166: Clean Up Your Credit Score with Damon Damarr
Damon Damarr from My Lucid Credit tells us how to obtain your credit report (and therefore check your credit score), and clean your credit yourself, which can mean lower interest rates and more opportunities (and options) for you.
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Download transcript (.txt)Robert plank Show episode 166 Clean up your credit score with Daymond Damar
Hey everyone and welcome back to the Robert plank show this the podcast we talk about making money and our guest today is Mr. Gaiman de Mar. Now he is the owner of a site called My loosened credit.com. And their purpose is to help people clean their credit, therefore bringing the American dream within reach so that we can get the car the home the vacation or even the business loan that you desire. So Damien's gonna be talking to us about all kinds of cool stuff. How are things today, Damon?
Things are going pretty good, Robert. Awesome.
I mean, things are better than ever. And I'm excited to be talking with you today. So I understand that you're talking to us about about credit and improving credit scores. Is that right?
That's right. One of the first things that people you know, that you that you need, you need your credit score to be good, when you want to get ready to get that house that car, you know, as you said, and everything. And a lot of people are having problems trying to get their credit, cleaned. A lot of times, they feel like they have to pay a lot of a lot of money to credit repair companies, when actuality they really don't if they learned how to actually how to dispute negative information.
Cool. So it sounds like you know, all the tricks. So as we're getting started here, as people are listening to you and what you have to say today, I mean, why shouldn't someone, trust you and listen to you, as opposed to, you know, go and looking up in I don't know, I don't even know if the Yellow Pages exist anymore. But you know, if someone was thinking about, you know, trying to find like a friend of a friend or some kind of service to clean up the credit score, if someone was thinking about, you know, buying some books or doing some kind of research, why should they listen to you? Why should they choose you, as opposed to some other alternatives, what makes you stand out?
Okay, the one thing that makes us actually stand out is the fact that we have we developed my, my company, we developed something for how you can do it yourself. Basically, when we were doing in desperate like this, in 2014, we were doing a credit, cleanup for freelance, we were doing it that way for a lot of different people. But what we found out, what we were doing is that they needed a way to just do it, you know, faster, basically. And not only that, um, make sure that they don't get these kind of negative, negative answers back. And these native answers will probably be like, from the credit bureaus will be that it's, um, I can't say, your, your credit has been verified, that this is yours, when in reality, the way they verify isn't done the right way, usually up under the section 609 of the credit report, the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Okay, so I mean, just maybe we should like back up a little bit for a second because, um, you know, even I like, I mean, I know, just a tidbit or two about this credit score thing, but not not quite that much. Um, I bought two cars in cash. And so I didn't have to do a credit there. But I do own a home. And when I got the mortgage, the only thing I know about credit is they ran some kind of score, and there's like three different numbers, I guess. And like, the higher the score, the better of interest rates. So could you kind of kind of walk us through this whole credit score thing? Because I mean, literally, all I know, is there's some kind of three numbers, and I know that I don't know, like six or 700 is good, but I don't know anything else. So could you kind of walk us through just like the basics of this credit score stuff?
Okay, sure. The three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and Transunion, they came up with this score, Ashley's a Fair Isaac composite score. And it's what they call Fico. And this score basically tells, you know, people, it's based on an algorithm and there's so many different things to the algorithm. The core of this algorithm, though, is basically do you pay your, your Do you pay your your, your bills on time, not only do you pay your bills on time, how much you actually have in credit is has in how much you have available credit has to how much you're actually using. Not only that, um, length of the credit history, these all these these kinds of things go into play, and they come up with a score, you know, a basic score, a lot of times, if you do the first two things I said, you know, if you go ahead and key and pay on time, and and those things and then you have a nice length of credit history, you usually come out with a good score and everything is when you have a lot of delinquencies and different things of that nature. Like none Night no payments on time a bad um what is it called, like bankruptcies, anything like that these things will affect your credit score tremendously. And, and you can get one of these things knocked off of your report and you can actually go up 10 to 20 points.
Crazy. So okay, so there. So there's this thing called a credit score and so and so like you said, if if someone, you know, has basically like good financial practices, if they pay their bills on time, they'll have a pretty good credit score. But you know, maybe they may you maybe they had some hard, hard financial times with their their online business or their hard financial times with their own their own household, or maybe they had, you know, out of the 10 credit cards they had, maybe they forgot to pay this one bill, maybe they don't even know about it. So I mean, that the first thing in someone figuring out if this is even a problem with them, I mean, how does someone even go about finding their credit score, like you said that there's that the equal factors of Experian, there's the Trans Union numbers that they calculate on an algorithm. So how would someone even go about looking up what their credit score is,
oh, first thing you have to do is, you know, the except and where to get your credit score, we actually do that on our, in our package, when you go to my Lucy credit, calm, if you get the package, one of the packages, every package shows you how to do it, you can go to annual credit dot annual credit report.com. And that usually spits it out for all three credit bureaus. And you, of course, allowed by law to get one once a year, that for free, and you can subsequently, you know, get one by if you want to go ahead and pay for it. Or if something has actually happened to you, within the last 30 to 30 and 60 days, like, say you apply for credit, and you were turned down, you know, or, or maybe you went to check set, maybe you have a report, that's one ChexSystems. And that's another reporting agency, basically, if you went into a bank or something like that, and you wanted to get a a and get an account, and they turned you down and said, because you're on ChexSystems, and you owe money. So these are ways that you can get it. The check systems, one, you can go to check systems.com. And they'll give you one, and they have to give you one within five, five business days.
Awesome. And I mean, just right that right that there, Damon, that's a that's a huge for some people that, you know, check systems calm and annual credit report, because I think at some point, I might have bought a credit report for like, I don't know, if it were like, like a TransUnion or something. But there was like some kind of thing where I, I was a little bit aware of this, this situation where I said, Okay, I think I I'm going to be a responsible adult, I don't think anything's wrong, but I'm going to check my credit anyway. And I don't even remember where I went. But I paid I don't even it might have been like $100 or something just to figure out what my credit score was. So if they go to those places, they can get it for free. And so let's say someone checks their credit score, and they get the three numbers. And so they see the numbers, and maybe they'll and so am I right in that they get their numbers. And there's also some kind of a list of reasons why that number is like if there are delinquent payments, they can get a list of those transactions that should be cleared up. Is that right?
Yeah, well, those will be on the they don't give you exactly like a list in these things. But they will, one of the reports definitely does distinguish and say, Okay, these are your negative items, I think they do that, for all three, they give you a list that says these are your negative items up under the full composite, you know, of all the items that you may have. And this and these are negative, or these are accounts that are open, you know, and are negative, these closed, and then they give you those lists and everything so you can actually distinguish and see which ones that you may want to get rid of first want to get rid of off the list.
Okay, so so you get that list and then and then there's the credit score. So if so, how does someone know? What's a good number? Like what's a good range humans should shoot for so like if they if they see it's a certain number, then they say okay, it's good. If it's a low number, then they could say that, okay, there's a problem that needs to be corrected, like what's a good number that someone should shoot for?
Okay, um, usually about seven usually occur of course Above 700 is always good these, let's say, Bob 10 years ago, because of the situation as far as the economy and in the country. 600 in 606 90 would almost be considered considered, you know, good nowadays is considered almost almost Excellent. You know, 6690 is good is great these days, but if you really want to go ahead and get over and make sure that you don't pay A lot of interest on things 720 You got it for 720? And up?
Okay, fair enough. So then they see that the score is 720. And then and so then I mean, what are the steps keeping in mind that, you know, feel free to, to, to get as detailed or as vague as you want, because I know that you have a service that that cleans it up for them. So, if someone says, Okay, well my score is they say, alright, it's, it's 600, or it's, you know, 550. And then they see that and they see all these, these, you know, black marks on the record, then what should someone do?
Okay. Of course, you know, when you see those, those things on your record, oh, and of course, I wanted to go ahead and make sure that you understand that your, your score is separate from your report, if you if you do order your report, you're only going to get to report. So if you want a credit score, that's something you have to order you to separate or has a package that they offer with it. Okay, so now we're past that, okay, what they should do, first of all, is when you're looking at these things, know that the negative items, you want them going off of your report, you don't just want to just pay them, because there's a good thing about my services that you're able to get these things off of your report, and you may not even have to pay the balance owed. Okay, now with that being those things taken off, you also want to look at certain things like let's say your your, your your hard inquiries that are different, you know, when you go ahead and go get these loans or things like this, that you have loans, or credit cards, when you first go ahead and apply for them. They ask for you know, course, they asked you to sign off for them. And that signature down there is what allows them to go ahead and go run your credit. And those things are called inquiries, those inquiries will sit on your credit report, even after you've, you've cleared up the the negative item, they'll still be there. And that still drags down your score. Okay, and, and the biggest thing about that, though, is that, um, of course, my system does have it to where you can clear those hard inquiries off. And even while you're in dispute with them, over a 30 day dispute process about the the native account, they'll call the any inquiries that go along with it the 30 day, and within 30 days, that's over. Anything that's over 30 days old, they actually take them off of your credit report,
just so we're saying
automatically, they'll take them off, has long as you're disputing and you requested. People don't don't usually request that. And, and they end up getting, you know, fighting hard to get this off the report. And then it takes almost four months before they get it off, and then they get it off. But then inquiry is still there. So it's still dragging to help them drag down their score. And then they don't understand that they may even just pay it the pay the incident. And they'll be they'll pay it. And they'll say paid, but it's still in your report.
And so you're saying that that your service will go get it completely removed. Is that right?
That's right, because you're you're disputing? Basically you're not disputing whether or not it's yours or not. Whether you really disputing is is do they have the right to put it on your report they have to follow certain rules by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, if they don't follow these certain things, they the credit bureaus are not supposed to place anything, any information that comes from the credit from the creditors, unless they have a written signed document and signature like the one I said that you asked for the loan, if they don't have that original there with the rest of the of the other items that are supposed to be asked for in order to verify properly then it's not verified properly and under Section 609 to E they have to delete it crazy.
And I think that so am I am I making the right connection here and that I think you know, maybe maybe 10 years ago or longer someone told me something along the lines of the credit the creditors or the credit systems or something there is there's so many there's so much paperwork or there's so many people doing disputes that they don't even they don't have the manpower to fight everything so just that you put in this request you put in the right paperwork then they will somehow comply with it is that am I on the right track there
you are on the right track. They don't have a choice but to comply. Now, I've seen some incidents and even in my own because I did it myself before I tried it with anyone else. It actually worked for me where I put it in when I went the way that they asked me to do it and came out where at the first thing they did was try to say that it was verified, they usually do that. But you have to understand because there's so much paperwork that's going in. Remember, that's over 200 million records that have to be looked after, there is no way that they're going to be able to do that, you know, so much time, there's so much manpower and money that has to it has to be put towards it. So what they did was they invented he asker, a certain way to go ahead and investigate and to so called verify, yes, and quotations verify your, your information. But with that, there's no there are no paper files. So by there being no paper files, there are no there's no ink, there's no you saying that you did something. And that was found out if you, you can go to YouTube, and even on my site, I have a certain YouTube link up for attorney credit attorney, Leonard Bennett from Virginia. And he goes through a lot of things. And then you can see how they had hearings for this and it sold them that they don't do that they don't they don't have anything like that at all goes by E Oscar. They distribute their things over a C's to different countries. So a lot of times you like I said, nobody's really looking at your arm your requests, until they see that. It can't it can't go through he also because maybe some of the things are written, or they have to look at them again. Because again, the same things, and then they find out okay, they're disputing under this law, you know, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and then they have to go ahead and give it to you.
Frickin amazing. So, so can we switch gears a little bit? And can you let me know? So? So you, you figured this thing out? And I mean, so and now you have this website? So what what took you from you have this technique that worked for you and worked for others? And then you you built it into a business? So I mean, do you have any kind of like a, like a financial education? Or like, how did this grow from this, this idea, this technique into a whole business for you?
Just a second, okay, okay. And, okay, how I grew up how it grew? Well, the one thing was that we were the people who were working with, in 2014, the people that we were working with, basically, we had a lot of run ins with them, making sure that we try to get the things done. But they were having so much problems, we kept getting a kickback of saying it was verified. That was one thing. And then we just it became a thing of words, word of mouth, for the most part, we got things cleared off, we found out how to go ahead and do it, we searched the Fair Credit Reporting Act deeply, we went to a credit attorney who helped us out to see you know what we can do. And when we saw that it was foolproof, it does actually work. And it actually does work. And for 100% of the time, just depending on the time of how long they're going to, you know, try to deny it. Because they only have a few times to deny, remember, they have 30 days to reply. We did that for for the last two years. And it's it's been a phenomenal, it's just, we knocked them out the park and people are leaving out with the things cleared in less than 60 days. Some, you know, some in 90, some 60. Some have actually went in and had like three things on the credit report. And it's gone in 30. So it actually just took us like within the last two like a year and a half for us to really build up a following. And they just continue to come in and we're happy about it, we just we really try to stick to what we're doing. We know we're doing a public good.
Awesome, and it sounds really win win for a lot of people because you know if they can get those bad marks off of their credit score and how to have better credit, like we said at the beginning, I mean, then that opens up all these opportunities for you if they want to get a new car loan, and they want to refinance or they want to do whatever to you know, go on vacation, now it opens up these opportunities. So at my lucid credit.com Like I see that you have you have three packages, you have the $30, the $40, the $50. So what's the difference between those those three?
Okay, the difference is we tried to make a range out to where it was affordable for someone who just wanted to go ahead and get maybe a a collection account off of their credit report. And all you need with the collection account is just this, the standard dispute letters. And those dispute letters are of course done differently than other dispute letters. They're done specifically asking for you know, proper verification that they have to go ahead and show these things to them, letting them know letting the consumer know that this is indeed mine. And just somebody saying it's verified that doesn't cut it, they have to go ahead and show you verifiable proof. And, and you stick to the guns, and that's one way to get it. Well, that 20 That that last one for me the first one, that's an easy package to go ahead and get we think it's very affordable. We don't want to charge overcharge anyone, you know, for something that, uh, for just one school voters that they need. The second one second package, what's the next one up? We we want to give a little more, you know, more bang for the buck. So what we did was is we decided to try. Let's see, because I went back to my own site. And what we did for that one, was we wanted to go ahead and give them a little bit more bang for the buck. So what we did was we went for the the same distribute letters, we gave them to those the instructions, of course, but this one removes tax liens and removes hard inquiries and removes bankruptcy too. Okay, okay. And the next one, of course, 50 $50, that that is like the granddaddy of them all. You can actually you up you can take on ChexSystems you can actually help you out with wage garnishments stop collection calls, I mean, because that's a really a big thing. When people are in debt, they get harassed all day and all night. But if you can go ahead and get this letter, it'll stop those, those hard inquiries we talked about, remove those weak and remove medical medical charges that are on your on your account through through HIPAA. And in of course, those laws are very strict, because they, they definitely protect your your information from third parties and any, any information that comes from medical things to third parties, if they if they use some of the medical billing. That's telling them what has happened in your situation. That's your personal information. So you're able to dispute that. And nobody wants to be into investigating what, you know, HIPAA law, so they usually get rid of that quick,
interesting. So so what I'm hearing as we're talking is that there are a lot of, I mean, I don't necessarily want to say loopholes, but there there are a lot of like, really somewhat easy things that someone can do. And I can I guess so in your packages there are there are templates and letters and things where someone just can mail in the letter, like the specific letter for this specific job to get this kind of record removed. And so So am I seeing this right, in that you? Do you offer a done for you option? Or is it just information
right now on a done for you option at this moment, just actually, to tell you the truth, just a about two weeks ago, me and my business partners, we were talking and what we just went over was we will want to get back into the consulting ring. We wanted to go ahead and and have people you know, call us have a line where they can give us a call. And we're available, we can go ahead and walk through walk them through the processes to where we can probably do them do it for them.
Awesome. So Jeff, I don't know how soon that's coming out, or just whenever we have time for it.
Be honest, at the moment we're bringing we're it's on a brainstorm right now. And I we actually actually have one of us is actually doing the the head work as far as far as how we're going to put it together and for it to be done. Clips last time when we were doing it as a consulting phase, that was all that was in one location. And you know, and we were just doing out that location. But we know these things are going to be coming from all over the United States. So we we do want to go ahead and offer it that's something we are looking at, we can't say exactly at the time, when we'll be able to offer it
costs a lot lots of things for you to figure out on your end, but once you get that figured out and that will be a pretty cool package. So I mean, what are your thoughts on on, on on first of all, that, you know, you come across some people that may be because we're in such a bad financial situation maybe there's so cash strapped to? Do you see some people who can't afford your package? And also do you come across any any competitors that just give away all the information for free like a lot of us people who sell it information out there. So I mean, so both of those things, like do you come across any just really a lot of really broke customers or do you also have any difficulties with competitors giving away the knowledge for free?
Oh, man, you know, the thing is is for to at times, I'll be honest though I've run across a few myself, I mean, just me personally, who I tell them of course about about it and everything and let them know that there is, you know, help out there and how much it may cost, you know, how much it costs for my site, you know, and I've only ran to two people who have honestly said they couldn't they they really had a problem and everything that it's a lead is money is really strapped on their end. And I offered to do it for them. You know, that's what actually that's one of those things that actually helped us say we got we were in a need to have to start putting something together well, we can do it for them. And honestly started offering some free clinic flea free clinics, sorry about that. And wanting to do that kind of thing. But as far as other competitors, I'm really don't focus a lot. I have two competitors that are on my radar that I do watch and everything and No, no, they don't do it for free, that's for sure. So be honest with you. The one thing about us good thing about this is if you do buy the packet and one of the packages it the information is there, the letters are there, it's free for you forever, you will be you able to go ahead and give them to other people if you feel in wish, you know and help them with theirs. So it's a perpetual thing. It's a perpetual package if you just go ahead and hold on to the templates.
That's cool. And that's a good attitude. Yeah, because I mean if if someone someone cleans up you know what one item either other credit for now, but who knows that something else might happen? Who knows? Who knows if they have some kind of a relative so so that's really great as opposed to if someone goes out and and hires some kind of attorney or some kind of financial advisor have something to do it for them. It's like well, you paid that person who knows how much and it was kind of a black box you don't quite know what they did as opposed to this reusable package that people can and should go and buy at my lucid credit.com And is that the right place for people to go my lucid credit calm
yes it is if you want to go ahead and purchase you go to the pricing page. But you know of course I encouraged them look at the about page definitely you know the first page it gives a lot of information as far as the law is concerned. And if you go back you know go further you can definitely go to our own the my Lucy credit form Lucy the loser credit form and everything and you can read about some of the some of the things that are going on as far as that affects you and your credit. And these these things are tips and things that can help you out and things that just made to make you think about you know, what's going on around you as far as this industry.
Cool. So I mean yeah, and this is one of those subjects where everyone needs this just because I mean the the the world kind of runs on credit I mean unless you have you know enough cash in the bank to buy a home outright if you're not in that case, then guess what you do with credit I think that a lot of people listening to this call you know, maybe they have had you know, like a bad marriage or a bad past in their own life or maybe they made some some bad decisions or maybe they just need to get you know, like a small business loan to self fund their own online business. So you know, quit their job and go for their dreams and our you know, whatever you person listening, whatever your situation is. So I think this is very important advice. I think that my lucid credit is a great place to go. And I think that you Mr. Damon tomorrow are a fantastic person. And I really appreciate you coming on the show and sharing with us what you know about cleaning up a credit score. So thank you very much.
Thank you so much, Robert. I really appreciate you inviting me on I do if you want
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Filed in: Archive 1: 2012-2016 • Interview • Podcast
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