Review of The Credit Book By Sam Sky

It’s Sunday again and time for another book review. Today, I’m going to review “The Credit Book” which is written by Sam Sky. Sam Sky started Credit Restoration Brokers 7 years ago and he now also runs Debt Negotiations Associates. Sam helps consumers with debt consolidation and negotiations. In fact, I have known Sam for about 3 years I started reading the book and was actually impressed by it. The book contains 15 chapters but today, I will talk about the first 7 chapters in the first part of this review.

Chapter 1 – Different types of consumer reports, D&B, MIB and Check Systems – In the first chapter, Sam goes through the different types of consumer reports available. Most of us are familiar with the three major credit bureaus – Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. What was more interesting was Sam talking about Dun & Bradstreet and Experian business reporting. He mentioned that in the past, credit card issuers and banks did not check on business credit bureaus. But with the economy it is now, they are starting to look at those. The Check Systems is also another consumer report which used among banks to protect themselves from individual with past bad check writing. He mentions a valuable gem which is that we ar ntitled to a free copy of our check system reports.

The next gem in this chapter is the information about the Medical Information Bureau. This is like the medical version of the credit bureaus, where doctor can reports any medical claims. The book educates us on how inaccurate information may lead to someone being denied of medical insurance.

Chapter 2 – Rebuilding Your Credit/Co-signers – In the next chapter, the book mentions a very little known fact. And that is that being an authorized user on a credit card (or having a co-signer) will not help your credit score. This used to be an effective strategy to improve your credit score but FICO has stopped using this as a criteria since last 2008.

The book then also proceeds to talk about my using a secured credit card is the way to go if you are looking to build or rebuild your credit. I wholeheartedly agree with this.

Chapter 3 – Revolving Credit and Installment Credit – This chapter actually talks more about the title of the chapter itself. But I liked the way the book explained the differences between a revolving credit and an installment credit. An installment credit is line your auto loan, mortgage or furniture loan. The outstanding principle can never go up but can only go down.

Contrast this with a revolving credit like your credit card. You can have a balance of $1,000 one month and $10,000 the next. The book mentions the precise ration of these 2 types of credit to have.

Chapter 4 – Bankruptcy – When to do it, when to avoid it and divorce debt – While the author is not a bankruptcy attorney, he gives enough information that drills home the point that you do not know a lot of things and that you should probably consult a BK attorney if you are thinking of filing for one. He briefly touches on Chapter 7 versus chapter 13 filing and briefly shares his thoughts on the circumstances when one should file or not. He also talks about what is dischargable debt and what is not.

Chapter 5 – Credit Counseling with Credit/Debt Consolidation vs Debt Negotiations s credit repair – This highlights the main differences between a non-profit counseling service, debt consolidation vs debt negotiation. I like this chapter very much. It actually goes into quite a bit of detail on the little things you would not read elsewhere. The chapter spends quite a bit of time on debt negotiations as well. You should have a pretty clear idea on credit counseling, debt consolidation and debt negotiations after reading this book. Furthermore, the chapter also has some nifty tips to avoid collection calls.

Chapter 6 & 7 – Chapter 6 and & are both very short chapters very sound information on rapid scoring and how having a co-signer is now redundant and useless.

Next Sunday, we’ll conclude our review of “The Credit Book”.