The Guerrilla Guide to Credit Repair is a short, sweet little book on seizing control of your own credit report.

It lives up to it’s name too - It includes numerous sample letters, tactics, and spot-on advice about credit reports, credit scores, and removing negative information.

The first section of the book gives specific examples of what your credit report will look like, and how to decipher the “code” it contains. It’s a large section too - the authors really covered all the bases. Sample reports from all three major credit bureaus are featured, and each one has an explanation and breakdown by company.

I’ve read several books on credit repair, and this is the first book Ive seen that actually did a good job of explaining all three credit reports in an easy to understand way. You can look at the sample, look at your own credit report, and read the author’s notations.

The second section of the book covers repairing your credit. Basic and advanced tactics are listed.

Basic credit repair tactics:

• Verify your information with your lenders as well as the credit bureaus - This is also something I’ve not seen suggested elsewhere, but it makes perfect sense. If there is incorrect information on your credit report, and you challenge it through the credit bureaus, that’s good. But, if your lender got the information wrong in the first place, they can simply verify it incorrectly, and it will remain on your report. You could also dispute, get the item removed, and then see it pop back up at a later date because your lender had the wrong notation on the account. So it’s very good advice to contact all three credit bureaus, plus the original lender.
• The dispute system is automated, and persistence will win out - Refusing to let an issue go, and continuing to press your point can take your report out of the automated slush pile, and into the hands of a human being. Step by step tactics are given several times within this section.
• Know your rights - They are all here in this book, clearly listed, and already inserted into appropriate letters of dispute. I don’t think it gets any easier than that.

Playing Hardball: Advanced Credit Repair Tactics

This section is dedicated to helping you negotiate with the credit bureaus and your creditors.

Know your enemy:

Sometimes you have to take the incorrect information up with the people who put it there in the first place. The Guerrilla Guide to Credit Repair gives specific negotiation plans for all of the following:

• Specific tips for negotiating with Retail Stores - Start your negotiations with the customer service department. Specific sample letters cover your various degrees of leverage. Things like what to say if you are up to date on your payments, all the way to making settlement offers for seriously past due accounts.
• Negotiating with Banks and Mortgage Lenders - The authors suggest that these types of disputes are better handled through the credit bureaus than with the original lenders. The book includes a multi-step strategy for overcoming the negative bank or mortgage information on your credit report. It also gives letters that should be sent as follow-ups to your disputes.
• Bank Issued Credit Cards - Direct negotiations with your credit card companies work best when you are past due, and have some amount of money that you can pay them that day. They are usually willing to erase quite a bit of information from your credit report in exchange for a payment.
• Auto Loans - Dispute negative information about your auto loans through the credit bureaus, not the original lender.
• Student Loans - Try disputing through the credit bureaus first. Otherwise, if the account is in collections you can follow the plan for dealing with collection agencies.
• Medical Debt - Tips for dealing with your doctors to get them to mark the debt as paid, as well as how to deal with medical collection companies.
• Collection Agencies - You can agree to a lump sum payment in exchange for the removal of the item from your credit report. You can also question the validity of the debt, which may end up getting it written off completely.
• Public Records - You can try to negotiate with the creditor, or creditor’s attorney. Steps to help you “Vacate” a judgment.

The last section of the book contains complete copies of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

These two pieces of legislation are boring, but necessary since they are the laws that protect you and your credit history. They govern what the lenders, collections agencies, and credit bureaus can and cannot do.

The good news is, there’s really no reason to have to sit and read either of these acts if you don’t want to. The necessary references have already been included in the sample letters when and where they were needed. So, having this book is like having 50 percent of the work already completed for you.

The Guerrilla Guide to Credit Repair gives you the step by step plans you need, all the tools to make the plans work, and makes it easy enough that cleaning up your credit report should never stress you to death.

I really was amazed by this little book, and I don’t say that lightly. If you have derogatory information on your credit report, and you want THE resource that will tell you how to remove it, yes. This book is the one you want.

There is only one problem with the book, and it’s not the fault of the book itself. I believe that some of the contact information for the three credit bureaus is out of date. Since the three bureaus regularly change their contact information (phone, address, P.O. Boxes, etc.) it’s impossible for any single edition of a book to remain correct for very long.

So, if you do buy this book, or check it out from the library, follow the action plans exactly. Just make sure you jump online and double check the addresses before you send any correspondence off.

To sum up the Guerrilla Guide to Credit Repair in a single sentence: Having a well thought out plan of attack, with specific instructions is priceless.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has mistakes or bad information in their credit report. I cannot say enough good about it. If you take action using the plans in this book, and you are persistent about it, I believe you could have most anything removed from your credit report. Definitely do not waste hundreds of dollars paying someone else to clean up your credit report for you. The Guerrilla Guide to Credit Repair lays everything out so simply that it’s easy to get the results you need for the cost of the book and a few certified / registered letters.

Have a question for us? Leave a comment below!

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• The ABC’s of Getting Out of Debt
• Healing Your Financial Soul
• Credit After Bankruptcy: A Book Review

This is a book that I have really been looking forward to reviewing. I am very glad that I finally got the chance.

Just after I declared bankruptcy, I was researching ways to repair my own credit, and I ran across Stephen Snyder’s website. He is the author of this book, “Credit After Bankruptcy” and he has an excellent series of free newsletters that I made good use of when I began my own journey of recovery.

At that time I didn’t consider buying and reading the book that went along with the emails though. So, I was very happy to find it on the list of used books available on Amazon.com. Although the book does contain some of the same information mentioned in his emails, there was quite a bit of entirely new information too. Here are a few of the highlights:

Snyder Begins the book with a laundry list of some historical, and very famous people who have all declared bankruptcy.

• Thomas Jefferson
• Larry King
• Francis Ford Coppola
• Kim Basinger
• Burt Reynolds
• Donald Trump
• Abe Lincoln (Abe Lincoln?? Are you serious?)

Well, I was a bit encouraged by the list…after all it seems past bankruptcies do not always prevent future success..at least, if the names on that list are any indication. I know that I very much want to be successful. I don’t want to live my life they way I did before my bankruptcy. So any bit of knowledge that I can understand, and put into practice, is very valuable to me.

Happily, this book was full of knowledge. Better yet, it was easy to read, and I am betting that it will be easy enough to actually use the information that it gives.

Chapter 1: The story of Stephen and Michele.

Their bankruptcy was caused by living beyond their means. Stephen changed jobs, which reduced their income, but they kept right on living they way that they had always lived. Even though they no longer had the income to support their lifestyle.

They did not file their bankruptcy jointly, as my husband and I did. Instead Stephen’s wife Michele filed first, using a lawyer, and Stephen filed shortly afterwards on his own, with no legal representation. They quickly made, and quickly broke the resolution to never use credit again. They made several other resolutions though, and they did manage to keep those. Some of the foremost resolutions included:

• Radically changing their spending habits and thinking about the proper use of money.
• Save 10% of their income.
• Donate 10% of their income.
• Live within their means.
• Find a home church and attend.

They did make good on their other resolutions, and this book is the story of how they did it. It did turn out to be a good thing for them that they returned to using credit as quickly as possible. The Snyder’s were able to have a much better quality of life faster than if they had returned to cash only. This is 100% because they managed their credit correctly though.

I do not believe that it is advisable for everyone who is fresh out of a bankruptcy to begin using credit immediately. Especially if credit cards are what led you to bankruptcy in the first place. From my own experience, I think that a return to using credit should only happen when you reach the level that Stephen and Michele did - when you understand completely how it works, and how to help yourself (instead of hurt yourself) by using it.

Chapter 4: Why Re-establishing Credit is Important

I skipped chapters two and three here because they dealt with the Snyder’s qualifications to teach about bankruptcy recovery, and a definition of what bankruptcy is. Chapter 4 went into a lot more detail about why you should work hard to raise your credit scores again once your bankruptcy has been discharged. Stephen presents a six step strategy for bankruptcy recovery. These are good sounds steps, and they would probably benefit a lot of people who have not yet declared bankruptcy, or are in dire financial straits.

1. Make Life Changing Decisions about how you handle your money -Decide exactly what your problem with managing money is, work to fix those problems, and then make a new plan of action.
2. Strategically Go Into Debt Using Mainstream Lenders - This is the part I have the most problem with, even though I know it is necessary in order to rebuild my credit. After my bankruptcy, I didn’t want any more debt. Even if it was “helpful debt”. So, while I choose to have and maintain credit accounts, I typically borrow as little as possible, and never more than I can pay back within a month’s time.
3. Commit to Paying Your Bills Early - This does help avoid getting new black marks on your credit report, and it is an essential step towards rebuilding credit. There are months when I may make several payments on my credit cards. I do this partly because I know how important not making late payments is, but also because it ensures that I do not carry a balance on my cards from month to month. After my own BK experience, I figured it was better to be overzealous when making payments, than to not pay enough attention.
4. Become Debt Free - Well bankruptcy pretty much wipes out nearly all debts, so it goes a long way toward making you debt free. Also included in this step is learning to live within your means by actually living on less than you make. That’s pretty much some of the best financial advice ever, and I was glad to see it come up in this book - a book that is completely about using credit again after your bankruptcy!
5. Repair Your Credit - This is the point where you strategically take on new loans, and correct any mistakes on your credit report. Snyder also warns that this step is not free!
6. The sixth step is considered optional, but Snyder advises paying back the debt that you declared bankruptcy with. - I think this would be a very healing thing to do. I hope that some day I can afford to do that.

While these are the basic steps for success (and they are repeated throughout the book) I found a literal ton of examples, and advice that I believe will help me in the future.

Besides bankruptcy recovery tips, Snyder included specific questions to ask your future lenders, the best way to finance a house and a car after bankruptcy, and a specific formula that lenders use when deciding whether or not to give you a loan. All of which was invaluable. But the real surprise, and the thing that I liked most about this book was that there are several large sections on personal development.

I think that when you have a mistake as large and looming as bankruptcy, it’s probably wise to spend some time on personal development. At least, I have found that to be true in my own life. The more I read, and the more I expose myself to the knowledge of those who have walked the same path, the easier it is for me to change my own bad habits.

I do place one caveat on this book: It is the personal story of Stephen and Michele Snyder. To some degree, what worked for them can work for me or you. However, it is just one story. It is not a far-reaching, all-encompassing story, it is their story. So please, take the advice given with that grain of salt. They understand the situation far better than someone who has not been through bankruptcy, but their words are definitely colored by their own experiences.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has declared bankruptcy. If for no other reason than after you read it, you will have a little more hope than you did before. You are not alone. I am out here, recovering, and they Snyders, they have recovered too. It’s never an easy thing, but it can be done. And Stephen has given us a clear road map with markers that show us the fastest, and easiest methods of recovering from a bankruptcy.

If you are going to buy this book, or check it out from the library, I recommend checking it out along with The Complete Guide To Credit Repair.

This is because the Snyders recommend using a company to help clean up your credit report (which is expensive!) and the Complete Guide to Credit Repair shows you how to do it on your own. I think right now you can get them both used, on Amazon for under $10. Or better yet, for free from the library!

Have a question for us? Leave a comment below!

Keep Reading:

• Buying A Car After Bankruptcy
• Being Organized During Bankruptcy Can Save You Thousands of Dollars
• The Complete Guide To Credit Repair

Okay, so this is another Kiyosaki book. (Of Rich Dad Poor Dad fame). Actually, it’s a “Friends of Kiyosaki” book, run under the heading “Rich Dad’s Advisors”.

Let me give you the intro by Kiyosaki here:

“My poor dad often said, “What you know is important.” My rich dad said, “If you want to be rich, who you know is more important than what you know.”

Rich dad explained further saying, “Business and investing are team sports.” The average investor or small business person loses financially because they do not have a team. Instead of a team they act as individuals who are trampled by very smart teams.

That is why the Rich Dad’s Advisors will offer guidance to help you know who to look for and what kinds of questions to ask so you can gather your own great team of advisors.

That’s it. The rest of the book is not by Kiyosaki, but by an author named Garret Sutton, Esq. I did think this was an elegant way of introducing a new team of writers under Kiyosaki’s valuable marketing name. Frankly I don’t think Kiyosaki allowed the publishing company to use his name because it’s better to work as a team, I think it was a smart way to jump on the Kiyosaki bandwagon and sell some copies.

However, that’s just my observation. Whether the book is written by Kiyosaki or not, really has no bearing on whether it’s a good book or not. So, let’s take a look at some of the details!

Chapter One: Credit and Debt

I was very surprised to see that the first chapter contained only two (most likely fictional) examples of the evils of credit card debt.

I certainly agree that credit card debt can be evil. Credit is a wonderful tool when you manage it correctly, and a terrible, terrible thing if you do not. That’s pretty much a fact - at least in my experience. What surprised me about the book though, is that it offered no solutions. There were no strategies for getting out of debt, or paying off your credit cards. Just two, overblown worst case scenarios apparently meant as a warning.

Chapter Two: The Psychology of Debt

According to the book there are four classes of financial personalities. Wishers, Wasters, Wanters and Winners.

Wishers:

Wishers use their credit thoughtlessly. They buy now, pay later constantly, and they give little thought to whether or not they actually can afford to pay the bill later.

Wishers lose out because they only see the minimum payment, rather than the total of their debt.

Wasters:

Wasters spend money as a means of psychological escape. They buy on credit so that they can experience instant gratification, and they never give any thought to their long term goals. They continue spending on credit far past the point where they should stop.

Wanters:

Wanters “want” absolutely everything, and they want it now. They have the worst problem with instant gratification, and they can’t bring themselves to put anything off so that their future might be better.

Winners:

Winners, apparently, borrow money to make themselves rich. They finance land rather than sweaters, and they find a way to hand someone else the tab. Yup. that’s the explanation!

Here’s a little more detail:

Good Debt Makes You Rich:

Good debt involves someone else paying off the debt for you. An excellent example of a good debt is a real estate investment loan in which a tenant pays rental income in excess of the mortgage and related expenses. An SBA (Small Business Administration) loan that allows your business to grow is another example of good debt (so long as your business can pay it off). The best loans are nonrecourse loans which require no personal guarantees. Good debt leads to wealth.

Bad Debt Makes You Poor:

Bad debt is something you pay off yourself. Credit cards, car loans, consumer loans, and home mortgages are examples of bad debt. Some bad debt is better than other bad debt. For example, buying a personal residence is in most cases better than buying a car on credit. And while we’re not saying that you shouldn’t buy a personal residence on credit, you must remember that a home mortgage is a bad debt because you yourself must pay it off. Bad debt takes money from your pocket, making you poorer and poorer.

This is really a classic example of Kiyosaki’s thinking. He says frequently throughout Rich Dad, Poor Dad that a mortgage is a bad idea. While I can’t say that I really disagree with these principles, I do find them a little off the wall.

There are so many schools of thought on this, all debt is bad, some debt is bad, debt is ok….

I do actually like that this book takes a bit of an unusual stand: Debt is not bad if it makes you richer. Otherwise, avoid it. I do have to admit that way of thinking makes a lot of sense to me. As an individual though, I prefer to have no debt whenever possible. I think it would be very easy to talk yourself into a “good debt” like rental property, and still come out on the losing end.

In my opinion this book fails to present any system of checks and bounds. It’s a reiteration of the same basic philosophies in Rich Dad Poor Dad, without any workable plans. There is no recommended plan to follow, no road map. Just a lot of theory.

Kiyosaki’s investing book was the same way. It’s like handing someone a map of the United States, and pinpointing New York, and saying..”This is where you need to be! Now Ready…Set…Go! Oh, but you have to figure out the map yourself! Or I guess you could by a $500 GPS. But I’m not going to help you, even though I made the same trip! I will make you feel good about it though!”

It’s all well and good to tell people where they should be, but for goodness sake, give some sort of instruction, not just theory. I am sorely disappointed in this book.

At best, it is a rehashing of previously covered concepts. At worst, it is filled with platitudes, and overblown examples that have very little value. It is entertaining, I’ll give it that. The writer did a great job of making it quick and easy to read, but there is very little instructional value.

Final verdict? I want the $10 I spent on the book back, as well as the four hours of my life it took to read it. Skip this one guys. Especially if you’ve ever read any other book by Kiyosaki. You’ve already seen the material.

Keep Reading:

• Greatest Secrets Of The Coupon Mom
• The Complete Guide To Credit Repair
• Healing Your Financial Soul

Coupons give me panic attacks. They seriously do. Just the thought of taking a cart full of groceries, and a fist full of coupons up to the cash register makes me ill. The checkout lane suddenly becomes a battleground. Fighting tooth and nail with a distraught, overworked cashier just to save 30 ¢ off my box of Capn’ Crunch makes me want to pull my hair out and run screaming in the other direction.

Nevertheless, I like my money, and I have no desire to spend more of it than I have to. After all, I don’t want to make Proctor and Gamble rich, I want to make my family rich!

So the idea of learning to use coupons correctly has been “sharking” me for a while. (Do you know what “sharking” is? It’s when you get an idea into your head that you’re not quite comfortable with. You really wish the idea would go away, but there it is…swimming around in your brain, circling you, accompanied by scary music… until you just know it’s going to pounce on you and rip you to shreds.)

Well, that’s me and coupons. I know I can save my family money by using them. I know that it really shouldn’t be all that difficult either. I also know that the amount of money I’ll save might actually make it worth my time.

So, in an effort to believe that coupons are not, in fact, intended for use in psychological warfare, I sat down and read the “Greatest Secrets of The Coupon Mom” by Stephanie Nelson.

There were some really good, and really bad parts to this book. As far as the really bad parts, there were two.

• The book was basically a large advertisement for her website - No, don’t click away yet! There were some redeeming qualities. (I’ll explore them in detail just a little further down)
• The examples she gave within the book might as well have been in Swahili - They reminded me of those aptitude tests that we all had to take in school:

Mary had 7 apples. She split three apples in half and gave two apples plus one half of an apple to John. Then Mary gave 3 half-apples to Margret and one more apple to Sam. How many apples did Mary have left?

No, that’s not real example from the book, (thankfully). But the books example’s were all like that: Just this side of being immediately understandable. You can figure them out, with a little thought and patience. Just like I know I can figure this whole coupon thing out, with a little thought and patience.

So, that’s the bad stuff. Let’s talk about what the Coupon Mom did right!

• She gave excellent, clear resources to sites besides her own too - Instructions for where to go to get printable coupons, a brief overview of UPromise, BoxTops for Education, and tons of other ways to stretch your dollar ever further are covered.
• Waiting for a “sale price” and then using your coupon is clearly explained - If you save 50 cents off of a $1 item, great! But if you wait until that $1 item is on sale for 60 cents, and then use your 50 cent coupon, even better!
• She spends a lot of time explaining why you need to know your store’s policy on coupons and sales - She gives a list of simple questions that you can take with you to ask someone at your store. Then she goes on to show how knowing each of the answers will help you save even more money on your everyday purchases.
• Nelson (The Coupon Mom) does not believe that you should change what you shop for in order to save money - Instead she believes that you should change how you shop, and when you shop for those items. That was good news for me, since I’m a little bit snobbish about my “choice” brands. I like what I like!

The thing that I liked most about this book wasn’t that it made me any more comfortable with coupons (because it didn’t). No, the thing I liked most is that she spends the entire last half of the book talking about how you can buy food for pennies and donate it to a local food bank - to help out in your own community.

As it turns out, The Coupon Mom.com (her website) is completely free to use. She has created a charity called Cut Out Hunger where she’s taken the food bank donations to a whole new level.

So, I have to admit, the thought of cutting as much as 50% off my own grocery bill, and being able to give to charity at the same time - without paying for her service - well, it sounded too good to be true.

“I’ll just see about this!” I thought. And like a good little lemming, I went to check out her website. I just wanted to see if she was the “real deal” or if there was some sneaky back door subscription service she was trying to wrangle me into.

And there it is - the front page of her site. Hey! She’s been on Oprah! She must be legit!

Uh-oh. I have to sign up to get to see any of the “deals” in my area. Ok. I signed up, and immediately had to click through three affiliate offers. Right now though, I am still giving her the benefit of the doubt. She does say in the book that they way she keeps her website service free is by placing ads on her site. So…let’s press on.

Hey a free E-book that tells me how to cut my grocery bill in half. That’s a nice bonus right off the bat! I’ll have to save that one for another review, but it’s a nice freebie!

So, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty here. What exactly is the service that the Coupon Mom offers? And is it really free?

What’s the deal?

Well, with two quick clicks of my mouse, I got a list of every item that is on sale right now at the Kroger stores in Nashville, TN. The list also specified any coupons I was supposed to use along with the sale price in order to get the best deal. Pretty cool! And it was actually free.

Unfortunately, there was a tiny problem:

I live in Louisville, Ky, not Nashville TN. My city and state did not return any “deals” for me to look at. (Meaning that they have not yet been added to her database. ) There are a lot of places represented though - you may want to check to see if yours is.

The nice thing about having a list of what’s on sale is that it lets you make out your shopping list and prepare your coupons before you go to the store. Since you already know what’s on sale (including the “unadvertised specials”) you can plan to combine coupons with sales so that you save more money in less time.

So, eh, really cool feature! Wish I could use it. The good news is, that’s only half of the free service she offers.

The second part of the service:

The second half of The Coupon Mom’s free service is a real winner in my book! It’s a searchable coupon database! Basically this means that when I get my Sunday paper, I pull the coupons out, but I do not cut them out. Instead, I write the date on the front, and put the whole thing into a file.

Then, when I make out my grocery list, I go to her site, log in, and search the coupon database.

Let’s say I wanted to buy popcorn:

I would search “popcorn” in the database. I would then be shown a quick list of every popcorn coupon available in my area - the same coupons that arrived in my Sunday paper. If I see a coupon I like, I go back to my folder, pull out that circular, and only clip out the popcorn coupon!

Yup, I’m sold on that one. No more time wasted cutting out hundreds of coupons that I might never use? I can just take two seconds to search a database, grab the coupons out of my file, and only cut out what I really need right then. Yes! That I’m sold on. And I don’t even have to pay for it!

So, to finish up the review…would I recommend this book? Sadly, no. But I wholeheartedly recommend the website! And I am excited to check out that free E-Book. Even being a coupon novice I don’t really feel like I learned all that much from this book. The features I mentioned above; references to money savings sites, and a list of questions to take to the grocery store to clarify their policy, those I will use.

I will also definitely consider donating to a food bank with some of the money that I save, if I ever get over my fear of using coupons!

All in all, “Greatest Secrets of the Coupon Mom” was a quick inspiring little read. Just not one I would pay for again if I lost it…

For those who do want the free information and access to the sale and coupon databases, you can visit the Coupon Mom homepage. The website definitely will not disappoint you.

And for those of you who excelled on your aptitude tests….how many apples did Mary have left? Leave me a comment below!

The Complete Guide to Credit Repair by Bill Kelly, Jr. Is a very thorough, smartly written book with a ton of resources. Among other things it includes:

• 67 Unique Sample Letters and Forms and 14 Inserts
• Complete Instruction on how to get and read your credit reports
• How to stop collection agencies
• How to avoid credit scams
• How to start getting your finances back on track

Much of what is covered in this book we cover regularly on this blog. I had already known, and used, many of the steps outlined in this book, and I can tell you that they do work. Still though, I found a lot of new information that I do believe will help me on my own journey to excellent credit. This book was an wonderful reminder to me of one simple thing: Just because I know a lot about something doesn’t mean that there isn’t a whole lot more to learn!

I think the thing that struck me the most about this book is that it presents your credit report as a “hands on” type of thing. I think most of us just assume that our credit files are locked away somewhere, beyond our reach, and that we can only alter them through a lot of effort and a great force of will. The Complete Guide to Credit Repair has a different approach though.

The author, Bill Kelly, Jr. sees your credit report as something that you own, and must maintain - just like a car. Essentially he’s saying that what is in your credit report belongs to you, not the credit bureaus. It is an accounting of your past history, and it effects nearly every aspect of your lives. So he encourages you to own those reports, take an active hand in what appears there, and gives complete instructions on how to easily update your credit reports.

Bits of Wisdom from “The Complete Guide to Credit Repair”:

Kelly stresses throughout the book that any communication you have with lenders, creditors, or collection agencies should be in writing. This is simple advice, but it’s some of the best advice I’ve ever head with regard to fixing your credit rating.

Many, many people get themselves into trouble when dealing with collection agencies - I did at one point. You make a verbal agreement, and then keep your end of the bargain - only to find that the company goes back on their word and wants to change the terms, or that the rep you spoke with no longer handles your account. If you have things in writing, that does not happen. Kelly also suggests sending everything by certified mail so that you have a record of receipt.

Watch out for scams:

There are thousands of credit repair, credit counseling, and debt consolidation companies out there. Kelly gives a short list of ways to protect yourself from the scam artists so that you can weed out the legitimate companies. Ways to spot a rat include:

• “900 Numbers” - If you have to call a 900 number to reach them, then it’s a sure sign of a scam.
• Unspecified or misleading information - Be especially wary of any lender who offers a “gold” card that is really a secured credit card. This is unscrupulous advertising and it comes with a price: High fees, and unusually high interest rates.
• Credit Repair Clinics - Many of these places offer their own cards to you because they are getting kickbacks from the credit card companies. Make sure that any credit repair counselor or clinic is accredited. You can find out more about that in our article “How to tell if a credit counseling service is legit.”

What I loved about The Complete Guide to Credit Repair:

The best part of this book for me, by far, was the chapter on how to read your credit report. Kelly covers the reports from each of the three main credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and Transunion) and gives the most common codes and abbreviations for each report. I can tell you from my own experience trying to repair and correct things on my credit reports, they are not always easy to understand.

Most credit monitoring services do a great job of “dumbing down” the reports and giving you the edited versions. To really repair your credit though, you have to look at the actual reports, not just the summaries. This is where that list of abbreviations and explanations comes in very handy.

Kelly thoroughly covers every code, and clearly spent a great deal of time making sure that you have a complete and usable resource to refer to when you view your own report.

Kelly also offers specific and brilliant ways to deal with your creditors to get them to report things (or not report things) on your credit reports. Sample letters and instructions are included.

This is an awesome book, it really is. If you want to read a more entertaining, “theoretical” approach to credit repair, I recommend Liz Pulliam Weston’s book. But if you want a slightly dry, hands on, how to actually accomplish the nuts and bolts of fixing your credit report guide then you can’t beat this book - you just cant. All the information you need is here, clearly spelled out, in one place.

I bought it for $9.95 at Borders. I’m not sure what the price is at Amazon, but the information in this book is worth far more than that. I found some new techniques to use, and the book is written so well that its actually easy to use. It makes the entire process of understanding and repairing your credit report so simple that I am less intimidated than ever about what I still need to do to fix my own reports. All in all, this is highly recommended - If you truly intend to put the time and effort into updating and correcting your credit reports this is the book you want.

It’s not exactly light reading, I will say that! But it’s informative as it can be, and so full of real, workable letters and tactics that I will be referring to it over and over - I’ll check this book before I check any other when I need answers.

Keep Reading:

• Debt is Slavery
• Healing Your Financial Soul
• The Richest Man In Babylon

Healing Your Financial Soul was sent to me by one of our readers, David Hicks. David is a communications consultant, and an ordained minister. He wrote Healing Your Financial Soul to address the deep, underlying issues that force us to struggle with our money every day.

To me, this book is an excellent example of Teddy Roosevelt’s famous quote “Speak softy and carry a big stick“. This “big stick” in this book is the wealth of facts, and David’s excellent understanding of financial psychology. The “speak softly” part comes into play with the generous humor sprinkled throughout the book, and the realization that everyone has money problems, even the very wealthy.

Hicks gets right to the heart of the matter very quickly. In fact, I can honestly say that I learned a lot about myself in the very first chapter. Healing your financial soul is filled with exercises, and visualization tips, all of which have a proven track record in the field of psychology. It was during the first of these exercises that I learned something new about myself.

From the book:

Now, ask yourself this question:
What characteristic describes my heart’s desire specific to finances? What quality of word names it?

Well, the first word that sprung to my mind was greed. So, to fill in the second part of the book I wrote:

I am rich in greed.

Well, let me tell you I almost fell out of my chair laughing, because it’s so very, very true! I will say that the author clearly intended me to come up with something positive here, something good that could be reinforced. But, my mind sure had other ideas!

I am rich in greed, I want. And that wanting is at the heart of most of my major financial mistakes. I don’t think wanting is bad per se, but greed is, and I’ve certainly been hit badly by the greed bug lately. I do want to say, “Thank you David, for helping me to learn something about myself, so that I can freely admit it and stop letting it control me!”

See, that’s the kind of book this is - the sort that gets you thinking, deep down, about what’s really going on with your money. Now, I’m not suggesting y’all are greedy (I’m from Kentucky, I’m allowed to say y’all with impunity!) Just that greed is apparently one of the challenges I am facing. The beauty of this book, is that it helps you come up with your own answers - the ones that fit you specifically.

Let me pull a couple of gems from Chapter Two as well:

If you struggle financially, it’s because deep down,
you were taught,
and you agreed to believe,
and made countless decisions to prove
that you’re supposed to struggle.

While doing research for his book, David ran across an interview with a financial planner. The financial planner had something similar to say:

“I wish some [people] would just get the notion to at least put part of [their money] somewhere they can’t get to it for a while…I don’t want to get too Freudian or whatever about this, but it’s almost as if people feel like they have to get rid of the money because they don’t really feel like they deserve it.”

I love these examples because I believe they are true as well. Many of us watch our grandparents, parents, or friends struggle financially. Somehow, somewhere, we picked up the message that we should struggle too. That you have to struggle for money - you have to fight claw, scrape, scrimp and save just to make ends meet.

But what if that’s really not true? What if the reason we struggle is because we believe we have to?

Hicks believes that the money isn’t the problem, our capacity is.

He sums up the money / capacity issue by explaining that it’s like taking a cup out into the ocean to collect water. Now matter how deep you swim, or how many times the waves break over your cup, you can only carry one cup of water out of the ocean. There are oceans of wealth out there too - money is plentiful. Our capacity to gather it is what we have voluntarily restricted.

I love this book, I truly do. I think it says in 264 pages what multitudes of financial books have skipped, or never even touched on. The power to be wealthy, satisfied and happy is ours. The power to tear down success, fail, and fall into an endless pit of despair is ours too. The difference between the two is determined by our beliefs.

You should know that the examples I am giving, they are just tiny bits from the first two chapters. Healing your financial soul is filled with positive, thought provoking passages all the way to the end.

If I could stress any one thing about Healing your financial soul, it’s that it is a fun book. It’s a happy book to sit down and read. It gives you pause for thought more often that it gives you direct instructions, and with each realization you gain that much more control of your own money - your own life.

This is not just a book I will keep and re-read. This is a book I will share with others, and give as a gift at birthdays and holidays, over the next several years.

If you’re interested in finding out more about this book, you can check out the website here. David has also agreed to be around to answer any questions, so you can chat with him directly by leaving a comment below.

Keep Reading:

• Think and Grow Rich
• Debt is Slavery
• A Review of The Prosperous Peasant

Every Sunday we review a personal finance or credit book here on Ask Mr. Credit Card.com. I am pleased to be able to tell you that this week’s book, “The Richest Man In Babylon” by George S. Clason was a wise use of both my money and my time.

The Richest Man in Babylon is a collection of parables - stories of those who lived and died in ancient Babylon.

I never cease to be amazed each time I realize the laws of acquiring and growing money have not changed throughout the years. Indeed, the laws of borrowing money have not changed either, as one of the parables in this book illustrates clearly.

So, if the laws of money have not changed, and the laws of borrowing money have not changed, then it is a simple job to discover them, and put them to work in our own lives. The collected wisdom of our forefathers is there - in black and white - just waiting to be seized and put to good use.

The Richest Man in Babylon is not a long book, or a windy one. All told, it’s only 144 pages. Clason says his piece, and lets it rest, leaving the wisdom to sink in as it will. In fact, there is so much wisdom presented so simply on each page of this book, that I am going to be hard pressed to cover everything in a simple review.

The Man Who Desired Gold:

The Richest Man In Babylon opens with Bansir the chariot maker and his good friend Kobi the bard. Together the two men cannot even come up with two shekels, and they decide to go and speak with one of their old friends, Arkad, who is now the richest man in Babylon.

Arkad willingly agrees to share how he made his own fortune, and thus begins the book.

The first advice of Arkad:

“A portion of all you earn is yours to keep.”

By slowly and methodically setting aside one tenth of his income, Arkad began to grow his wealth. It was not always an easy process, but he persisted. Arkad lost his first year’s worth of savings to a bad investment and had to start over. Because he had already developed the habit of setting aside ten percent for himself, he found it easy to start over, and he learned from his mistakes.

The second advice of Arkad:

“Control Thy Expenditures”

In other words *cough* live on less and draw up a budget. Leave the tenth that you are keeping for yourself alone, and allow it to grow and multiply.

The third advice of Arkad:

“Make thy gold multiply”

Arkad multiplied his gold by loaning a sum each year to a shield maker. Every year the shield maker would borrow money in order to buy the bronze that his shields were made from. As he made a profit throughout the year, he would faithfully pay Arkad back, plus interest.

Each year Arkad re-invested not only the initial sum he lent the man, but also the interest he had been paid. So not only did his original loan earn interest, but the additional interest he earned compounded to earn him interest as well.

The fourth advice of Arkad:

“Guard thy treasures from loss”

Arkad’s first investment was a simple plan. He loaned his first year’s savings out to a friend; a bricklayer who was traveling overseas to Tyre. The bricklayer proposed to buy some of Tyre’s famous jewels. Upon his return, he and Arkad would split the profits from the sale of the rare jewels in Babylon.

However, when the bricklayer returned, he found that the dishonest merchants he dealt with had sold him glass gems instead of real ones. Thereupon Arkad learned not to take advice on jewels from a bricklayer. Or, in other words, not to invest in anything that he (or his partner) was not familiar with.

The fifth advice of Arkad:

“Make of they dwelling a profitable investment”

Here, simply put is the age old advice of owning your own home rather than renting.

The sixth advice of Arkad:

“Insure a future income”

By this Arkad suggested not only setting aside a portion of your income to provide for you in your old age, but also to re-invest the dividends of your income so that they provide for your future as well.

The author, Clason, puts the lesson eloquently when he says:

Each penny that you keep becomes a slave for you. If you give it a job, it will work hard, and in time, it’s children, and it’s children’s children will work hard for you as well.

The seventh advice of Arkad:

“Increase thy ability to earn”

Arkad suggests having a definite desire, and working to achieve that goal. Decide on a set amount of money that you would like to earn, and find a way to achieve it. As one accomplishment builds on the next, you can soon find yourself earning far more than you could ever have previously dreamed of.

All in all, excellent advice, though I think it suffers a bit in the re-telling. If you are not currently reading books about money, finance, or credit, then this is the book you will want to start with. It is entertaining, not overwhelming, and it does an amazing job of driving the lessons home in an enjoyable way.

What is it about a well told story that sticks with us far longer than a rote recitation of facts? Maybe it is because, for a short while, we can step into the shoes of those who are having the same troubles we are, and watch as they accomplish their goals.

Maybe it’s because we can readily identify with the human problems of overcoming lust, greed, and ambition as they relate to our money, but we have problems when someone says to us directly “Just make a budget!”

Or, maybe that’s just me.

I do recommend this book to you, with all my heart. It’s one of the best I’ve ever read.

Have you read this book? Give us your opinion below!

Keep Reading:

• Debt is Slavery
• A Review of The Prosperous Peasant
• A Review of Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing: What the Rich Invest In That The Poor And Middle Class Do Not

Every Sunday here at Ask Mr. Credit Card we review a personal finance book. We give you the no-holds-barred lowdown on the top titles so that you can decide whether or not they are worth your hard earned money!

This weekend we’re reviewing a classic: “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. It’s sold over 15 million copies worldwide since it’s original release in 1937.

So what could a 70 year old book possibly have to say that’s worthwhile? Can it really make you rich? Can you actually “think” your way to wealth?

Honestly, I think that if you use the pattern laid out in this book, you can probably “think” your way to nearly anything you want. Whether your goal is wealth, a job, a situation – anything you put your mind to.

This is more of a book on the psychology of the mind than anything financial, but I did love it.

Let’s take a quick look at the different steps that Think and Grow Rich says you should take to achieve the riches you only dream about.

1. Decide what you want – The mind is like a guided missile, if you don’t give it a direction, it will never reach it’s goal. So the first step in this book is simple: Decide exactly how much money you want. Pick a specific number, write it down, and focus on it every single day.
2. Have a strong desire for your goal – Get your emotions involved, and visualize yourself achieving it, especially what it will feel like once you’ve reached your goal.
3. Have faith that you will reach your goal – Suspend your disbelief, and truly believe that your goal is possible for you. It’s harder than you think it will be, but then that’s what the author means by faith. The suspension of disbelief. Keep it in your mind that not only will you have the amount of money you seek, but that it is right, and normal for you to have it. Believe that you will have it.
4. Decide what you are going to give up to achieve your goal – Think and Grow Rich is very specific on this point. Nothing is free, and nothing is without sacrifice.
   So, by deciding beforehand what you are going to give up, you make a willing sacrifice to move forward.



5. Draw up a plan of action – It’s hard to get anywhere without a map. Pick specific dates and actions that will help you along the path to wealth. Set road markers. For example, you may want to make a million in the stock market.

   So, you would decide what you would have to learn to get there. You would have to pick specific types of investments, or carefully research a financial advisor. Basically set mini-goals within the larger goal.

6. Overcome Procrastination – If this one were easier, we’d all be successful! Seriously though, this is one of the most important steps in the entire book. Once you have decided what you want, and drawn up a road map, then the next step is just to start doing it. Regularly. Every day. No matter what.
7. Rinse, and Repeat until you get there – That’s it.

Parts of the book are frankly full of psychobabble, mumbo jumbo. Some of which I put more stock in than others.

Mostly though, Think and Grow Rich lays out an excellent plan of action for pretty much any goal. The author, Napoleon Hill does believe that by following these steps you unite your conscious and subconscious mind towards one goal. He believes that as long as you continue to do that, you will always achieve your goal.

I think that the book’s title is a tad deceptive “think” and grow rich, well, it all starts with the thinking, but it’s the hard work after the thinking that gets you where you are going.

If you enjoy reading about how to better harness the power of your own mind, and you aren’t put off by the idea that thoughts exist as real physical things (with vibrations and all!) then definitely pick this book up. Run, don’t walk – it’s that good.

If you’re not into all that, then take the recommendations above, and try them out in your own life before buying the book. It’s pretty much the standard plan for success of any sort, and it’s served me (and apparently 15 million others!) very well in the past. Enjoy!

Keep Reading:

• Debt is Slavery
• A Review of The Prosperous Peasant
• Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing: What the Rich Invest In That The Poor And Middle Class Do Not

“Debt Is Slavery” by Michael Mihalik is a short little read that is packed full of thought provoking concepts.

I wish that I could say I enjoyed reading it, but I didn’t. I really expected to like it. Especially since both Get Rich Slowly and The Simple Dollar gave it high marks. Unfortunately, I got aggravated halfway through and was barely able to finish it (it’s only 122 pages!).

So let’s give a quick rundown of what’s good, and what I believe went horribly, horribly wrong.

The good:

Debt is slavery. It’s an excellent concept. I love it in fact. If we could all think about this a little more before carrying a balance on a credit card, or signing a loan on a car we can’t afford, well, maybe it would help us.

Time is Not Money, But Money Is Time - I loved this concept too. Mihalik spends the better part of a chapter encouraging us to think of our purchases in relation to how many hours we will have to work to pay for them. (Or how much of our life we will have to give up to have that item.) For example, If I make $10 an hour, then I will have to work 8 hours, a full work-day, for an $80 item. And that is not even factoring in taxes.

Understanding that I am trading in a portion of my life just to have a designer purse, well, it makes that purse look a little less attractive to me. I’m at least going to try to get it on sale

The GMM is out to take your money - the GMM being the Giant Marketing Machine. You know the GMM I’ll bet. Anyone with access to a TV, computer, or radio does.

It’s the overall noise that is the background for our lives. Commercials that are constantly telling us to “buy this” “Obey our thirst/emotions/impulses” The ones that are continually and constantly drowning out our powers of reason. Ads like this one are definitely the GMM at work:

Mihalik does a credible job of trying to snap us to our senses by pointing out that we don’t really need all that stuff, and that we are probably better off putting it back into circulation or just giving it away.

Ok, so that’s the good part. Let’s take a look at the not-so-good parts.

The Bad:

In my opinion, there are a few sprinkles of VBFA here and there. VBFA would be Very Bad Financial Advice.

Here are a couple of examples:

Mihalik believes in “good” debt and “bad” debt. For someone who openly professes all debt to be slavery, I have to wonder, is there good slavery and bad slavery?

He believes that going into debt to finance your college education is “good debt” yet he encourages people with mortgages to sell their house and rent instead.

I’m telling you, parts of this book just didn’t add up to me. Personally, I don’t believe in good or bad debt. It might be better to phrase it as necessary and unnecessary debt. Mihalik would probably agree on that point, it was just phrased poorly several times throughout the book.

One other bit of VBFA was this little paragraph:

So what about stocks? Are they a good asset to own?
The can be. The right stocks can appreciate significantly and make you wealthy, but most stocks do not pay dividends and thus, do not qualify as income producing assets.

Huh? Well, I can honestly say that the stocks I own that do not pay dividends have still been real assets. I have my dividend paying stocks in a tax deferred retirement account at present, and they haven’t really produce all that much income anyway. Either he’s wrong or I am, but I definitely consider my stocks assets. Might be just a difference of opinion, but I respectfully disagree with his assessment, and his definition of an asset.

The Ugly:

The first half of this book I thought was really good. But as the book wore on, the tone began to grate on me. It just….reminded me of a young man who thought he had “everything all figured out” and was looking down on those that didn’t. You are all SLAVES…SLAVES I TELL YOU.

I’m not in debt personally, and it still got on my nerves.

I give Mihalik full credit for digging himself out of his own debt in a single year, and I know that he must have worked very hard to do it. However, he flippantly suggests that you sell your home and rent somewhere just to get out of your mortgage without batting an eye.

Now, let me tell you, I have rented all of my adult life and it’s no joy. Especially when you have a family. Sometimes people have to make tough decisions, and sometimes that means selling their homes.

It’s just that Mihalik suggests selling your home in the same tone you would use if you were to suggest going for ice cream. Just because you say something in a cheerful way does not make it less painful, or easier to take. Depending on your situation, it’s not necessarily good advice either.

I will be positive and say that I truly hope Mihalik will write another book in about ten years that delves even deeper into the issues of debt and slavery. I would love to read it. Mihalik is a great author, and he’s got his foundation in order. I think, season that with a little time, and you have a true recipe for success.

For now, I would actually recommend Debt is Slavery for all teenagers, and young college students. I think that this is the audience it is best suited for, and I think it has a much needed message. I do plan to pass it on to my nephew, and I sincerely hope that he reads it. It will be an excellent stocking stuffer for anyone in the 16 to 21 age group.

Debt is Slavery is also an excellent read for any adults out there who may have trouble with buying things on impulse. For everyone else, check it out at your library, or give it a skim in the bookstore to see if it resonates better with you than it did with me.

Have You Read Debt Is Slavery? Tell Us What You Think of It!

Keep Reading:

• A Review of The Prosperous Peasant
• Revolutionizing Personal Finance: Rich Dad, Poor Dad
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The Prosperous Peasant by Tim Clark and Mike Cunningham is a fun, quick little read about the five secrets to fortune and fulfillment. Set in ancient Japan it is a series of stories that begin with two peasants who wish their lives could be different. They are not content to live out their time as farmers, sowing the fields, and bending their backs to the seasons.

One day they decide to take a small journey and seek out a notable samurai named Hideyoshi - an accomplished man who started out as a peasant like them. When they find him, they beg him to share his wisdom, and to reveal to them how he found success in life. Hideyoshi agrees, and the stories that follow each highlight one of his five “secrets” to fortune and fulfillment.

The Five Secrets of Fortune and Fulfillment:

1) Gratitude Attracts Luck - This is my favorite chapter in the entire book, and it includes one of my favorite quotes as well.

If you drink from a spring, remember the stream

This chapter focuses on working diligently with a glad heart. The story itself is enchanting. It speaks of a noble’s son who lost his wealth and suddenly found himself with no money, no skills, and no employment. It follows his journey as he learns to be grateful for newfound employment, and learns to work hard. He works for his master in the daytime, and for himself at night. He does find fortune and fulfillment through thankfulness.

2) Know Your Gift - This chapter is a different story, and focuses on knowing your own talents. Just because a person is born to a particular station in life does not mean that they must remain in that station for their entire lives. It deals with looking deep into yourself and finding what it is that you are meant to do.

3) Conceivable Means Achievable - If you can think it, plan it, and conceive of it - then you can do it. This chapter highlights the story of one of the most accomplished men in Japan’s history - Nobunaga. He started small, but with a plan, and perseverance, he nearly united all of Japan under his rule.

4) Effort Determines Results - No matter what your goal is, in the end it will be your effort that decides whether or not you will reach it. You can put forth average effort, and achieve average results, or you can put forth extraordinary effort and gain extraordinary results.

5) Collaboration Breeds Success - No man can accomplish greatness alone. The story in this chapter illustrates how working together as a team, and having one focus for the whole team, together you can literally overcome any challenge.

Now, please understand that these tenets, when they are laid bare like this sound almost trite - common knowledge right? But set as they are against the tapestry of feudal Japan, they come to life. The authors did an excellent job stepping into popular historical fables and really bringing them to life.

I think the book delivers exactly what it promises. These really are the secrets to fortune, fulfillment and prosperity. This is a book that I may re-read at some point, and I will certainly keep it around for the others in my family to read. It was relaxing, quick, and at times enchanting.

If you are looking for investment advice, or even direct financial advice, this isn’t it. What the Prosperous Peasant does do though is reach out and embrace the true tenets of success, whatever path you take to get there.

If you’re interested in this book, you can visit the official website, or read a sample chapter at Amazon.com

What do you think? Will following these principles help you to find fortune and fulfillment? Have you read the book yourself? Tell us about it below!

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