If you use a credit card for a purchase and for some reason you need to dispute the charges, for example, you never received product, or it was misrepresented, and you ask for a “chargeback” on your card, you run the risk of being put on a blacklist that can prevent you from using your card with merchants.

Chargebacks are quite expensive for the merchants and most merchants try to avoid them at all costs. The blacklist serves to help the merchants avoid customers who may want to defraud them.

If you are on the blacklist, you can get your information removed, for just the small sum of $99.

Perhaps a better solution would be to try to work with the merchant if there is a problem and see if you can get them to refund your money instead of getting a chargeback. It will save the merchant quite a bit of money because they will avoid the chargeback fees from the credit card companies, and you will get what you wanted also.

BadCustomer.com is a website that keeps a list of customers who do chargebacks for retailers. This is probably not a list you want to be on.

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Here is a great look at ways to increase online credit card security.

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When an individual tries to get a loan for a house or an automobile they are usually aware of how important their credit report and credit score can be. A lender can charge a higher rate or even deny credit altogether based upon what is showing on the credit report and the credit score.

However there are also a few other things that most people are not even aware of concerning credit reports and credit scores. Negative credit can affect you in a few surprising ways.

If you have any credit cards you need to be concerned about keeping a good credit score and having a good credit report. Credit card companies will use any excuse that they can find to raise your rates. After you become a cardholder they can monitor your credit and if they see that you have late payments showing, even if you have never been late on a payment owed to them, they can raise your interest rates. Your introductory rate could double or even triple.

Any problem showing on your credit report is a sufficient reason for them to raise your rates. Many times erroneous and inaccurate information can show on your report and your rates will be unfairly jacked up. It is smart to repair any problems that you see on your report as soon as possible for this reason.

Credit scores and reports can also affect your job search. Potential employers can request to see a copy of your credit report as part of a background check. It is legal for them not to hire you if you have bad credit. However, be aware that they must have special permission granted from you to inquire into your credit.

If you have good credit it may mean the difference between getting hired or not if you are one of a few equally qualified prospects. If you have bad credit they may not even consider you. In these changing economic times it is important to maintain any advantage you may have in the job market.

A third surprising benefit for having a good credit report is that insurance companies can turn you down for coverage if you have bad credit. According to their in-house research they have determined that drivers with bad credit actually submit 40% of all claims. If you have bad credit you are deemed a higher risk to the insurance companies. The statistics may be as high as 90% of automobile insurance companies use credit reports as an underwriting tool.

While many of these things seem unfair and unreasonable the fact is that our credit affects more than we realize. Do what you can to maintain good credit if you have it and if you don’t take the steps necessary to improve or repair your credit.

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You absolutely have the right to repair your credit yourself. You can issue disputes on any questionable items for free and the credit bureaus will even provide the forms on their website to expedite the process. You do not need the assistance of a professional credit repair service.

Repairing your credit yourself may seem like a simple solution that can quickly and easily repair your credit. Just get a copy of your report, identify the inaccuracies, fill out some paperwork, submit it and wait for the negative listings to be removed. What could be easier?

Well if it were really easy and viable for anyone to do it there would be no need for professional credit repair services. There are many things that we can do ourselves but it is just smarter to get a professional to help out. For instance, you have the right to represent yourself in a criminal case in a court of law but in the majority of situations it is probably wiser to hire a good attorney.

Making repairs on your credit can be a time-consuming and complex process. If you have another full-time profession you may want to consider if you have the time that it will take to spare. It is common for the credit bureaus to reject disputes and it can even happen that they can come up with verification for an item that is actually incorrect.

You may also need to communicate frequently with the individual creditors to get them to correct inaccurate listings. Many times they would just as soon ignore your requests, as helping others repair their credit is not a profitable activity for them. If that is the case you may need to invoke your rights under the Fair Credit Billing Act to get them to correct the listings. You will likely need to work with collection agencies in this same way.

All of the communications need to be documented in writing. There are also some accepted protocols that you will need to follow when you are dealing with the individual parties. If you do not follow the accepted procedures it is possible that you could even inadvertently lower your credit score rather than raise it.

There is some major forethought that should go into the decision of repairing your credit yourself. Do you have the time to spend? It may end up taking a substantial amount of your time. How valuable is your time? Also, do you have the emotional capacity to remain neutral about your own finances? Many people are very emotionally charged about their own finances and if you lose composure with anger or tears you will hurt yourself more in the long term.

If you think you have the time, the energy and the emotional capacity to remain neutral then you should absolutely take advantage of your right to repair your credit yourself. However, if you have any doubts about these important considerations you should look into the advantages of a credit repair professional.

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You would be surprised at a few of the things that can damage your credit.  Often we take measures that we think are best for our finances and our budget but these very same things can negatively affect your credit score.

For example, if you are not using a credit card you might think it would be a good idea to go ahead and close the account.  But if you do that it will negatively affect your credit score.  Much of your score is based upon the available credit that you have compared to how much you are using.  If you close the account then that amount is no longer available to you and your debt to credit ratio goes down, negatively affecting your credit score.

The same thing can happen if you have a credit card but you don’t use it.  Vendors can cancel an account for non-use and if they do that available credit is gone and your debt ratio goes down along with your credit score again.

Another consideration is how much of your credit that you use.  If you have a large running balance on your account it affects you negatively, even if you pay it off every single month.  Try to keep your borrowing below the 30% of what is available mark.  The running balance holds more weight than the fact that it is regularly paid off.

Library fines and parking tickets may seem benign but they can end up on your credit report if you ignore them, the same for overdue recurring bills such as a cell phone or a utility bill.  As soon as a bill is referred for collections it can show on your credit report as a negative.

When you apply for credit a hard inquiry will show on your report.  If you have too many inquiries it is a negative for your score.  Revolving credit such as department store cards is also looked upon as more negative than other types of credit such as a car loan or a mortgage.  It is probably not worth the 20% off that they give you on your purchase to apply for their credit card.

You would be wise to check your credit report on a regular basis.  It has been reported that as many as 75% of all reports contain mistakes and inaccuracies.  If you check your report regularly you can dispute the issues immediately and you won’t have a problem when you do need credit.  You are entitled to one free report each year from all three of the major credit bureaus.  You should take advantage of that and make sure that your credit report is correct and accurate.

The best way to maintain your good credit is to avoid any problems in the first place.  Even so, you may still occasionally find mistakes on your report.  You can dispute them to repair your credit with the assistance of a professional credit repair service or you can do it on your own.

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It is estimated that as high as 75% of all credit reports contain errors, mistakes and inaccuracies.  The FCRA is the Fair Credit Reporting Act and it was enacted back in 1979 to allow consumers the opportunity to dispute problems on their credit report and to promote the fairness, accuracy and privacy of personal information on credit reports.  With so many potential errors on credit reports it is likely that at some point you may need to consider credit repair as an option to eliminate the inaccurate listings on your report.

The FCRA gave you the right to dispute the errors on your account.  After receiving the dispute the credit bureaus and lenders have a certain amount of time to verify the validity of the information or it must be removed from your account.  Credit repair can be accomplished on your own or you can engage the services of a professional credit repair company. 

Be aware however, that the Federal Trade Commission states clearly on their website that “No one can legally remove accurate and timely information from a credit report.  The law allows you to ask for an investigation of information in your file that you dispute as inaccurate or incomplete”.

This statement seems to be very clear and explicit and that is one reason why the critics of credit repair will try to dissuade you from any attempts to repair your credit by telling you that trying to repair your credit is futile.  The fact of the matter is that you can make a significant difference in your credit score and on your report when you repair your credit.  

Even thought the FTC statement seems quite straightforward, there is quite a bit of ambiguity in the quote when it comes to real credit reports and real situations.  Up to 75% of all credit reports are deemed to contain mistakes.  Since this is the case, credit repair companies actually offer a valuable service.  Of course, you can do it yourself and you may want to consider that but it does take time and energy and if you already have a busy life you may not want to tackle a major project like that on your own.

Since “accurate and timely” information should not be removed from a credit report, what are the criteria to define “accurate and timely”?  Many times miscommunications or mistakes happen between consumers and lenders and something that may be considered “accurate” may not be that at all.

Many credit reports have issues that are completely inaccurate.  Listings that belong to someone else, duplicate entries, listings that have been on your report for longer than 7 years, and anything that is the result of identity theft need to be removed from your account.  These issues frequently show up on credit reports.

As a consumer you also have the right to dispute any item that you think is misleading, ambiguous, unverifiable, biased or questionable.  Occasionally there may even be issues that the lender feels are accurate but you were never able to defend yourself with your side of the story.  One reason why it is so crucial that a consumer can dispute negative listings is because of the fact that there are always two sides to a story.  You can dispute anything showing on your report that is inaccurate, untimely, misleading, incomplete, ambiguous or questionable either on your own or by employing a professional credit repair service.

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