Getting Credit Help

If you feel you're being unfairly treated concerning your credit, you can invoke your rights by filing a complaint and contacting the Federal Trade Commission or your state agency. It always helps to have a witness or some documented proof to verify your claim.

Tips for Getting the Results You Want
Before you blow-up and go into a place of business and start shouting, sit down and figure out exactly what happened and what you want them to do about it. (Do you want a replacement product, an apology, a refund?)

Before you contact federal or state government office for help, you should make the effort to solve the problem yourself. Following the outline below can help you save time and hassles.

• First let the business know you have a problem. Talk to the business owner, manager, main office or whoever is in charge.
• Be clear about your problem and ask the business to remedy the situation. Be specific about the action you want the business to take.
• If your issue is not resolved, follow up with a letter — that way you have a record of your request. Be sure to refer to your initial conversation in the letter.

Keep copies of all correspondence. Also keep all original receipts, cancelled checks and credit card statements. If a business needs to see your documents, provide a copy—never an original.

If you do not have records, start keeping them:

• Keep a copy of all letters and correspondence.
• Keep a log of all calls and conversations with the company and include the date and the time of the call, what was said and the name of the person with whom you spoke.

If you don't get results, contact your federal or state government agency.

Compile here is a list directory of federal and state agencies equipped to handle your complaint. They also have online many consumer resources with could benefit and protect your life and your families.

Federal Trade Commission
Agency
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint


Government Agencies By State - alphabetical order

Alabama
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Alaska
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Arizona
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

California
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Colorado
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Connecticut
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection

Delaware
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection

District of Columbia
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Florida
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Georgia
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Hawaii
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Idaho
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Illinois
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Indiana
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Iowa
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Kansas
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Kentucky
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Louisiana
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Maine
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Marshall Islands
Office of Attorney General

Maryland
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Massachusetts
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Michigan
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Minnesota
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Minnesota
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Missouri
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Montana
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Nebraska
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Nevada
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

New Hampshire
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

New Jersey
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

New Mexico
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

New York
Office of Attorney General
File a Complaint

Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

North Carolina
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

North Dakota
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint (form)

Northern Mariana Islands
Office of Attorney General

Ohio
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Oklahoma
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Oklahoma
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Oregon
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Pennsylvania
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Puerto Rico
Office of Attorney General

Rhode Island
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint (form)

South Carolina
Office of Attorney General
File a Complaint

South Dakota
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Tennessee
Office of Attorney General

Texas
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Utah
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint (email)

Vermont
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint (email)

Virgin Islands
Office of Attorney General

Virginia
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Washington
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

West Virginia
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Wisconsin
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint

Wyoming
Office of Attorney General
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint (request form by email)

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Non-Profit Organization and Advocate

Consumer Action
Organization
Consumer Protection
File a Complaint
An education and advocacy organization specializing in credit, finance, and telecommunications issues, Consumer Action offers a multi-lingual consumer complaint hotline, free information on its surveys of banks and long-distance telephone companies, and consumer education materials in as many as eight languages. Community-based organizations can receive these free publications in bulk.

Consumer Federation of America (CFA)
Organization
CFA is a consumer advocacy and education organization. It currently represents consumer interests on issues such as, telephone service, insurance and financial services, product safety, indoor air pollution, health care, product liability, and utility rates. It develops and distributes studies of various consumer issues, as well as consumer guides in book and pamphlet form. In addition, CFA publishes several newsletters.

HALT:An Organization of Americans for Legal Reform
Organization
HALT's mission is to enable Americans to handle their legal affairs affordably, equitably, and simply. HALT publishes a series of self-help legal manuals, operates a legal information clearinghouse, and advocates for legal reforms which will benefit consumers.

National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators (NACAA)
Organization
An association of the administrators of local, state, and Federal Government consumer protection agencies, NACAA provides training programs, public policy studies and conferences, professional publications, and other member services.

National Consumer Law Center (NCLC)
Organization
NCLC is an advocacy and research organization focusing on the needs of low-income and elderly consumers. Limited resources prevent the organization from responding to individual inquiries. The Center publishes Surviving Debt: A Guide for Consumers. NCLC Reports, a newsletter on consumer law developments, is published 24 times a year.

Who's who in the credit world

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
This is die federal agency in charge of anything to do with credit (along with many other aspects of our economy). You can send them written complaints, particularly if you cant resolve a dispute with a credit bureau or card issuer. The national office is in Washington, DC., and there are regional offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago. Cleveland. Dallas, Denver. Los Angeles. New York, San Francisco, and Seattle.

Creditors
These are the people to whom you owe money. A secured creditor is someone who extends you credit in return for your pledge that they can sell designated property of yours if you fail to repay the loan properly. An unsecured creditor is still entitled to be repaid somehow, but doesn't have the right to take and sell any specific property.

Credit guarantee company
When the store clerk runs your card through its machine, the clerk is contacting a credit guarantee company. This company, a liaison between the card issuer and the store, sends back the status of your credit to let the clerk know whether to make the sale, reject it. or even keep your (arc! so you can't use it anymore.

Merchant banks and issuing banks
When you buy, something using a card from Visa or MasterCard, the seller receives its payment from a "merchant' bank (minus a service fee that's typically 1%, to 6%, of your purchase). !'he merchant bank then is reimbursed by the "issuing'' bank (minus a service fee that's typically 1% or 2%) - The issuing bank is the one who issued you the card and the one who sends you a monthly statement requesting payment.

Visa and MasterCard
These competing organizations don't issue credit cards. They provide operational and marketing support for the banks who issue their cards. The banks are allowed to set their own credit terms, including the interest rate, grace period, and annual fee, as long as they stay within the guidelines of their member organization. Beside generating income from consumers Visa and MasterCard also charge merchants a percentage of each purchase made with their card.

Bankruptcy

Your creditors will be more interested in finding a way to get back their money than in forcing you into bankruptcy. But bankruptcy is an acceptable legal process that seeks the best resolution for you and your creditors. Although it's preferable to avoid the intrusion, stigma, and future credit problems that bankruptcy brings, sometimes it's the best solution. Once you apply to the courts, all collection efforts against you must stop, you're not allowed to take on new debts, and your assets are frozen.

You have two options:

Ask for a plan
You can apply for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Here, you ask the court to create a workable plan and to carry it out. Your assets are frozen and a court-appointed person ('trustee") takes control of your finances. The trustee's job is to analyze your assets, income, and debts, then create the plan to distribute your assets to creditors as fairly as possible and in an orderly manner.

Usually, you'll he allowed to keep a certain amount of "exempt" assets in order to maintain a reasonable, modest lifestyle. Your income is usually protected so you can continue to support your family.

Once your assets have been distributed, the balance of your debts will be forgivenexcept for certain obligations, such as child support, alimony, and criminal liability. So, depending on your circumstances, you could he debt-free; although you'll have a damaged credit record that will take time to rebuild.

The process
1. Good professional guidance is advisable, but there are also self filing forms available from books or the local court. (Filing fees are around $200.1 You may file for Chapter 7 only every six years. There's no limit on filing for Chapter 13.)

2.You'll be asked to provide verification of

• income and property owned
• debts
• monthly living expenses
• property you're claiming as exempt

3. After you've tried, you'll attend a "creditors' meeting." Here, creditors can state their cases before the trustee, who then decides what's to he done. Since there usually isn't enough money for everyone, creditors accept a fraction of what they're owed.

4. A bankruptcy stays on your credit report for 10 years. When you begin applying for credit again, some lenders-but not all-will consider you too great a risk. By using tools such as secured credit cards, you can gradually rebuild a positive credit profile.

Create your own plan
Applying for Chapter 13 protection is similar to Chapter 7, but gives you more flexibility to resolve your debts as you see fit.

After filing, you present the court with your own scheme to repay your creditors, usually within three to five years. Generally. you must pledge all your disposable income (what's left after reasonable fixing expenses) to then plan.

If the court accepts your plan, you'll make you, payments to the court-appointed trustee, who will monitor your situation and distribute the money to your creditors. At the end of the process, you'll I w allowed to keep your remaining property, all cI the balance of any debts will he wiped out (unless, by law, they can't be discharged).

If the court doesn't accept your plan, you may he able to submit another plan or switch to Chapter 7.

What's protected, what's not. Some debts are dischargeable (they'll be forgiven even if you don't repay in full). Some assets are exempt (they can't be used to repay debt). Here are some examples of dischargeable and exempt assets in some states; be sure to consult an attorney.


DEBTS:
Dischargeable
back rent, utility bills,
personal loans,
legal or accounting fees,
court judgments

Cannot be discharged
alimony, credit card charges,
child support, tax obligations,
student loans, medical bills,
fines

ASSETS:
Exempt
your main car, tools of your trade, food, clothes, family heirlooms

Not exempt
luxury items, limited personal property, investments, cash


Notes:
Secured loans. Creditors with secured loans loans for which you've specifically pledged your home, car, or other property) are first in line to be repaid from the sale of that property.

Fraud warning. Some people try to use courts to avoid debts. It you've transferred property, withdrawn lots of cash, or bought luxury items immediately prior to filing, a court will investigate the possibility of fraud.