Let’s assume the Sheriff or that seedy character has caught up with you and now you have this formidable stack of legal papers in front of you. What are you going to do now? Who do you call? You’re only human and probably too embarrassed to talk to anyone so you put the stack of papers on the dresser and forget about them. That is a big no-no. Why is this? When you finally read the stack of papers you need to take note of the very first sentences. Here the court is informing you and the person suing you there is a pre-trial conference scheduleded.

This simply means there is no trial date set yet. There is a way for the court to bring both parties together to try and negotiate a settlement. Now isn’t that strange? Here I am trying to teach you how to negotiate your debts and here’s the court system ORDERING both parties to try and negotiate the debt. My, isn’t this ironic in that you have waitied for the legal system to order you to do that which I am trying to teach you.

I will say this one time. It is very important to understand that you finally have an opportunity to talk to someone about your past debt, whether or not you owe the amount being sued for or not. Remember when the moron called you on the phone, berating you for not paying your debts? You were very honest and wanted to talk to someone about how much you owed and whether or not you could make a payment arrangement. But you got stuck with the village idiot who wasn’t in the least interested in your plight. This why I don’t want you to talk on the phone with, or heaven forbid, call a bill collector.

If you do not have any money to pay the bill, you can always negotiate a settlement. Be prepared. Bring a copy of your paycheck, car payment, rent payment, phone bill and all other bills. the meidator will figure out how much you can afford to pay on a bill and in most cases the suing party will accept the mediator’s award. If you are not prepared, how can anyone determine your ability to pay?

REMEMBER THIS! If you do not how up to mediation you will automatically lose. The judge will not have even seen the case. Just because you failed to show up the opposing party automatically gets awarded whatever they asked for. Whether or not you owed anything, they will get it. So is it worth it to show up and defend yourself? Absolutely. Even if you do not have any money, the courts will always work out something that is fair.

In my next article we’ll finish up mediation settlements and move on to the actual court appearance.

Chuck Lunsford is the owner and developer of EasyFloridaHomeLoans.com He offers advice on how to get your credit in order and working for you. Visit his website and learn more about how to obtain a florida mortgage lender with bad or no credit.

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When you apply for credit - whether for a car loan, mortgage, credit card, etc., information in your credit file is fed into a statistical model. That model assigns a numerical score designed to predict your risk as a borrower. The higher the score, the safer the borrower (from the creditor’s point of view). Credit scores have been utilized by lenders for over 20 years, but have only become common practice in the mortgage business in the past 5 years. The most widely recognized score for the mortgage industry is the FICO, or Fair Isaac Score. There are three credit bureaus in the country of which each have their own names for the FICO score. The FICO score actually is from Experian, while Equifax uses Beacon scores and Trans Union has Empirica scores.

How does my Credit Score affect getting a mortgage?

FICO scores range from approximately 350 to 875 points. The higher the number, the lower the risk of default. A high credit score may often mean a speedy and competitively priced mortgage loan. On the contrary, a low score could mean higher interest rates, and more documentation. Many lenders do not make loans to consumers with scores under 620. (But Florida Mortgage Group does!)

How can I get my credit score raised?

It may take some time, but it can be done.

Be sure to make all payments on time.

Keep balances on open accounts as low as possible.

Close the accounts that you’re not using. (Credit is good - too much credit will hurt your score.)

Keep inquiries to a minimum. Don’t let anyone access your credit report unless they have good reason to. (Inquires made by the person listed on the credit report does not affect credit scores.)

It is a good idea to periodically check your report to see what is being reported to your credit file. You may contact the 3 credit bureaus directly and request a copy of your report. If there is information in your credit file that is incorrect, re-contact the 3 credit bureaus, and dispute the inaccuracies. Information must be presented to all three bureaus to ensure it will be corrected properly. Your score cannot be changed by any other source than the 3 bureaus. Here are their phone numbers.

Equifax (800) 685-1111

Experian (888) 397-3742

Trans Union (800) 888-4213

Adrian Skiles, GML

Adrian Skiles, GML has over 20 years experience in the mortgage and real estate industry. He is currently President/Broker of Florida MortgageGroup, Atlanta Mortgage Group and The Mortgage Group of North Carolina. On the web at http://www.efloridamortgagegroup.com/, http://www.atlantamortgagegroup.com/ and http://www.mortgages-northcarolina.com/.

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Have you ever seen an ad that read, “Repair Your Credit -Guaranteed!” or “Perfect Credit in 30 Days!” or some similar ad? Sounds great. Who doesn’t want a better credit rating?

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