toddkenefsky.com

Ever wondered why one would need life insurance especially as it is seen as an additional expenditure that one might not need. Well, we can surely find somewhere else for that money to go, and the real truth is, we may not really give it much thought until we have a family and begin accruing assets. Life insurance is an insurance policy, just like our auto or homeowner’s insurance, which offers us with added assurance that in any eventuality we will be covered financially. In the case of death, life insurance allows our family to ensure of our end of life needs, that includes burial or cremation at the least, and more depending on how much coverage we purchase.

As we live in the age of credit purchases, we bear a considerable amount of debt through our working years. This includes mortgage and car payments, as well as personal loans, credit cards, and student loans, just to name a few. A majority of companies offer their employees some type of life insurance coverage that can be purchased at a reduced group rate. This can either be a minimal amount or it can be twice your salary, it just depends on your personal situation and which options are available to you. A lot of people prefer to buy life insurance with their personal insurance agent for additional insurance that can be bought for varying amounts of coverage. This enables either the surviving spouse of family members to cover up burial expenses and any other outstanding debts of the decedent. Amounts of coverage vary and chosen based on what the individual would like to provide his or her survivors.

Premiums are based on what type of policy is selected and the age of the person seeking coverage. We are constantly getting mailers in our mailbox for a reduced rate policy if we act now, and frankly speaking, all those terms can be rather confusing. So what is the difference between a whole life policy and a term policy? A term policy is just that; when you are purchasing a definite amount of life insurance for a specified term, generally twenty years. The premium remains the same during this time period and does not build any type of cash value. On the other hand whole life insurance policies, do build cash value, and can be either borrowed against, or cashed in at various stages all through the policyholder’s whole life. Some policies require a physical exam and medical history questionnaire to be completed before coverage can be instated. Usually smokers pay higher premiums as well as people with chronic illnesses that include high blood pressure or diabetes.

Life insurance is a good idea, in particular if you don’t want to leave your family in a helpless situation facing bankruptcy because they can’t make ends meet without you. A number of companies specialize only in life insurance, and local insurance agents that can assist you clarify exactly what you need. Remember the older you get, the more it costs, so if you’re considering a term policy, make sure to buy it when you are young!

Many business owners simply set up shop and instantly start running ads. They never invest any time in designing their marketing or sales strategy. The result is that they lose thousands of dollars and usually don’t get the sales results that they’re after. We’re going to share with you a simple marketing strategy that’s time tested and business proven. It will empower you to get the maximum leverage from your marketing efforts.

Think of the overall market in your city. Your ‘potential market’ is comprised of all the potential buyers of your product or service in your city. To simplify the process, we overlay a ‘Spectrum’, called ‘The Buyer’s Spectrum’, over top of the potential market. Realize that on one end of the spectrum, 3-5% of the market have a preferred vendor (a family member, a business that they’ve been with for years, etc.) and will never buy from you.

On the other end of the spectrum, 3-5% of the market are NOW buyers and respond quickly to virtually any type of marketing. This leaves roughly 90% of the market that doesn’t want to buy what you’re selling right now yet WILL BUY at some future date.

Amazingly enough, the majority of companies focus their marketing efforts exclusively on the 3-5% of the market that are NOW buyers. They leave the remaining 90% of potential customers on the table. Their philosophy is that if a prospect doesn’t buy from them right now, then they discard them and focus on the ones that do want to buy from them. If you share this philosophy, you’re making A BIG MISTAKE!

‘Why’ do you ask? Well, think about a grove of orange trees. If you wanted to pick the ripe oranges, do you think that all of the oranges ripen at the same time? Of course not. The oranges ripen all at different times (we call this ‘The Customer Buying Cycle’). So what do you do, simply pick the few oranges that are ripe and then burn the rest of the field? Once again the answer is no. Yet this is what many companies do.

If you want to get more of the ripe oranges, then what you must do is water, fertilize and nurture the orange tree grove consistently. Bit by bit, the other oranges WILL RIPEN. And when they do, you’re there pick them. Now you may not get them all yet you’ll certainly get the lion’s share.

In the same way, you ‘water, fertilize and nurture’ the 90% of your potential market that doesn’t buy right away. And like the grove of orange trees, bit by bit, they too will ‘ripen’ or buy what you’re offering. If your marketing strategy addresses this, then you will get the lion’s share of the customers.

For you to get most out of your marketing and sales, your marketing strategy must address the phenomenon of both ‘The Buyer’s Spectrum’ and “The Customer Buying Cycle’ to be effective. Make sure to read our article “How To Increase Your Sales By 300% Or More By Effectively Leveraging Follow Up Systems”.

A HOAX? Have you seen the commercials about identity theft wrecking a person’s credit? Well, the truth is that if it happens to you, you can get a brand new social security number from the Social Security Administration. You can be sure that the people who make those commercials don’t want you to know about that!

The following two quotes are from the Federal Trade Commission:

“Your credit repair: self help may be best.”

“Credit repair services have been a big problem for consumers. Credit repair firms typically charge hundreds of dollars for their ongoing services, but don’t deliver on their promises.

The Scam: Everyday, companies nationwide, appeal to consumers with poor credit histories. They promise, for a fee, to clean up your credit report so you can get a car loan, a home mortgage, insurance, or even a job. The truth is, they can’t deliver. After you pay them hundreds or thousands of dollars in fees, these companies do nothing to improve your credit report; most simply vanish with your money.”

End of Federal Trade Commission quotes.

You don’t need to pay firms or attorneys to send out form letters once a month that get limited results. Credit reporting agencies recognize these form letters, and treat them accordingly. It’s better, cheaper and faster if you do your own credit repair.

Below is a complete advanced strategy that anyone can use to repair their credit. It should be sufficient to for most credit repair situations.

Here are the three simple steps you will use to repair your credit. It’s easy. I’ll go into detail later in this article.

1. Obtain your three credit reports. Each credit bureau must furnish everyone with a credit report once a year, if it is requested.

2. Review the reports and locate the negative items. Reading the information on a credit report takes a little effort, but it’s not hard.

3. Dispute the items that you want removed or corrected.

Repairing your credit is not as intimidating, or difficult, as it might seem. It’s as easy as writing a few very simple letters. The best letters are short and direct. This point is very important, and I want you to remember it: “the best letters are short, simple, direct, AND DO NOT look like form letters.” Never offer any explanations whatsoever, unless you are giving an explanation of a negative entry in a credit bureau file that you have been unable to repair.

Your BIG GUN is “Debt Validation.” It is the primary tool you will use when repairing your credit. If a credit reporting agency does not properly validate a debt within thirty (30) days of your request, they must remove the entry from your file. “The time limit is often the key to success for repairing your credit.”

Credit bureaus are merely big filing cabinets that take in vast amounts of information every day. They don’t have the time or resources to check all of the information which comes in on a daily basis. Frequently, the information is wrong, and they never question it!

Here are some things that they would rather you don’t know.

- Credit reporting agencies are subject to the Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1971 and the Consumer Credit Reporting Reform Act of 1996.

- Each item in your credit file must be proven or it cannot remain in the file. If the credit bureau cannot validate the item, it must be removed from your file, whether it’s true, or not. Validation is not simply, “yep, they said it’s yours.” It takes some actual effort.

- Every negative entry on your report can be denied or challenged at any time. The bureau must reinvestigate and if that item cannot be verified within a “reasonable amount of time”, (30 days) it must be removed from the file. However, they do have an option to deem your request “frivolous” under certain conditions.

- Many times the creditor does not re-validate in the time allowed, or the credit bureau is busy and does not handle your dispute properly. The disputed entry must then be deleted.

- The older an item is, the more difficult validation is. It is possible it cannot be validated because records may no longer exist after a year or two.

- As of September of 2005, all credit reporting agencies must provide one copy of each individual’s credit report every year, upon request. The three major nationwide consumer reporting companies have set up one central website and a toll-free telephone number, through which you can order your free annual report.

To order your free credit reports, go to www.annualcreditreport.com or call 877-322-8228. You must obtain copies of your credit report from all three of these major credit reporting agencies. You should do this every year.

NOTE: These companies ARE ALLOWED to charge you for your “credit score.” They don’t like doing anything for free. But, you DO NOT need your credit score.

A free report is all you need. You only need to see the entries that other people have put in your file. Remove negative entries, and your credit scores will automatically improve.

The Credit Bureaus want you to do everything online. Other than getting your reports online from www.annualcreditreport.com, DO NOT contact the Credit Bureaus online at any time. You must use the postal service for ANY credit repair strategy to work.

When you have received and reviewed your credit report, follow these instructions for any negative entries. Send a very brief letter by certified mail with the following information.”I am disputing this item (or these items) on my credit report. (insert a sentence here which explains why you are disputing the items, ie “you are mis-reporting the information,” or “this account is not mine,” etc.) Please verify and validate it (them).”

NOTE: the word “verify” is a very special and strong legal word. In Black’s Law Dictionary, fifth edition, it is defined, “To confirm or substantiate by oath or affidavit.”

Always use the word verify, in any type of dispute letter. You will probably never go to court over a credit dispute, but if you do, it may be important that you have used the word “verify” in your letters. You will need to make it part of the court record that you asked for verification, and that you know its legal definition.

VALIDATION: A COPY of the original contract with your signature on it is NOT validation. It is no more valid than a copy of a $100 bill, or a copy of one of your checks. Anyone can copy your signature.

There is case law involving The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, which states that validation of the debt can either be a signed judgment order, or an accounting which is signed and dated by the person responsible for maintaining the account general ledger. Credit reporting agencies should be held to the same rules for validation. I’ve never had to go to court for this, but I have successfully used these validation standards for my own clients.

Back to your own credit repair. When the credit reporting agencies receive your dispute letters, they will check the item, or items, that you dispute, and give a brief reply. They have a total of 30 days from the receipt of the original certified mail you sent to them, asking for verification. Wait until there are only 10 days left, and send another certified letter stating: Your alleged validation is not sufficient to show that I am a debtor to that creditor. Remove the entry from my file.

They will have insufficient time to check it out, and they must remove it from your file. If for some odd reason they do provide sufficient validation, it must be 100% accurate, or they must remove that information from your file.

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS – only communicate with these people in writing thru the mail. An old axiom is “if it isn’t written, it wasn’t said.”

1. Always send certified letters that make them sign a card when they receive your letter.

2. Always keep copies of everything in a special folder, just in case you ever need to go to court.

3. Always demand an updated copy of your file after the negative items have been removed.

About dispute letters:

- You want to make your letters to look “unprofessional,” so that you don’t raise any Red Flags with the credit bureaus.
- Do not use dispute forms or file numbers provided by the bureau.
- Do not use a “fill in the blanks” form letter.
- Do not use a letterhead.
- Instead, send a simple handwritten letter, or a letter printed from your computer.

WARNING: Do not dispute more than three (3) items on your credit report at any one time. Also, wait sixty (60) days before disputing any other items on your report. There are laws in place which allow the credit reporting agencies to deem your disputes as frivolous if they detect that you are trying to eliminate all negative information on your file.

A word about bankruptcy and other legal items in the public records on your credit report. These items are almost impossible to get off your report without using more advanced strategies.

It is unlikely that you will vastly improve your credit score in thirty days as some promise, but you should see some solid improvement in thirty days. Everyone’s situation is different. In some cases that need only two or three corrections, thirty days might do it.