Continuing on with our series of common credit repair myths:

Myth #3 – Credit Repair Doesn’t Actually Work

When you speak with credit grantors, collection agencies, or credit bureaus, their typically under-educated staff may tell you all manner of pseudo-legal nonsense, like all credit items must appear on your report for seven years. The truth is that negative listings cannot appear on your credit report for longer than seven years (10 years for bankruptcies), but the credit grantor or the credit bureau can choose to delete the negative credit listing whenever they see fit.

The bureaus boldly deny that information can be removed from a credit report, when the truth is that it happens thousands of times a day. Don’t believe the hype!

I am always amazed at what apps and tools the boys at Google keep coming up with

Take a look:

Google Goggles Visual Search Tool

I hate to say  ”I told you so…” but I have been warning my readers for awhile.

Well…last week the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) testified before the House Committee on Financial Services to address several policy changes to improve the financial performance of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

In case you didn’t know, thanks to the mortgage meltdown over the last two years, FHA is the best way…and in some cases…the only way to get a mortgage after bankruptcy.

What does this mean to you?

It looks like the FHA is planning to hold lenders liable for loan losses.

Translation…It will cost you more money to close a mortgage.

In addition, FHA also plans to tighten its underwriting standards. These changes will include…

1. Raising minimum FICO scores for new FHA borrowers
2. Increasing the borrower’s up-front cash requirement
3. Increasing mortgage insurance premiums

Translation number two…If you’re in the market to finance a home, do it sooner rather than later.

Usually when FHA proposes changes, it’s another way of saying that they’re coming soon—real soon!

Probably by the end of  January, 2010

There is a way to get “grandfathered” in…if you submit your credit application to an FHA lender and get approved. Once you do that, you’re in (using the current guidelines).

Welcome to the new credit economy,

To review the HUD secretary’s entire testimony, go here.

Until next time,