Consumer Credit Counseling A to Z

How I Became My Own Consumer Credit Counseling Service And Bounced Back From My Bad Credit Nightmare (part 17)

2006-08-28T21:10:00.000-07:00

Because of these factors and more, the weaknesses that exist in the computer systems of credit bureaus can be exploited by people who are inclined to do so. People who know that these "loopholes" and vulnerabilities exist in the system and take advantage of them to create segregated files - that is, new or fictitious credit histories.

To locate any given credit file, the credit bureau computer system must compare an individual's name and other personal information with data that's already stored in its memory banks. That's the process. If this match-up can't be made, a credit history can't be retrieved.

A guy who wants to create a new credit history is banking on what happens when the computer can't make the match: the computer slips into "no record found" limbo.
Furthermore, this unscrupulous guy is going to do everything in his twisted power to confuse the poor computer and engineer the computer's "no record found" downfall.

See, he's going to set things up so that the computer searches, can't make a match, throws up its hands and says, "Forget it - I quit." When this happens, the guy can step into the void and compile a persona based on the data used in the initial credit check ... (consumer credit counseling, to be continued)

How I Became My Own Consumer Credit Counseling Service And Bounced Back From My Bad Credit Nightmare (part 16):

2006-07-27T21:36:00.000-07:00

So how the heck do they create a new credit file? Is it all just B.S.?

There are millions of names floating around in the computer systems of credit bureaus. Like bees buzzing a honeycomb, hundreds of names enter and exit these systems each day in the United States because of births and deaths. It's a massive, neverending flux.. It's a gigantic identity shuffle that boggles the mind.

These systems are actually under tremendous strain because of the sheer magnitude of data collected on every aspect of American consumers' lives. Do the credit bureaus want to share and cross-reference this information? You bet they do. But, thankfully, there are legislative restrictions at work which strictly regulate or prohibit data that can be shared among these discrete systems through cross-referencing.

Sometimes, conincidentally, strangely, the names and birthdays of people who are not related to one another may be the same, even in the same city.

And remember, as sophisticated as computers are, they don't have the ability to reason and make judgements regarding the accuracy or inaccuracy of the data they're fed. The algorithms of discernment do not yet exist ... (consumer credit counseling, to be continued)

How I Became My Own Consumer Credit Counseling Service And Bounced Back From My Bad Credit Nightmare (part 15)

2006-07-03T11:31:00.000-07:00

I said I would share the fruits of my hard-won knowledge regarding all things credit related, and I'm going to do exactly that.

Here's what I'm going to start with: I'm going to tell you, specifically, step-by-step, and in explicit detail, what you'd get if you bought one of those "create a new credit file" programs. I know that back in the day, when I was desperate and buried beneath an avalanche of bad-credit-related problems, I yearned for a quick fix, an easy solution. I spent something like $200 on a program that promised to reveal the dark secrets behind creating a new credit file. I was more than curious; I was, as I've said, desperate and therefore highly motivated; I handed over the money like $200 was nothing and grabbed the first "create a new credit file" system that I could find.

I figure if I share this with you, you won't have to be tempted to spend your money on how to create a new credit file. Because there are better ways to spend your money. And what I learned was that in the long run, you're better off just starting the whole tedious business of cleaning up your credit the old fashioned way - by means of a slow, consistent campaign. Actually, it's not all that tedious and difficult to do. But because the easy way out always holds more allure, I might as well remove that temptation by showing you exactly what you'd get if you paid for some new credit file program.

What you'll read will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, uncensored.

I'm not recommending it, but it makes for interesting reading. In the end, you'll have to decide for yourself ... (consumer credit counseling, to be continued).

How I Became My Own Consumer Credit Counseling Service And Bounced Back From My Bad Credit Nightmare (part 14)

2006-06-30T23:23:00.000-07:00

Knowledge is power, baby, and you'll do yourself a huge favor if you don't let anything or anyone convince you otherwise, the way I did.

If there's one thing you take away from my story, take this away: no matter how widely your credit history reeks right now, you're not powerless. A little time and effort can clean up a lot of the crap that may be currently staining your credit history.

There are a lot of credit repair programs and services out there that you can spend your money on. Be careful. Some of them are just out to scam you. The ones that aren't out to scam you have value only in this respect: that they'll do for you what you can very well do for yourself, if you aren't too lazy to make the effort, like I was. Get it? It's not rocket science, you can do it yourself, all you need to do is bounce over to the library and check out a book.

But let's face it. Some people, for whatever reason, don't want to put forth the effort. Look at me - the first time I confronted my report, I was just overwhelmed and threw it aside. When I think about it now, instead of throwing it aside and doing nothing, I probably should have paid someone to do it for me. After all, some sort of action is better than no action at all. So for those who'd rather pay someone else to do the legwor, I say, fine, go for it - just do your homework, make sure you're not going to get ripped off.

But what I'm going to give you a lot of the stuff I've learned by reading books so you can do it yourself... (consumer credit counseling, to be continued)

How I Became My Own Consumer Credit Counseling Service And Bounced Back From My Bad Credit Nightmare (part 13)

2006-06-30T00:43:00.000-07:00

The consequences were unending. It seemed that every aspect of my life was affected by my reeking credit. I was crippled financially. Today I shudder to think how much money I lost in jacked up interest rates. To say nothing of the humiliation I suffered when my lady friends figured out my predicament - and of course, they always did. If they knew me long enough, they did.

It was like trying to hide some dirty secret or something.

Shame, insomnia, regret.

Four stinkin years went by.

One day I was surfing the net and some site or other had some promotional thing going where you could get your credit report online for free. So I did. Once again, I was bewildered by it, but this time - I don't know why - I went to the library and took out a book on credit repair and read it.

Bingo.

One year later my credit report looked like a different animal... (consumer credit counseling, to be continued)

How I Became My Own Consumer Credit Counseling Service And Bounced Back From My Bad Credit Nightmare (part 12)

2006-06-29T02:05:00.000-07:00

There are procedures. There are a whole set of right and wrong ways to begin to deal with your reeking credit history and the Big Three, Experian, Exquifax and TransUnion. But what did I know? Squat. When I received my credit report, I sat down with and went through it.

Now, I'm a college graduate and figure I'm no dumber than the average college graduate. But that credit report had some esoteric, evil-looking things on it. Some things I understood, but many things were beyond my comprehension.

Frustrated, I tossed it aside - which was the worst thing I could've done and was probably exactly what The Big Three wanted me to do. It should come as no surprise to you that I think of the Big Three as Mannie, Moe and Jack, only malevolent.

Even if I had understood, I reasoned, what would I be able to do against Experian, Equifax, TransUnion? They were the righteous behemoths, indifferent, unassailable, and whatever voice any individual might raise against them in challenge or protest would surely fall on unresponsive ears. I was intimidated, I didn't know how to interpret the information on the report, I had brought all this on and deserved the grim state of affairs I found myself in - I wasn't worthy! I WASN'T WORTHY! WAAAHHH!

Instead of arming myself with knowledge, I went into overload-mode and just dropped the whole thing. I rationalized that ten years wasn't such a long time, when you thought about it. It would probably be over in the blink of an eye. Yeah, I'd ride it out and suck up the consequences ...(consumer credit counseling, to be continued)

How I Became My Own Consumer Credit Counseling Service And Bounced Back From My Bad Credit Nightmare (part 11)

2006-06-24T21:44:00.000-07:00

That's when I decided to do a little research. I'd gotten turned down for a May Company revolving credit card and so I was able to request a free credit report. When the report arrived, I knew I was in serious trouble. My FICO score was lower than a passed-out skid row bum's pissy pants. I'm talking around-the-ankles low.

My bankruptcy would be indelibly recorded in my credit history for the next 10 years.

During that time, it would be difficult for me to reserve a motel room, rent, lease or buy a car, buy a condo or townhouse or home - without paying dearly for it by way of jacked-up interest rates ... even if I wanted to use a credit card for one of the female escorts advertised in the back of the LA Weekly, I was SOL, unless I'd gotten myself one of those secured Capital One MasterCards. It was Visa and MasterCard that facilitated my downfall, and here I was going to have to rely on them once again to get me out of my mess. I would have to start the whole stinkin' thing over again with a cheesy little $300 secured card.

Ironic doesn't begin to sum it up.

I was most righteously and rawly screwed ...(consumer credit counseling, to be continued)

How I Became My Own Consumer Credit Counseling Service And Bounced Back From My Bad Credit Nightmare (part 10)

2006-06-14T01:39:00.000-07:00

I eventually found a place in Van Nuys - that's right, it was more of a "place" than an apartment. It was as though there had been some sort of a cunning arrangement between the landlord and the tenants, an arrangement that was to be in effect only for the time when I was actively surveying the apartment.

The arrangement was that while any prospective renter was walking around checking the place out, the tenants would behave themselves.

The moment the rental agreement was signed, the arrangement was null and void, and the tenants could return to their shrill, debased lifestyles.

They would go back to parking their cars on the lawn. They would go back to partying themselves into a drunken stupor and urinating on the cars parked on the lawn. They would go back to playing their radios and CDs so loud that plaster would peel from the walls like acne.

But the place in Van Nuys was the only place that would rent to someone with a catastrophic credit history. The Van Nuys landlord had taken out a small internet ad on Westside Rentals that read, "Bad credit, Bankruptcy OK. We Just Don't Give A Damn!" This guy had put up a brightly colored sign in the property's front yard with the same little slogan. To the sign he'd also attached this tattered American flag that looked like it was about 12,000 years old.

I was beginning to see that declaring bankruptcy was not the walk in the park it was reputed to be ... (consumer credit counseling, to be continued)

How I Became My Own Consumer Credit Counseling Service And Bounced Back From My Bad Credit Nightmare (part 9, continued)

2006-06-06T21:51:00.000-07:00

Iceland, yeah, that was the ticket!

I knew that I hadn't confronted any of the consequences of my actions yet, but I'd managed to push my awareness that the worst was yet to come into the background. We push a lot of stuff into the background, don't we? To be aware, or not to be aware, that is the question. This feeling of living an unencumbered life lasted about a week. Then reality reared its unattractive head.

I needed to move. My wife and I had leased this tiny 3-bedroom house in Woodland Hills. One bedroom was supposed to have been converted into a nursery when the baby arrived (no baby arrived - fertility issues). One bedroom was supposed to have been her office for a home-based business (she never got around to starting it). And one bedroom was, well, the bedroom.

I figured I could save myself a lot of money by ditching the house and getting a 1-bedroom apartment. Besides, whoever heard of a young bachelor living in a staid three-bedroom house? I was about to hit the streets again, get back in the game, and I needed the kind of seedy, disheveled, film-noir-like apartment that some single women saw as being the only authentic habitat of the Sexy Bad Boy Type.

I applied for three apartments and was turned down. I pushed the owner of the third place to tell me why, and he told me that with my credit, I'd be lucky if I could find anybody who would agree to rent me a shredded pup tent.

Of course I knew all along that declaring bankruptcy would screw up my credit history. But this was the first time the whole bankruptcy mess had aggressively asserted itself ... (consumer credit counseling, to be continued)

How I Became My Own Consumer Credit Counseling Service And Bounced Back From My Bad Credit Nightmare (part 8, continued)

2006-06-05T22:11:00.000-07:00

I would later find out that there are a whole bunch of laws concerning what creditors can and cannot say to you on the phone.

Anyway, these phone confrontations would turn out to be the least of my problems.

I saw no way to pay off about $26,000 worth of debt. This is as basic as it gets: My single income wasn't enough to cover my expenses two people with incomes had accumulated.

It never seriously occurred to me to contact my creditors to try and negotiate some sort of payment schedule. Besides, weren't the people I would attempt to reasonably negotiate with the same people who were unreasonably hectoring me? That would have been my logic, had it occurred to me.

I figured it wasn't long before I'd end up in court - "final notice" letters (which were deposited into my mailbox relentlessly and were never final) were stacked on my coffee table in an obscene heap. On top of that I was doing the job interview thing, solemnly explaning to each prospective employer why I was firmly convinced that his or her company would be the single greatest place to work on the face of the earth, so I was pitifully demoralized.

I found out from friends that my soon-to-be ex-wife had taken off and was happily living in Holland.

Holland?

I'm jobless, living on the linty edge of poverty, making the sign of the cross every time the phone rings, afraid to look at my mail, drinking too much, unable to sleep, eating Top Ramen noodles three times a day because I can't afford much else, and my soon-to-be ex-wife is wearing wooden clogs and dressed like Heidi the frigging mountaineer's wife with tulips in her hair, traipsing around Holland without a care in the world? Didn't she incur at least 50% of all the bills I was buried beneath???!!

If the time to throw my hands up in the air and say expletive deleted hadn't arrived, surely it never would. I declared bankruptcy. I declared it hard and fast. I remember the courtroom (it wasn't an actual courtroom, it was called something I can no longer remember) had so many people in it that there wasn't adequate seating - people were lining the walls and spilling out into the corridor.

When it was all over, I felt a sense of enormous relief. This would be an opportunity for me to start anew, I thought. Wipe the slate clean. Leave the past behind me, learn from my mistakes, pull myself out of the godforsaken mire of low self esteem that comes with knowing you've failed in some profoundly fundamental way.

I was free! My soon-to-be ex-wife wasn't the only one who could live a carefree, weightless life ... Hey, I would out-do her by going to Iceland! (to be continued)

How I Became My Own Consumer Credit Counseling Service And Bounced Back From My Bad Credit Nightmare (part 7, continued)

2006-06-05T00:11:00.000-07:00

The calls continued because I didn't know that I could make collection agencies stop calling me. Did you know that the law states if you write a letter to your creditors informing them that you want them to cease and desist calling, they have to comply with your request? According to the law, the creditor, after receiving the letter, can only call you to notify you that

1.) no further contact will be forthcoming or

2.) to let you know that the creditor will be taking some specific action.

There's something called The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. This act makes it possible for you to get collection agencies off your back by simply writing a letter that goes a little something like this:

"Please be advised that this letter is your notification, under provision of public laws known as the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (public laws 95-109 and 99-361) that your services are no longer required. I will not acknowledge or respond to any collection agency and am exercising my right to communicate only with the original creditor (name the creditor); therefore, your organization must immediately DESIST and CEASE all efforts to collect this debt."

It doesn't get much simpler than that, does it? Unfortunately, I didn't know that back then. By the way, feel free to use that letter word for word if you want.

Now back to my sorry saga ... (consumer credit counseling, to be continued)

How I Became My Own Consumer Credit Counseling Service And Bounced Back From My Bad Credit Nightmare (part 6, continued)

2006-06-01T21:43:00.000-07:00

A month before I was laid off the company had dismantled the severance-pay policy that offered one month of salary for every year of service to employees who were given the ax. Lucky me.

Yeah, I showed up at work on a Wednesday morning and was told that Friday would be my last day. It was hard for me to get angry at my boss, who was responsible for passing along the bad news to me -- Friday was to be his last day, too.

Ever notice that when you're the one who voluntarily leaves the company, you're expected to exhibit professional courtesy and give your employers at the very least 2 weeks' notice so that they won't be left in the lurch?

Ever notice the same professional courtesy doesn't extend to you? Talk about having your cake and eating it too.

I would collect unemployment for the next four months, but during that time my already paltry income would scrape the rock-bottom bare subsistence levels that I hope most of you have never had the misfortune of having to contend with..

The frigging nanosecond I fell behind, bill collectors swirled down like radioactive fallout, like vultures at Carcuses 'R Us.

I tried to be magnaminous as I listened to their threats. After all, they were just doing their jobs. And they weren't all bad. One guy from Sears whose name was "Mr. Box" - I kid you not - called every evening and the two of us cracked each other up telling risque jokes, reciting limmericks, arguing about the Lakers.

Mr. Box eventually got fired for drinking on the job. On the day he was terminated, he called me one last time to tell me, slurring, "Liszen, dude, I like you, so I deleted your file from the Zears compruter."

I thanked him. But a shiver sprinted up my spine as I realized, albeit dimly, that so much of this credit history business was in the hands of others, and that others were capricious.

Most of the bill collectors I dealt with didn't drink on the job - of course, I can't prove that - and were not as nice as Mr. Box.

One guy called me at precisely one minute after 8:00 am every day, then called again at one minute before 9:00 pm. You see, debt collectors aren't supposed to call you after 9:00 pm or before 8:00 am, unless you've give them permission to. This guy was toying with me, demonstrating his superior verbal skills by deftly articulating everything he had to say within the space of 60 seconds: "Why don't you do the decent thing, take responsibility for your actions, and pay your debt to the XYZ corporation before you're publicly humiliated in court?"

Click.

This freak had it down pat. He would slam the phone down with only 1 second to spare - yeah, I know for a fact it was one second. My own weird pathology in the face of this phone-engendered stress was such that I had taken to timing this guy with a stop watch whenever he called, hoping to catch him in the merest fractional violation of the law.

I never did.

But if he miscalculated and finished early, leaving 10 seconds or so, I always had a reply for him. Something like, "It must be tough trying to support your family on minimum wage. I'll tell you what. I'll do the decent thing when you get a real job. I hear Micky D's is hiring. That would be a step up for you, wouldn't it? You see, your mom was right - you should never have dropped out of high school."

I told my friends about these calls and how I looked forward to them. I gave them the impression that it was an opportunity for me to vent all my pent-up spleen, spew bitterness and venom in ever more heartfelt and florid diatribes.

But the truth was that the calls were getting to me. They were slowly but surely eroding my self esteem, along with the lining of my stomach. I changed my number to an unlisted one and somehow, somehow these people managed to obtain the number. The calls continued ...(to be continued)

How I Became My Own Consumer Credit Counseling Service And Bounced Back From My Bad Credit Nightmare (part 5, continued)

2006-05-29T22:46:00.000-07:00

So, how did I manage to get myself in bad credit hell?

I was working at a California HMO whose name I'll refrain from mentioning. I was in a marriage that was steadily descending. My wife was working at the same HMO in the pharmacy department, doing the customer service phone thing. She hated the job and was sweepingly, elaborately unhappy.

I noticed that when she was feeling really depressed, she would whip out a credit card and freely, frantically spend. She hadn't established credit, so I just gave her my cards. After all, we were sacredly and eternally bound to one another through the sacrosanct institution of marriage!

Instead of trying to reason with her, I figured, okay, big deal. I was writing songs on the side and wanted to record them at home in my own semi-pro midi studio.

For this I needed equipment - a digital multitrack recorder and mixer, a keyboard with a built-in sequencer, plenty of virtual tracks. Outboard gear, sound modules, limiters and compressors, near-field monitors. I'm talking Korg, Alesis, Proteus, Tascam. I needed a decent microphone, an 850-dollar one! There was no end to what I needed. I bought it all with plastic.

About two months after we'd bought a new Jeep Wrangler (SE), we maxed out our credit cards. Two months after maxing out the cards, we sacredly, eternally went our separate ways. I would never have bought the Jeep she insisted we so desperately needed had I known that the collapse of the marriage was imminent.

Once the marriage was over and done with, there was no way I could pay the bills we'd jointly accumulated, not with my modest - or paltry, depending on how you looked at it - single income. I managed to limp along for a few months, robbing Peter to pay Paul at every opportunity, shifting balances from one credit card to another.

Then I was laid off ... (consumer credit counseling, to be continued)

How I Became My Own Consumer Credit Counseling Service And Bounced Back From My Bad Credit Nightmare (part 4, continued)

2006-05-28T13:40:00.000-07:00

I'm guessing my story isn’t unique. I'm guessing most people who have gotten themselves into a credit bind are just like me. You know, average Americans who just wanted to grab a nice little slice of the financial pie. Joe Blow, Jane Doe, not hardened criminals living on the periphery of all that’s decent and honest.

I didn’t set out to scam anyone, “beat the system” or get away with murder. I wasn’t a criminal. I just wanted to whip out my Amex, slap it down, and walk away with merchandise I could put on, plug in, eat or otherwise proudly display.

I worked hard 5 days a week for a corporation and I’ll tell you right now, if you’re a certain kind of person, working for a corporation is no stinkin’ picnic. It’s no walk in the park. I had to fill out a timesheet every morning, when I went to lunch, when I came back from lunch, when I left at the end of the day. One day for a joke I recorded time spent in the bathroom on the timesheet.

My boss, his career stalled in the limbo of middle-management where he spent 80% of his day engaging in VP rump kissing, called me in the office and said, looking at the timesheet, frowning, "Three times a day, eight minutes each time, 24 minutes a day. That's almost a 30 minute lunch break."

I said, "That was a joke."

He stared at me.

The next day there was a departmental memo issued. The subject of the memo was "acceptable versus nonacceptable amounts of time utilized for bathroom excursions."

The point is, I – all of us, all the faceless corporate drones who make it possible for a select coterie of jargon-spewing number-crunching CEOs to pocket their multi-million dollar bonuses and their stock options and expense accounts so on – the point is that after you leave all those timesheets, after you leave all that gray flourescence and industrial carpeting behind, you’re ready for some payback. Some kind of reward. Something. Am I right?

What better way to unwind, put the misery of the day behind you, than to run out and buy yourself a lot of useless junk that made you feel good for a few hours and took your mind off your fecal-reeking job?

I think there’s this stereotype about people whose credit reports fall short of reflecting the magic numbers. We're scammers, irresponsible social misfits, losers, even criminals, etc. etc. I mean, hey, do you have a criminal record?

Well, okay, don’t answer that.

If you do it’s okay. We all make mistakes. You’ve probably paid your debt to society. Ha ha.

I'm guessing we're good people for the most part. Good people who, as the man once said, have been had, took, bamboozled, run amuck, led astray, hookwinked. How so?

We’ve bought into the financial version of Descartes philosophical proposition, cogito ergo sum, I think therefore I am. Only our version is, I spend therefore I am.

I'm talking about spending as compensation for a soulless repetitive job. I'm talking about the desire to own a piece of the American dream. I don't know about you, but in the world I live in, material possessions are the barometer of success. All of it leads in insidious ways to the very commodification of identity. It's scary, but that’s the bedrock, baby. That’s where the foundations of our society rest.

Let me breeze through my pathetic story. Some parts of it will probably remind you of your own. I went through it and survived, and so will you. In fact, I'm pretty sure I can pass along some information that might help you. Or maybe not. That depends on you.

Don't you just hate it when people tell you that? (consumer credit counseling, to be continued)

How I Became My Own Consumer Credit Counseling Service And Bounced Back From My Bad Credit Nightmare (part 3, continued)

2006-05-27T16:04:00.000-07:00

I'm actually presenting it for the same perverse reasons that underlie my morbid attraction to women whose eyes tell me they're rotten, scathing witches who want nothing more than to chew me up and spit me out after they've expertly inflicted severe emotional, spiritual and psychological damage.

A little walk on the wild side, the dark side, you know, "in the destructive element immerse" and all that.

Common sense tells you you're walking a frigging thin line with this kind of thing - well, stepping over the line, actually - and if you get caught you could open yourself to prosecution for fraud. Don't do this whole credit a new credit file thing at home, kids. You could get in serious trouble.

Let's face it, if a person has gotten to the point of thinking about drumming up a new social security number, that person is desperate, that person is in dire straits. That's a pretty sad situation.

But it's also a pretty sad commentary on the uncocmpromising nature of corporate credit machine when everyday people, the cogs in the machine, feel compelled to even consider such drastic measures as a way out. Once the wheels of the Big Three start turning, those wheels are virtually irreversible. They grind you to a pulp in short order, and you spend years of your life trying to put the pieces back together again. When they get through with you, son, you're a faceless cipher, a statistic that happens to have a name. Ask me. I know first hand ... (to be continued)

How I Became My Own Consumer Credit Counseling Service And Bounced Back From My Bad Credit Nightmare (part 2, continued)

2006-05-27T15:58:00.000-07:00

Why even talk about something like raising your credit rating by starting a new credit file? Because there are better ways your money could be spent if you’re really concerned with things like improving your credit, raising your FICO score, and cleaning up your act. There are better ways but people won't believe it unless they're given proof.

Let's face it, there's something about the idea of creating a new credit file that spreads a dark, mysterious allure in the realm of the imagination. Once you know the truth, that kind of stuff no longer has the capacity to hold you in thrall.I also like to imagine that TransUnion, Experian and Equifax would mightily disapprove of my revealing such information, and any action they would disapprove of is one that I feel obligated to embrace.

See, I got my rump kicked by The Big Three - TransUnion, Equifax and Experian - and all those rapacious banks and corporations dangling Mastercards and Visas before my eyes, corporations highly skilled in the ancient art of usury, and my feeling is, I don't owe them a damned thing. And yes, I'll be the first to admit that I'm the one who got myself in trouble. After all, MasterCard and Visa and Amex didn't twist my arm to make me apply for their plastic. But they also made sure that I knew I wasn't going to get far without that plastic.

They paid millions of advertising dollars to make sure I knew without a shadow of a doubt that nobody, and I mean nobody, goes far without plastic. Those millions of advertising dollars created campaigns that vividly dramatized the ultimate desirability of plastic in ways that were exquisite and almost heartbreaking.

The desire for plastic and what it represents was a brilliantly engineered fiction animated by ad campaigns, but it also turned out to be true in "real life": nobody gets anywhere without plastic. Ask Donald Trump. Ask Microsoft, General Motors, Haliburton or any company that uses leverage to build or fortify their financial position. Ask the U.S. government.

By exposing you to the How To Start A New Credit File info, I'm not advocating that you act on it. I'm presenting it as a look at the lengths to which a desperate person feels compelled to travel in order to extricate herself from the prison of a bad credit record. I'm presenting it for strictly educational reasons.

I'm presenting it because I was always curious about it, and you probably are too. Every time I saw an ad, I wondered whether or not it was a scam. How the devil would you go about creating a new credit file? I'd been seeing that ad, it seems, since I was a snot-nosed bandy-legged kid and I always wanted to know. And you know as well as I did that the people selling the information charge a couple hundred bucks for it, so that was a hefty price to pay just to satisfy your curiosity. But I broke down and paid and now I know. And now you're going to know, too ... (consumer credit counseling, to be continued)

How I Became My Own Consumer Credit Counseling Service And Bounced Back From My Bad Credit Nightmare (part 1)

2006-05-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

Bad credit, a lousy FICO score, a credit report that haunts you, dogs you. Bankruptcy, a bottomless pit of debts, creditors tenacious as pit bulls – yeah, I learned about bad credit the hard way and I’ve here to tell the ugly tale: How TransUnion, Equifax and Experian kicked my rump and taught me the meaning of the words shame, insomnia and regret.

This is my story and it's part sordid diary, part confessional, part gory catharsis.

Actually, my story fits right in with one of the classic themes of great literature. You know what theme I'm talking about - the heartbreaking journey from the blameless world of innocence to the tainted world of experience. My slow descent from financial solvency to fiscal flatline. Loss! Humiliation! Sleepless nights! Feelings of inadequacy!

I’ve been so intimately acquainted with all that emotional wreckage that I could have, and probably should have, run out and started a support group. Call it SCA - Screwed-Up Credit Anonymous. I know there are thousands, tens of thousands, maybe millions of people who would attend. But SCA doesn't really have a ring to it, so what I will do is talk like I'm behind a support group podium and share what I learned the hard way.

I'm going to start with the juicy, controversial stuff first, like discussing how some desperate people decide to raise their credit rating by starting a new credit file with a new social security number (because inquiring minds want to know whether it's a scam and, if it is, exactly how the devil a scam like that works) and then I'll talk about the more tried-and-true methods for repairing your credit: requesting your credit report, learning what your FICO score means, identifying erroneous entries on your report, how to dispute those erroneous entries - everything you need to do to raise your FICO score, get those damaging entries in your credit history deleted, and clean-up and repair your reeking credit.

You can trust me on all this stuff. Why? Not because I profess to be some kind of guru or expert on all things credit related. But because, baby, I've been there. I bottomed out, survived, and bounced back ... (consumer credit counseling, to be continued)