Free Financial Recovery Classes from Neighborhood Housing Services of Phoenix

Neighborhood Housing Services of Phoenix has received a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust to develop and present Financial Recovery classes to assist Maricopa County residents with recovering from foreclosure, short sale, bankruptcy, and overall financial issues, anyone may attend this class free of charge.

The next workshop is on 10/29/2011 from 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM, breakfast and lunch will be provided.

I am partial to this program because I developed the curriculum and will be presenting it. Each attendee receives a 39 page workbook and has the opportunity throughout the class to ask questions and participate in the discussion.

If you know a homeowner who is struggling and needs some answers, or has already lost their home and looking to get back on track, please share this link with them: http://www.nhsphoenix.org/financial_recovery.html

Financial recovery topics to be covered include:

• Avoiding Fraudulent Foreclosure Rescue Operations
• Budgeting for Survival
• Credit Ramifications in a Mortgage Crisis
• Potential Legal Ramifications in a Mortgage Crisis
• Surviving Debt
• Rebuilding and Correcting your Credit

In the class I focus a lot on the credit report, we will review sample credit reports and study common errors often overlooked by consumers. There are a lot of example case studies we will discuss to give the material a real world feel, I am a firm believer that theory is not relevant for someone trying to get their financial life back together. My focus is on solutions to best prepare the class to move forward toward recovery.

The remaining dates for the class are:

10/29/2011 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
12/10/2011 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
1/21/2012 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
3/3/2012 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
5/12/2012 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

The class is held near downtown at Neighborhood Housing Services of Phoenix, which is located at 1405 E. McDowell, Suite 100, Phoenix, AZ 85006.

It is an eight hour course, but it goes by fast, there is a lot of information I need to share. Some of the sub-topics we discuss are:

• Dealing with creditors and collection agencies
• Rights and protections for consumers
• Employment issues stemming from credit
• Protecting yourself from credit abuses
• How long will the credit be impacted
• What to do now in order to buy a house again the soonest
• Step-by-step course of action to correcting your credit report

Security Breach: What Should You Do?

Every week it seems like I read something about a security breach, whether it is a bank, government entity, university, or hospital, the possibilities of a breach are endless. Criminals are grabbing sensitive information such as social security numbers to commit fraud. The topic comes up frequently in my classes about credit, people want to know how they can protect themselves if they are part of a security breach.

The standard recommendation is to add a fraud alert to your credit report. This is a notation on the credit report notifying anyone looking at the credit report that there is a chance of identity theft, therefore the identity of the person requesting credit should be scrutinized. I am not a firm believer in relying on a fraud alert as a sound protection from identity theft. The reality is it does not stop anything, but rather it is simply a cautionary notice.

The better approach is to consider a security freeze as a protection because it denies access to your credit report. When a freeze is added to your credit report, all third parties, such as lenders or other companies, whose use is not exempt under law will not be able to access your credit report without your consent (you give them a pin for access). A security freeze is more beneficial than a fraud alert because it actually stops access to your credit report without your permission. It is available to ID theft victims with a police report and non-victims who have no police report for a specific incident, but wish to protect themselves.

You need to go to each credit bureau individually to institute a freeze:

TransUnion: http://www.transunion.com/corporate/personal/fraudIdentityTheft/fraudPrevention/securityFreeze.page#3

Experian:
http://www.experian.com/consumer/security_freeze.html

Equifax:
http://www.equifax.com/cs7/Satellite?c=EFX_Page_C&childpagename=EFX%2FEFX_Page_C%2FGetcreditCP&cid=1182374732430&p=1182374732489&packedargs=locale%3Den_cp&pagename=EFX%2FWrapper#NextSteps

If the links change just go into each credit bureau website and search the term “security freeze.”

The reason I like the security freeze is because if someone has your social security number and tries to apply for credit, a creditor will not be able to access your credit report and therefore credit will likely be denied. You should still check your credit report annually to make sure there are no issues, and the security freeze will not prevent someone from using your credit card if your account number is stolen, so remain on guard and realize the freeze will only prevent new accounts from being opened in your name. Existing accounts are still susceptible.

The security freeze may delay or interfere with the timely approval of any subsequent request or application you make that involves access to your credit report. This includes new loans, credit, mortgages, insurance, rental housing, employment, investments, licenses, cellular phone service, utility service, digital signature service, and extension of credit at point of sale.

Additionally, while your report is frozen, companies that provide consumer data to the credit bureaus will not be allowed to update name, address, social security number and date of birth information on your credit report. If there are any changes made to your name or address while your file is frozen, you must notify the credit bureaus directly so that they can update your personal information.

If you wish to apply for a new credit account or other credit relationship, and the prospective lender or company needs to access your credit report, you will need to get a pin code to give access to your report or remove the security freeze.

As a method of protection the security freeze is a way to lock up your credit report and the cost is generally free if you have a police report or a $5 - $10 onetime fee if you do not. It is not only the best protection, but it is also a very inexpensive protection.

Free Credit Report Offers Examined

Up until the end of last year it seemed like you could not turn on your television without seeing and hearing the free credit report jingle. Those merry men dressed as pirates lyrically painting a picture of why we should all check our credit reports. Besides, it was free, right? It depends on your personal definition of “free,” which for the advertisers meant free as long as you don’t mind placing your foot in a proverbial snare so they can shake money out of you later. The Federal Trade Commission noticed the advertising, even going as far as mocking them with its own jingle at http://www.ftc.gov/multimedia/video/credit/reports/apartment.shtm.

Then the FTC brought down the hammer, full disclosure of where consumers could obtain their federally mandated credit report. Too many consumers did not understand that they could go to www.annualcreditreport.com for a free credit report with no-strings attached (no credit score though, the law does not require it currently). The level of advertising for commercially generated free reports was enormous; the most well known free credit report site reportedly spent $100 million annually on advertising. How much free stuff can you give away with an advertising budget of $100 million? As it turns out, only so much, people ended up with credit card charges they did not want because to get the free credit report they had to sign-up for a 90 day or so free trial of identity theft protection or credit monitoring. If they did not cancel by the 90th day they would be charged, the complaints flowed like an angry volcano.

Per the FTC enacted disclosure any website offering free credit reports must now place at the top of the page:

THIS NOTICE IS REQUIRED BY LAW. Read more at FTC.GOV.
You have the right to a free credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com
or 877-322-8228, the ONLY authorized source under federal law.

The Web site disclosure must include a clickable button stating “Take me to the authorized source” and clickable links to AnnualCreditReport.com and FTC.GOV.

Disclosures are required for radio and television advertising as well, which went into effect on September 1, 2010. This is why we do not see or hear as many of the advertisements. However, there are a thousand ways to skirt regulation, so the new thing is to offer a free credit score instead of a free report. Fortunately consumers are catching on to the unsavory nature of these schemes. Even the free credit score is a ruse in the sense that it generally is not even the score lenders use for underwriting, just a fictitious self-created formula to get money out of unsuspecting consumers.

If your New Year resolution was to improve yourself this year, go to www.annualcreditreport.com right now and print off a copy of your credit report for your records.