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I've got some
very important info I want you to think very
seriously about. I'm sure by now you've heard of
Identity Theft,...heck you may have even been
affected by it. I know many of my friends have.
But how about what may potentially be even a more
dangerous threat......."Mistaken Identity". That's
right, "Mistaken Identity"! Throughout my career in
lending, the absolute biggest problem that I've seen
clients encounter when applying for a loan, is
someone else's derogatory information showing up on
their credit report!
You would not believe the nightmare I've seen
clients go through, when they realized someone
else's bad credit history was showing up on their
report, causing them to be declined for the loan the
should have easily qualified for. Little did they
know that everytime someone on the other side of
town made a late payment, or decided not to pay at
all, another black mark was being added to their
credit report!
Believe it or not, I've even seen one specific case
where "Mistaken Credit Identity" forced someone into
bankruptcy! That's right, a lady came to me wanting
to apply for a new home loan. Unfortunately she had
recently lost her job, her bills were starting to
pile up, and her reserves were running low. Luckily,
or though she thought, she had plenty of equity in
her home that she could access through a home equity
loan, to pad her bank account and give her plenty of
breathing room until she landed a new job.
To her shock and dismay, I pulled her credit report
and informed her that she did not qualify for the
loan. She was in disbelief. "I've never had a late
payment in my life"! she exclaimed. I told her her
credit score and began listing off the multiple
derogatory entries that were listed. She couldn't
believe what she was hearing. How could this happen?
It happened because she had a very common last name,
and also shared a very similar first name to another
individual who lived not far from her, and even had
a very similar social security number. Unfortunately
my potential client had not applied for a new loan
of any kind for several years and had no idea that
these errors had been piling up. As a matter of
fact, the errors were so severe that despite
literally months of working with her to get the
errors corrected, we couldn't wash them away in
time. Her financial situation had sprialed out of
control and she was ultimately forced into
bankruptcy.
And......it all could have been avoided if she had
only known the situation existed in time. I cannot
stress enough the importance of having your credit
checked at a minimum, every six months to check it
for errors.
Don't let something like this happen to you! I can
very easily be avoided if you take the proper steps.
It is now reported the over 80% of all credit
reports have errors, and if you have a common last
name, or have Jr. or III, etc., at the end of your
name, chances are closer to100%!
Don't wait until it's too late, take action now and
give your credit a "check up"!
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