Notes
Things that keep coming up.
Not a content strategy. These are written when something happens often enough in the office that it seems worth writing down once, so we can hand it to the next person instead of explaining it again.
What a dispute actually does
The thirty-day clock, why sending it to the furnisher as well matters more than the letter itself, and how to read the three answers you can get back.
Read it
Credit repair is not debt settlement
They get sold from the same call centres and they do opposite things to your file. One is about accuracy. The other is about paying less, at a cost.
Read it
Medical debt: the rules changed
Paid medical collections have not been reportable since 2022, and unpaid ones under $500 since 2023. We still find them on reports most weeks.
Read it
Also worth reading
The four basics guides.
How credit scores actually work
There is no single score, the five factors are not equally weighted, and the version your bank shows you is probably not the one a mortgage lender will use.
Utilisation, and why it moves fastest
The one factor that has no memory. Get it down this month and the effect lands next month — which makes it the most useful lever in the whole system.
Hard and soft inquiries
Checking your own credit does nothing. Applying for things does. And the rate-shopping window means a fortnight of car loan applications counts once.
How long things stay on your report
The single most calming page in this entire subject. Every negative entry has an expiry date, the date is fixed, and it is not the date most people assume.
Nobody here is going to tell you off.
The first conversation is free, it takes about half an hour, and it ends with you knowing what is actually on your file and what can honestly be done about it. If the answer is "nothing we can charge for", we will tell you that, and you will still get the plan.
Not ready to talk to anyone? Take the guide and do it yourself. It is the same method, it costs nothing, and you never have to tell us you used it.