This article is one of my favorite because it addresses so many of the questions people have about credit and their credit reports.
A word of warning before we get started You are about to hear some things that will most likely be the exact opposite of what you have been told. Keep in mind that credit issues are some of the most misunderstood of all financial topics, and there are many professionals in the financial industry giving advice to their clients, who do not really understand credit themselves. On that note, here are the greatest myths about credit
Myth 1: Paying off (or “settling”) late payments, tax liens, collections or judgments will remove them from your credit reports.
This is simply not true. In fact, by paying off an old collection account, you can actually lower your credit scores. The reason for this is because more recent negative items will hurt your score more than older negative items. If you pay off an old collection account, not only will the collection account remain on your reports as a paid collection, but it will now show a current date, and cost your more points. I am not suggesting that you should not pay off your delinquent accounts, only that you need to understand the consequences so that you can factor that into your decision.
Myth 2: If I pay my total credit card balance every month, I will raise my credit scores.
Not true! In fact, this is absolutely not what the credit card companies want you to do. In the eyes of the credit card companies, the best client is one who only pays a little more than the minimum payment each month, but makes all their payments on time. Keep in mind that the credit card companies do not maximize their profits unless you are paying interest every month, and they are the ones who designed the credit system. If you want to maximize your credit scores, you need to give them what they want.
Myth 3: Credit repair is illegal.
Very false! Credit repair is not only perfectly legal; it is actually protected by federal law. For more information on the law, you can refer to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). It is legal for you to repair your own credit, as well as hire anyone you choose to do it on your behalf.
Myth 4: Consumer Credit Counseling will improve my credit.
Credit counseling programs will only harm your credit. The first thing that will happen as a result of enrolling in a CCCS or credit counseling program, is that your creditors will add the line “Account in CCCS” or “Account paid through credit counseling” to each of their trade lines. This will not affect your score, but does look very negative to lenders. The next thing that seems to always happen is that the credit counseling program will make the payments to your creditors late. Sometimes this is not their fault since they just setup the payment to be on your original due date. However, the credit card companies often adjust your due date, and since nobody, like yourself, is monitoring this, they began making your payments late. This will result in late pays on your credit, in addition to late fees.
Myth 5: By law, negative items on my credit have to remain for 7 years.
Completely false! There is no such law.
Myth 6: Making a lot of money will give you good credit.
Actually, your credit scores are made up of several factors such as payment history, account balances, types of credit in use, etc. Your income is not one of those factors that determine your credit scores.
Myth 7: I have never been late on my payments, I must have great credit.
It is important to your credit scores that you have never been late on your payments; however, this is only one piece of the credit score pie. It is possible to have never been late on a payment and have sub prime credit, or no credit at all. Your history of payments only makes up 35% of your credit scores.
Myth 8: Your credit reports from all 3 major credit bureaus will be the same.
This is not true. In fact, most of the time, all 3 of your credit reports will differ from one another. The reason for this is that each of the credit bureaus is a separate independent company, and the processes at each are different. Also, some creditors may only report to 1 or 2 bureaus, but not all 3. In my experience, your reports will very rarely be exactly the same.
Myth 9: Once you are married, you and your spouse share the same credit.
This is completely false. All individuals will always have their own individual credit history. If you have joint accounts, you may share some of the same trade lines, but it is still your credit.
Myth 10: By closing old accounts, I will improve my credit scores.
This is one of the biggest surprises that I see happen to people all the time. You go to your mortgage lender and they instruct you to close some accounts in order to qualify for a loan. You do as you are told, but only to see your scores plummet almost immediately; sometimes by more than 100 points. What happened? The reason for the drop was because you just closed some of your oldest and most valuable accounts as far as your credit scores were concerned. Remember, the longer you have had an account in good standing, the more positive points it will provide. It is not advised to close a long-standing account unless you have good reason.
You are now armed with some very powerful information that will surely be able to use to your advantage.
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