Credit Repair Kit For Dummies [Paperback]

Steve Bucci (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 28, 2008

Now, you can finally end the cycle of bad credit and get back on your feet by following the step-by-step advice and tools in Credit Repair Kit For Dummies, 2nd Edition. You’ll find out everything you need to know about creating a solid plan to get your credit back on track. You’ll discover how to find your credit report, review all of the information in it, and learn how you can repair and spruce it up. You’ll learn how to communicate with creditors and how to budget so that you can pay your bills in full and on time. You’ll learn how to apply these credit strategies to all life situations, from building credit with your life partner to financially surviving a divorce, unemployment, and student loans. You will find out how to safe-guard your identity so that other people don’t damage your credit. Find out how to:

• Take charge of your credit
• Get help from credit counselors
• Request copies of your credit report
• Know how to interpret your credit report and credit score
• Avoid foreclosure
• Communicate with collectors, lawyers, and the courts
• Manage medical debt
• Safe-guard your identity

Complete with lists of ten tips to avoid identity theft and reduce damages, ten ways you can prevent foreclosure, ten methods for establishing and improving credit, and ten strategies for handling financial emergencies, Credit Repair Kit For Dummies, 2^nd Edition is your one-stop guide to improving and maintaining your credit score and protecting your identity.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Avoid bankruptcy, foreclosure, and identity theft

All the tools you need to build, rebuild, and maintain great credit

Need to clean up your credit? This up-to-date resource is packed with action plans for repairing a bad report, paying down debt, and repairing a bad credit report. You'll discover how to dispute inaccurate information, communicate with collectors and creditors, set financial goals, and build a good credit history. You'll also see how to avoid scams — and take action if you're victimized.

Discover how to:

• Obtain and maintain your credit report

• Build new, strong credit

• Handle annoying collection calls

• Locate credit counseling

• Manage your finances wisely

About the Author

Steve Bucci is the President of Money Management International and a nationally syndicated columnist for the financial mega-site Bankrate.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 364 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 2 edition (July 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470276738
• ISBN-13: 978-0470276730
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #342,633 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

149 of 160 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't get down to the nitty-gritty credit repair tactics, April 27, 2006

By 

A.Marie - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Credit Repair Kit For Dummies (Paperback)

I'm lukewarm about this book.

This book is good if you want general credit information but the title "Credit Repair" is misleading. If your credit is really jacked up like mine then this book won't cut it. I'd suggest doing online research to find out how you can repair your credit.

The book should have covered things like "pay for delete" which is a negotiation tactic that you use with collection agencies in which you pay the amount that you owe and they delete the negative tradeline off of your credit report. This is something that you would need to get in writing before making the actual payment.

Another term that the book should have covered is "restrictive endorsement". This is when you give your creditors a check w/ stipulations in the memo like "by cashing this check you are agreeing that this debt is paid in full" or "by cashing this check, you are agreeing to remove the negative tradeline off of my credit report". Note that this does not hold up in every state so you must be careful.

This book doesn't really touch on HIPAA information which is needed if you want to remove medical accounts (that have gone to collections) off of your credit report.

My suggestion if your credit is really bad is to do online research to figure out how to clean it up. This book is nothing more than definitions and you could get those online as well.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Must-read for college students, December 20, 2006

By 

Elizabeth Lewin (Westport, CT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Credit Repair Kit For Dummies (Paperback)

As a financial planner and co-author of Making Bread: The Ultimate Financial Guide for Women Who Need Dough, I recommend this book for every college student. They need to know how to use credit wisely and this book will help them understand how it can be done. More importantly, students will learn what happens when they abuse credit. Few, if any, understand how bad credit will affect their future ability to borrow money. Money management should be a required course for college students. It is not, and they go into the adult world as financial illiterates. This book will open their eyes to what can happen.

Elizabeth Lewin

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Information Source for All Users of Credit, October 12, 2006

By 

Grace Park (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Credit Repair Kit For Dummies (Paperback)

This book helped me get back to the basics of managing my credit - because unbeknownst to and forgotten by many, credit indeed needs to be managed! Also the chapter on budgeting was very useful. Stephen Bucci uses wit and simple everyday language to make the book not only easy to understand and follow, but also engaging. A good purchase for those who need a refresher or reference for real life credit related problems!