect your credit history while you are on Active Duty? You need to be very careful with your credit history, when leaving the country for an extended amount of time. The first thing you should do is lock down your credit report with a credit freeze. While out of the country, be sure to use your credit cards to keep them active. Some credit cards will close automatically if there is no activity on them. Watch this video to find out the correct address to use when accessing your credit report after an extensive trip over seas.