PERSONAL
CREDIT

Pay all of your bills on time, every time. This includes your utility bills, mortgage, and auto payments, and all of your revolving lines of credit like credit cards. Check your credit report at least once a year. You can find out how to challenge bad information on your credit report here.

Never charge more than 30% of the available balance on any of your credit cards. Banks like to see a nice record of on-time payments, and several credit cards that are not maxed-out. If you are carrying high balances on your credit cards, then make paying them down below 30% a priority. Do use your credit cards – Many people who make mistakes with their credit believe that the best way to fix things is to never use credit again. If you are afraid that you cannot handle your credit cards correctly then the best policy is probably this one: Run only your utility bills on your credit cards each month, and then pay the balance in full by the due date. This ensures that your utility bills get paid on time automatically, and as long as you keep the habit of paying off your credit card balance each month your score will continue to go up. Leave the credit cards locked in a safe or drawer at home. Keep your accounts open as long as possible – Even if you are no longer charging on the card. The best policy is to keep those unused accounts open, blow the dust off your card every few months to make a small purchase, then pay it off. How long each of your accounts have been active is a major factor in your credit score.Remember that this all takes time – Following the above steps consistently over a long period of time will increase your credit score and allow you to qualify for better loans and lower interest rates. Repairing your credit score does not happen overnight, so if you do these things for a few months and do not see a large increase in your score, do not give up. They are all habits that you will want to maintain throughout your life, as they will help you to keep your finances and lines of credit under control.

A credit score is a number generated by a mathematical formula that is meant to predict credit worthiness. The most predominantly used credit score, FICO™, ranges from 300-850. The higher your score is, the more likely you are to get a loan. The lower your score is, the less likely you are to get a loan. If you have a low credit score and you do manage to get approved for credit then your interest rate will be much higher than someone who had a good credit score and borrowed money. Therefore, having a high credit score can save many thousands of dollars over the life of your mortgage, auto loan, or credit card.

Credilife® is an established, ever evolving, compliant, accurate, and successful Credit Life Improvement Program that thrives on customer service, research, and strategy. The result? A blueprint for success with great purpose. 

A credit services organization need not subscribe to Credilife® to be credible, but for those that do, rest assured, they are working to raise the bar for the industry as a whole when it comes to helping consumers improve their credit, get out of debt, and carve a new path toward financial independence.

Through a combination of coaching initiatives, budgeting and credit building strategies, complemented by a factual technical credit disputing process, Credilife® is much more than a traditional credit repair program. See the Credit Builder Blueprint® as an example of the additional effort that is placed into ensuring each consumer’s successful transition from credit challenged to a viable, healthy credit life!

 We believe in promoting strong affiliate awareness because a healthy referral network made up of select industry professionals is the best way to find consumers that are motivated and deserving of such an opportunity… goal driven consumers, who are motivated and prepared to embark on a path that will lead to a future full of opportunity… diamonds in the ruff!

Ready to join us, or want to know more? Connect with one of our affiliated businesses to subscribe to a new way of life… a Credilife®. 

Equifax is the oldest and largest credit bureau in existence today. They were originally founded in 1898, 70 years before the creation of Trans Union.

Two brothers, Cator and Guy Woolford, created the company. Cator actually got the idea from his grocery business, where they collected customers’ names and evidence of credit worthiness.  He then sold that list to other merchants to offset his own business costs.

The success led Cator and his attorney brother, Guy, to Atlanta to start what would become one of the most powerful industries in existence today.

Retail Credit Company was born, and local grocers started using the Woolford service, which expanded rapidly.  By the early 1900s the service had expanded from grocers to the insurance industry.

Retail Credit Company continued to grow into one of the largest credit bureaus by the 1960s, with nearly 300 branches in operation.  They collected all kinds of consumer data, even rumors about people’s marital lives and childhood.  They were also scrutinized for selling this data to just about anyone who would buy it. 

In the late ‘60s, Equifax started to compile their data onto computers, giving many more companies access to purchase this data.  They also continued to purchase many more of their smaller competitors, becoming larger and also attracting the attention of our Federal government.

In response, the US Congress met in 1971, and enacted the Fair Credit Reporting Act.  This new law was the first to govern the information credit bureaus and regulate what they were allowed to collect and sell.  Equifax was charged with violating this law a few years later and even more government restrictions were implemented.

Equifax was no longer allowed to misrepresent themselves when conducting consumer investigations, and employees were not given bonuses anymore based on the negative information they were collecting, which was standard practice in the past.

It is alleged that due to the tarnished reputation all this left on Retail Credit Company, they changed their name to Equifax (Equitable Factual Information) shortly after in 1979. 

Throughout the 1980s, Equifax along with Experian and TransUnion, split up the rest of the smaller credit rating agencies amongst them, adding 104 of those to Equifax’s portfolio.  They then continued to grow, taking aligning with CSC Credit Services and another 65 additional bureaus. 

Equifax has continued to grow, now maintaining over 401 million consumer credit records worldwide. They also expanded their services to direct consumer credit monitoring in 1999. 

Today Equifax is based out of Atlanta, Georgia, and has employees in 14 countries.

If you feel you may be losing your way or have any questions about what you should be doing right now to support your Credit and Financial Wellness Journey, Click HERE to learn more.

Most consumers are familiar with Experian. But there are a few interesting tidbits that most people don’t know about the company.  Here are a few interesting facts about Experian. The Experian Group employs approximately 15,000 people in 40 countries, supporting clients in more than 65 countries around the world. Total Group revenue for the year ending March 31, 2012 was $4.5 billion.

Although they control the economic fates of millions of Americans, they’re not even a US company. Their headquarters is in Dublin, Ireland and their main offices are in Nottingham, England. Experian was created during a flurry of buyouts and consolidation, getting most of their data from the purchase of TRW Information Services, a 100-year-old credit agency and one of the oldest such firms in America. Since then, they’ve expanded in very telling directions, purchasing email marketing companies, data-mining and surveillance startups, and several debt consolidation and collection firms.

Along with TransUnion and Equifax, the other major U.S. credit bureaus, Experian markets its credit information not only to lenders but also to consumers, who can sign up for a fee-based credit monitoring program. By the Fair Credit Reporting Act, however, these agencies must provide individuals in the U.S. with a credit report, free of charge, once a year on request. You can dispute the information in a credit report; Experian routes these cases through its National Consumer Assistance Center in Texas.

At one time, Experian used the credit rating formulas generated by the Fair Isaac Corporation, also known as FICO, to gauge consumer creditworthiness for the use of potential lenders. However, a disagreement between the two companies led to a parting of the ways, and Experian now employs its own scoring method, known as the PLUS score. PLUS scores range from 330 to 830, rather than FICO’s 300 to 850. Experian does not disclose the formula it uses to arrive at the PLUS score, although the major ingredients are payment history, the ratio of outstanding balances to credit limit, length of credit history and number of credit inquiries.

Creditors employ many different credit scores to determine creditworthiness, including FICO and the VantageScore, which is generated by the three rating agencies in combination. Therefore Experian’s own PLUS score may not be an accurate gauge of the number that lenders are using to make their decisions. Instead, the PLUS score is primarily designed as an educational and marketing tool, designed to inform consumers about the general state of their credit and to generate revenues for the company through credit-monitoring products.

If you feel you may be losing your way or have any questions about what you should be doing right now to support your Credit and Financial Wellness Journey, Click HERE to learn more.

The Credit Builder Blueprint™ lays out details, specific to each consumer’s personal credit profile, including instructions, guidance, and a background that supports a step by step approach to a new credit life!

In other words, the Credit Builder Blueprint™ is a personalized credit assessment prepared and customized according to each client’s specific goals, and based on their current credit situation. This physical booklet is prepared and bound for each client that enrolls in the Credit Life Improvement Program, and lays out a strategy guaranteed to expedite the credit recovery process. 

The Blueprint represents a path that, when followed, will ensure each client reaches their credit related goals in the least time possible. 

The blueprint also serves as a reminder to each client of the commitment they set for themselves that when taken seriously will result in new opportunity and a more financially secure future.

The Credit Builder Blueprint™ lays out details, specific to each consumer’s personal credit profile, including instructions, guidance, and a background that supports a step by step approach to a new credit life!

In other words, the Credit Builder Blueprint™ is a personalized credit assessment prepared and customized according to each client’s specific goals, and based on their current credit situation. This physical booklet is prepared and bound for each client that enrolls in the Credit Life Improvement Program, and lays out a strategy guaranteed to expedite the credit recovery process. 

The Blueprint represents a path that, when followed, will ensure each client reaches their credit related goals in the least time possible. 

The blueprint also serves as a reminder to each client of the commitment they set for themselves that when taken seriously will result in new opportunity and a more financially secure future.

Most consumers are familiar with TransUnion. But there are a few interesting tidbits that most people don’t know about the company.  Here are a few interesting facts about TransUnion:

Unlike the other two Big Three credit firms, TransUnion is privately held so they don’t have to declare much in the way of earnings or corporate information. They got their start in the personal information business when they bought out the Cook County Credit Bureau, one of the original Welcome Wagon firms.

With this acquisition they basically bought the financial history of the entire city of Chicago in one purchase! Since then, they focused on acquiring more lists from around the world, although they still call Chicago home.

TransUnion was party to a notable and precedent-setting case for the credit repair industry. A courageous and very patient woman by the name of Judy Thomas successfully sued TransUnion for a whopping $5.3 million dollars. Her story was particularly outrageous. She uncovered a simple, glaring error in her credit report and took all the legal steps to get it amended. The process wound up costing her endless hours of paperwork and no less than six years to finally get the false information removed from her credit report.

Keep your eye on your email for even more interesting facts about Experian and the other consumer reporting agencies.

If you feel you may be losing your way or have any questions about what you should be doing right now to support your Credit and Financial Wellness Journey, Click HERE to learn more.

Brian Del Terzo and Jerrad Havins have each seen first-hand how important it is that consumers get the support they need from reputable service providers. A “Credilife™” is a life changing attitude towards credit and money. An understanding that “we” control our outcomes and are the prisoners of our own beliefs. 

Brian and Jerrad have dedicated themselves to providing viable solutions related most specifically to the credit services industry with an emphasis on education and money management.

The Credit Life Improvement Program is defined as a holistic approach to personal development, specific to credit, money and how we perceive each respectively. The program is delivered through multiple mediums, from verbal coaching, to emailed education, regular follow-up, text messaging, and in the form of a personalized Credit Life Improvement plan, coined, the Credit Builder Blueprint™.

The Credilife™ methodology and techniques have been developed from proven credit building and personal development strategies. By delivering this model directly to consumers and to businesses with like-minded views on the industry and what they hope to achieve by working directly with consumers, Brian and Jerrad have set out to raise the bar for the credit services industry. 

Focused on helping consumers overcome credit related challenges through a holistic approach that we refer to as the Credit Life Improvement Program, the number one priority of the program is the success of each client.

 The approach is unique!

Each client referred for this program is offered an evaluation and assessment of their credit history, as well as an introduction to credit and what credit means to their buying power. Some topics that may be covered include:

   Introductions to credit and debt related management strategies
   Budgeting and the principles of Money Mastery, and
   Student Loan help through consolidation or rehabilitation options.

The really cool thing is that the direction of the program is reinforced through scheduled Credilife™ Coaching calls rather than surface level discussions about which accounts have or have not been deleted, and reminders of the importance of patience.

The goal?, to provide each client with the best opportunity for both short and long term success by providing expertise related to everything and anything that has the potential of impacting a consumer’s personal credit profile, or financial well-being.

 Also, by working closely with Affiliates, we are able to ensure that we are working with motivated, goal oriented individuals that are deserving of the opportunities made available to them through this program. 

 We encourage and promote strong affiliate relations by implementing tools that keep our clients connected with their goals, and the person that referred them.

Over your lifetime the cost of higher interest rates can really add up.

That’s money paid out to lenders that you could use to live a better life – take more vacations, cover college education costs for your children, live in a bigger house, drive a nicer car, or invest the savings for retirement.

And it’s even worse if you have bad credit, considered by lenders to be anything below 620. It’s extremely difficult to get a mortgage, car loan, or a credit card at all with a credit score below this mark.

Luckily there are steps you can take to improve your credit – and in many cases improvement can be seen relatively quickly3 when you have the right education to guide you.

Many people are confused about how to understand each section of a credit report and if you have a lengthy credit history, you shouldn’t be surprised to have a report that is more than 20 pages long.

Understanding how to interpret all of this information about you is the first step toward improving it.

A Credilife™ Coach introduce you to ways that you can obtain copies of your credit reports and scores online, and how to understand each section of your report.

You will walk through an exercise to classify any negative items that are identified during the initial credit assessment. And it is through this initial assessment that the framework for your Credit Life Improvement Program will begin to form.