Friday, December 04, 2009
Reader mail: telephone credit and bankruptcy consultation?
i see that you do not offer consulting by phone, but I was possibly going to file for bankruptcy next week and have a unique situation and need to move quickly. ...
This was a long email about the specific situation and reasons for wanting to do the telephone consultation, but I want to focus on why I don’t do telephone consultations.
The reader obviously doesn’t understand that I need to know A LOT about my clients in order to give the appropriate advice and I’m not Super Woman. I would only talk to clients on the phone if they agreed to pay my regular hourly fee of $200 for the time on the phone AND the time I have to spend afterwards to put the information in their private forum. I estimate that would take anywhere from 2 to 10 or more hours, depending on how much the client has to say.
And that’s BEFORE I even review the credit reports. After I did the credit review, would the client want me to call with my questions and then have me spend a few more hours posting the answers in the forum? Or am I supposed to give advice WITHOUT reviewing the credit reports?
I’ve had VERY wealthy clients, yet none ever asked for telephone service. And that’s probably why they were wealthy—they were efficient and realized that they can only benefit from having all the info posted for MY and THEIR subsequent review.
No professional would give advice based on a quick phone call—that’s for the psychic hot-line.
BTW, I also do NOT consult by email. Every client gets a private forum, every account gets a topic and every question / issue gets a topic. Correctly reported/deleted accounts and completed discussions are moved to the “DONE” folder, but remain in the forum for future reference. As long-time readers know, the credit bureaus sometimes revert back to the incorrect reporting.
I’ve had many years to refine my methods for maximum efficiency.
OUR time is valuable. Not only do my clients benefit from a well organized presentation of their accounts and issues, but when they need additional services a year later, all the information is still there—a tremendous time saver. Most clients don’t need subsequent services because they can review my recommendations and the actual reporting of the accounts and they can post a quick question at no charge as long as I don’t have to review the new reports. Often it only takes a few minutes to scan the previous posts and tell the client what to do.
I realize that most people don’t want to spend the time to discuss account details and they prefer to spend a few bucks on credit repair services instead of having to work.
That’s why we have Stephen Snyder, Lexington and all the other credit repair outfits. Their services have NOTHING to do with improving credit, as they focus on DELETION of derogatory accounts through frivolous moronic disputes.
Only a COMPLETELY INCOMPETENT credit consultant would strive for deletion of late payments, charge-offs and discharged accounts without thorough analysis of all three reports. Please see my post:
There are the technical aspects of credit reporting and scoring, but when it comes to deciding whether to file for bankruptcy, I have to consider many more aspects of my clients’ lives. I’ve had clients who contacted me initially to improve their credit scores, I recommended bankruptcy, they discharged their credit card debt and a year later they had the FICO scores to buy a house with the LOWEST FIXED rates.
Others want to file for bankruptcy and I recommend against it. It all depends not only on the client’s financial situation, but also on the client’s personality. It takes significant interaction to try to determine what will be best for each PERSON.
Advice for everybody:
Once you file for bankruptcy, it will count as a bankruptcy for your credit scores even if you do NOT discharge any debts, dismiss the filing and pay all your accounts in full. The credit bureaus can legally report the bankruptcy filing because it is on the public record.
The bankruptcy filing can NOT be undone.
I usually recommend to prospective clients who have filed for bankruptcy to wait with ordering personal services until after they have discharged (or confirmed the Ch. 13) and to subscribe to CreditFactors and learn about credit concepts. They can also post their questions at the member forum and get free advice to avoid costly mistakes, such as discharging OPEN accounts with small or no balances instead of trying to keep these extremely valuable accounts open.
It is definitely NOT faster to get telephone advice and I’m always willing to prioritize and often get started with new clients on the day they order. But I don’t do miracles and I do have to WORK to come up with recommendations for my clients.
My first step is to review the credit reports and to post all the problem accounts. I OFTEN change my initial assessment of a client’s situation after we discuss the accounts and issues. The credit reporting is important but, by the time we’re done with the credit review or analysis and I know what really happened and what the client’s goals and resources are, my recommendations are very different than they would be if I had only looked at the reports.
Additionally, the client’s mental state is a primary and sometimes deciding factor for my recommendations. Some people have so many other problems and are totally overwhelmed or just too ill to focus on their credit. There is a BIG difference between wanting to fight creditors and collectors and being able to actually follow through.
Credit reporting and scoring are more complex than the IRS tax code and we don’t even have any official publications explaining the rules. Telephone calls are NOT suitable to make recommendations for IMPORTANT issues impacting on peoples’ lives for many years to come.
