Going from Bad to Worse – Collections are a Curse!

What do you know about collections? I get a lot of questions like: How long can they stay on my credit report? What effect do they have on my credit score? What’s the best way for me to pay them off and get them out of my life? 

Do you wonder about these things? A lot of folks do. Every day I get questions from our members about collections and how they affect their credit. Let’s see if I can give you some answers!

A collection takes place after we have been delinquent on a payment. That payment can be on a utility, a loan or a payment for other services where you may be billed later like a carpet cleaning. Technically, you can be late up to 89 days on your utilities like your water bill, heating bill, or even your phone or cellphone bill, even that invoice from the carpet cleaner. So long as you pay it by the 89^th day, no one at the credit bureau needs to know about it. Sure, the water company might charge a late fee or the cellphone provider might temporarily cancel your internet service, but it will not appear on your credit report and cost you a reduction in your credit or “FICO” score.

But, if you allow that bill to go unpaid that additional day so that is it 90 days late, your credit score will suffer. As a general rule, most businesses turn unpaid debt that is 90 days old to their internal collection departments or they may sell unpaid debt to a collection agency for further collection. What that means to you is a severe beating of your credit score. If you had an excellent score, it is now just okay. If you had a good score, your score has dropped significantly. An unpaid collection on your credit has the same power on your score the first day as it does seven years later when it expires and drops off your report! Unpaid collections drag your score down and prevent you from accessing future credit on good terms and rates.

My debt went 90 days delinquent and now a guy named Ralph is calling me from the collection agency. What can I do to stop this? You have a right to privacy and can write them a letter requesting they stop calling you. That’s the law and it works! Write the letter telling them to stop calling you and send it certified mail to the collection agency. Then, they can only call you to tell you they will stop calling or if they decide to take further legal action. Otherwise, all phone contact stops. Remember to keep a copy of your letter!

However, the best recommendation is to pay it and get it out of your life. This sort of debt is not your friend. Once you pay a collection, it changes from an upaid, also known as an open collection, to a paid or closed collection. Immediately upon paying it, your credit score will bump up a bit. As time goes by and the debt is 24 months, 36 months, and further into your past, you will see your score improve. With the collection’s status changing from an open/unpaid collection to a closed/paid collection on your credit report; it will still be a negative item, but much, much less than a collection that is unpaid. It will remain on your report for the balance of the seven years after you have paid it; i.e. if you pay it after two years, it will show as a paid collection for the five remaining years. 

With older collections some agencies may be inclined to provide you a fairly steep discount to pay them. Collection agencies buy your debt at a discount. You just have to ask for a lower pay off amount and start negotiating with the representative. If you decide on an amount, get it in writing and attach your check to it when you pay it. Then you have a contract with the agency. Do not send any money until you get your agreement in writing. 

Also, good debt offsets bad debt. This means that if you have other credit obligations besides that one debt that went bad, each time you make a payment on them you will improve your credit position. On time payments and keeping your debt balances low and under control are the keys to improving your credit score.

  

Questions? Ask the Your Credit Union Guy, Greg Meyer at gmeyer@meriwest.com

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 Our next Credit Myths Financial Workshop will take place this Wednesday Sept. 25th at our Main Office at 6:30pm. If you wish to join us, please contact me at gmeyer@meriwest.com or 408-365-6328 to reserve a spot. Don't be shy. We have space! 

Our October Workshops will be held at our Sunnyvale Financial Center on El Camino @ Fair Oaks in Sunnyvale. 

Auto Financing 101 

October 16th - 6:30pm to 7:30pm

Learn how to plan for, research, and negotiate your deal and financing for your next car. Be a step ahead of the car dealer. Take this class! 

Credit Myths

October 23rd - 6:30pm to 7:30pm

What are the top ten myths of credit? We will tell you and reveal the truth behind these myths. 

Both will be held at our office at 563 E. El Camino Real, Sunnyvale CA

Please RSVP with me at gmeyer@meriwest.com or 408-365-6328 to reserve your spot.

Over Your Head Financially? Here are your top ten indicators...

 1. Carrying a balance on a credit card. If you are not paying them off, you are paying interest. If you could shift all the interest you paid on your consumer credit cards to your retirement account, how rich would you be? 

2. You use payday loans to make ends meet at the end of the month. Bad consumer! 

3. You’ve been turned down for a consolidation loan. This is a sure sign you are already over-extended and that your debt-to-income ratio is too high. Time to budget your expenses and start paying down what you owe! 

4. You’re hiding your spending behavior from family members. This red flag indicates that you are aware of your personal finance problems, but are unable to acknowledge it. Fighting with your spouse is a related indicator as financial troubles often lead to domestic trouble.

5. You finance your vehicle for more than five years. This may be a clear sign that you’re buying more vehicle than you can reasonably afford.

6. You get more than one late notice per year. On occasion, everybody may let a bill fall through the cracks and forget to pay it. But if you find yourself getting multiple late notices for bills, especially for utilities, then that’s a signal that your finances may be in serious trouble.

7. You get more than one bounced check per year. Again, most folks have had an occasional overdraft of their checking account. But if this happens more than once per year, it’s usually a sign of trouble.

8. You need a co-signer to get a loan. Those without a credit history can ignore this warning sign. However, for everyone else, the need for a co-signer indicates that banks no longer find you credit worthy.

9. You find yourself borrowing from your family and friends. We have heard that borrowing from friends or family is a surefire way to sow the seeds of discontent — especially when you fail to pay the money back.

10. You lack an emergency savings account of at least three months living expenses. Those who are living from paycheck to paycheck can be completely derailed by even the most modest unexpected expenses, such as the need for major car repairs.

Credit: Credit Unions are providing their members and the public with more financial education classes than ever. This is done for free as a community service to their neighbors. Yeah! 

Debit: Over the past year, several national banks have raised fees on their checking overdraft and non sufficient funds transactions. Boo! 

Our Next Financial Workshop:

May 22nd - Preventing Identity Theft -6:30pm
Meriwest Credit Union Main Office at 5615 Chesbro Ave, San Jose CA 95123
RSVP with Greg Meyer at gmeyer@meriwest.com or call at 408-365-6328

The Long Shadow of Bad Credit in a Job Search: How does your credit effect your ability to find a job? This story, from New York Times Business Day section, will give you some insights into how hiring managers view your credit report. Click the link and learn! 

 

Len Penzo - One of the great financial bloggers! Check out his blog here: LenPenzo.com

Can 25 FICO Points Keep Me from a Good Interest Rate?

This really depends on how much credit you have to manage at once and what your current credit score is as it relates to the credit tiers. If you are near the edge of a tier, than yes, 25 points could affect the interest rate you may have to pay. If you have only one credit card, it would be difficult to maintain a high score and utilize more than 30% of the card’s available balance. The 30% rule is still valid, meaning that to maximize your score you should not utilize more than 30% of your available consumer lines such as credit cards. As your credit usage increases above 30% you will likely have a corresponding decline in your FICO score. That is not to say you cannot ever max out a card. They would not allow you such high available balances if you could not max them out. But, before anyone maxes out a card, they should have a plan on repayment. Consider your budget and manage your money so you can pay a larger amount than the minimum payment monthly. This will pay the card down faster and help build your score.

Quick Example: In Debt Forever

Credit Card Balance:      $2,500

Interest Rate:                 18%

Minimum Payment:        $  45

Years to Pay Off               10 (120 payments @ $45 each)

Total Payments:            $5,400

Total Interest Paid:         $2,900

Now you have actually paid a total of $5,400 on that original $2,500 balance, More than twice what you originally owed. In this example, a $100 monthly payment at this rate would pay off the balance in 31 months, 75% faster!

Your credit report shows your high balance usage on all of your cards. It also indicates how you have made payments. If there have been any late payments, delinquencies, etc. Lenders look at this data. It tells us if this person has the ability to pay off debt or live with it by paying their minimum payments.

Now, let’s say someone has a car loan, a home loan, and couple of credit cards. They have installment and revolving credit in their financial portfolio. This person can utilize a higher level of their credit cards and still maintain a high score due to the other accounts they have.

FICO looks at your total credit usage. As you gain experience and manage your credit where you have no late payments and have maintained credit cards and other credit given to you, and paid back balances, you will see your score get stronger and more resilient and less effected by the credit line usage factor.

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Credit Myth in California: If I get a divorce, I am not responsible for my spouse’s debts.

Credit FACT: California is a community property state. A spouse can be liable for debts entered into by the other spouse during the marriage, even if they were unaware of them. In these community property states, debts entered into during the marriage are considered community debts, and both spouses can be liable.

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Special Events

Family Financial Education: Identity Theft Workshop

This is a great workshop for the whole family. This one hour workshop is worth a lifetime of identity protection knowledge. You will learn how to protect your identity from thieves and hackers.

March 20^th at 6:30 PM

Meriwest Credit Union Main Office

5615 Chesbro Ave, San Jose CA 95123

To RSVP: Greg Meyer Gmeyer@meriwest.com or 408-365-6328

Credit Union Pre-Owned Car Sale

Take the Car of your Dreams and put it in your Garage!

All Day March 23^rd and 24^th   

Meriwest Credit Union Main Office

5615 Chesbro Ave, San Jose CA 95123

For more info: Link to Car Sale Page

Federally insured by NCUA. We do business in accordance with the Federal Fair Housing Law and Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
Copyright 2013 Meriwest Credit Union. All rights reserved.

Why do prepaid cards have a bad reputation?

Prepaid cards have a bad rep due to fees. People with modest incomes, such as students, seniors, or those on public assistance have very limited funds to pay for their living expenses. If one is only making about $400-$500 a month, the cards can be very costly. Depending on how you use a typical prepaid card, you could lose up to 10% of your monthly income in fees. Often they are seen as a predatory type of transaction card due to the charges they have for loading the card with money, using it at merchants or accessing cash at an ATM. All three transactions would be free at a credit union or a bank if they were using their checking account.

What would a typical month’s worth of fees look like?

I have looked up several prepaid cards over the past several weeks in researching them for use by the clients of some of our nonprofit partners in the community.  The fees I am quoting here are averages based on several typical cards.

Here is an example list of typical fees charged on a prepaid card:

Initial Purchase 5.00 Monthly Charge 5.95 Often Monthly service charges may be waived if one maintains a minimum balance or performs several transactions to offset fee. ATM Withdrawals-participating ATM's                N/C (non-participating ATM's.) 2.50 There may be charges from the out of network ATM Teller Withdrawals 2.50 Transaction Fee (Point of Sale/PIN Purchase) 0.15 Balance Inquiry Fee 0.50 Reload cash fee 4.95

In this scenario, let’s say I bought the card, reloaded it twice during the month with my paycheck of $250. I am a student making $500 a month in a part time job. I get paid twice a month on the 1^st and the 15^th. I had five ATM transactions, three of which were out of the network. I used the card to make 12 purchases at various merchants. I made three inquiries at ATM’s.

Purchase price	5.00
Two reloads @ 4.95	9.90
Two In network ATM withdrawals	0.00
3 out of network withdrawals @ 2.50	7.50
Out network ATM Fees @ 3.00	9.00
12 point of sale transactions @ .15	1.80
3 ATM inquiries @ .50	1.50
Total	34.70

Would a checking account have been cheaper?

Generally, yes. It depends on where you bank. With a checking account at most credit unions, the only fees I would have paid would have been the out of network ATM fees. Most financial institutions do not charge you to make a deposit, take money from your account with a teller, make point of sale purchases, or inquire on your account. 

But many checking accounts today have a fee unless there is a minimum monthly balance or you use direct deposit. Be sure to verify what the requirements are for your checking account before you open it

How are people confused about Prepaid cards?

People mix these up with gift cards. Gift cards typically charge a fee to purchase the card itself, but not for transacting on the card. Prepaid cards often charge for both items.

Also, people are confused by the fee schedules. There are fees for virtually anything you do with the card. Often, people think these are similar to their bank or CU ATM cards and can be used the same way. The fees eat into their balance and limit the amount of money they can use to pay for expenses.

Is a prepaid card a viable option for an unbanked person?

Yes, with caveats! If one is careful about its use. Card owners must use network ATM’s to avoid withdrawal fees. Use the internet to inquire on their balances as that is generally free with most cards. They must also keep tabs on and limit their purchases to avoid excessive point of sale transaction fees. 

How about using these for travel? 
That might be a good idea. If the card is lost or stolen, it can easily replaced and your accounts back home are not subject to identity theft. I suppose you could consider the cost of the fees part of your vacation expense!

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The next Meriwest Credit Union workshop-

Tax Changes for 2013

Speaker: Will Slade of Slade and Associates. Mr. Slade is an IRS Enrolled Agent with many years of experience in counseling his tax clients and tax preparation.

10am February 9^th at the Meriwest Credit Union Main Office

5615 Chesbro Ave. San Jose CA 95123

Please RSVP with Gmeyer@meriwest.com

The Mr. Slade will cover the following:

• Tax ramifications of “Obamacare”
• Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) patch
• Permanent implementation of Bush era Tax Cuts

I hope you can join us.

 

Federally insured by NCUA. We do business in accordance with the Federal Fair Housing Law and Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
Copyright 2013 Meriwest Credit Union. All rights reserved.

Managing Holiday Credit Card Debt

Imagine yourself at a department store. You are approaching the check out. How are you going to pay for this purchase? Are you using your debit card because you planned your holiday spending? Or are you using your credit cards because your only plan is to spend and eventually pay it back?

When it comes down to holiday spending, we have a choice.

Choice #1: We can go into the holidays financially blind and spend to our heart’s content and put our heads in the sand and deal with it in the New Year. This is the way a lot of people approach the holidays and they pay for it monetarily and emotionally. Not only that, but their credit scores take a hit as their credit card balances rise. Their monthly costs go up because the minimum payments on their cards increase due to larger balances. This reduces their spending power until they pay off some of that holiday debt!

Choice #2: Go into the holidays with a spending plan that let’s you buy thoughtful gifts for your family and friends but does not allow you to break the bank. That is really the best course of action. A plan is always better than winging it and winging it with money is never a good idea. To make this action effective, you have to save before the holidays come. Set up an automatic transfer from your checking to a savings account.

Next year in January, you may want to open a “Christmas or Holiday Club” account for your holiday savings if your bank or credit union still offers that. The old club accounts had money automatically transferred from your checking account and was cashed in before the holidays and paid out to the accountholder to pay for gifts. Lacking a “Christmas Club” type of account? Open a savings especially for your holiday spending and set up an automatic transfer from your checking account each month. The automatic transfer happens without any action on your part. Just remember to enter it in your check register or monitor your online banking so you don’t overdraw your checking. When the holidays are here, draw the funds from your savings and spend it to your heart’s content.

If you must use credit to pay for your gift giving, let’s consider some things that might save us some money. Let’s assume you plan to pay this newly incurred balance off in six months. How much do you plan to spend on gifts? That’s the starting point. Take that amount and divide it by six and add that to your current monthly payment on that card. Can you afford that payment monthly for the next six months? Then you may have the right amount to spend on gifts. Is it too high? You need to adjust your spending plan, not your time horizon for pay off! Remember, extending the pay off time for any balance adds more interest to your debt. Paying interest is like renting money. Who benefits when you pay interest? Certainly not me or you. The bank does! If this sounds like a good idea, you use way too much credit and need an intervention!

But, if you really like making that monthly payment and the cost is no object for you, then you might be more inclined to take Choice #1.

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Our next financial education workshop will be “Real World Budgets for Teens” and will be presented at our Chesbro Main Office on January 16^th at 6:30pm. Real World Budgets takes a teen and their parents thru a post college simulation of managing money, a job, and the payments that come with independence. I hope you can join us.

Please RSVP with Greg Meyer at gmeyer@meriwest.com or 408-365-6328.

Click here for a list of all of our financial education offerings.

Check us out on Facebook! WWW.Facebook.com/MeriwestCreditUnion

Your FICO Score-Mystery no More!

 

Is your FICO score a mystery to you? Don’t feel bad, most American consumers don’t know their FICO score much less how it is determined. Generally, your FICO score can vary from 300 at the lowest to a high of 900. People ask me, “Hey, Credit Union Guy, what’s a good credit score?” Today, a good score would be in the neighborhood of 740. At this level you can access good rates on car loans, home financing, and credit cards. Go below 740 and you may find yourself paying higher rates of interest on your loans and credit cards.

“What is a FICO?” FICO is an acronym for the Fair Isaac Company; the company that invented the calculations that result in a measurement of credit risk. The score is determined by an algorithm. In a sense, it is a highly complex algebra problem that takes into account your payment history, the ratio of your loan and card balances vs. your available balances, the length of your credit history, your credit request inquiries and the types of credit you are managing. The formula for exactly how the score is calculated is proprietary information and owned by Fair Isaac.

“Why does the FICO score exist?” In the old days of lending, loan managers looked at the physical credit report for a person and made a judgment call on the risk involved with making a loan to that person. Back then, two loan underwriters might look at the same report and have very different opinions on the applicant’s payment history. Credit Scoring took the judgment call out of the process. A person either scored well or they didn’t. Another reason for FICO score is volume. As our population grew and more people started using banks and credit unions, the loan volume increased significantly. In order to speed the loan process, the FICO score was used. Loan processors can input a minimum of data and get a score for a credit decision rather than reviewing the entire credit report.

Here is an approximate breakdown of how it is determined:

·   35 percent of the score is based on your payment history. This makes sense since one of the primary reasons a lender wants to see the score is to find out if (and how timely) you pay your bills. The score is affected by how many bills have been paid late, how many were sent out for collection, any bankruptcies, etc. When these things happened also comes into play. The more recent, the worse it will be for your overall score.

·   30 percent of the score is based on outstanding debt. How much do you owe on car or home loans? How many credit cards do you have that are at their credit limits? The more cards you have that have maxed out lines, the lower your score will be. The rule of thumb is to keep your card balances at 30% or less of their limits.

·   15 percent of the score is based on the length of time you've had credit. The longer you've had established credit, the better it is for your overall credit score. Why? Because more information about your past payment history gives a more accurate prediction of your future actions.

·   10 percent of the score is based on the number of inquiries on your report. If you've applied for a lot of credit cards or loans, you will have a lot of inquiries on your credit report. These are bad for your score because they indicate that you may be in some kind of financial trouble or may be taking on a lot of debt (even if you haven't used the cards or gotten the loans). The more recent these inquiries are the worse for your credit score. FICO scores only count inquiries from the past year.

·   10 percent of the score is based on the types of credit you have. The number of loans and available credit from credit cards you have makes a difference; installment loans vs. revolving lines of credit. There is no magic number or combination of types of accounts that you shouldn't have. These actually come more into play if there isn't as much other information on your credit report on which to base the credit decision.

Questions? Ask the Meriwest Credit Union Guy at gmeyer@meriwest.com.

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The next Meriwest Credit Union Financial Education Workshop will be our Reality Based Budgets Workshop for teens and college students on Wednesday, Nov. 28th at our Monta Loma Financial Center in Mountain View. This workshop takes through a post college money management simulation where they are given a salary, rent, car payments, and other bills and build their living budget. 

Our Monta Loma Financial Center is located at the corner of Rengstorff and Middlefield  Road in the Monta Loma Shopping Center. The program begins at 6pm. We hope you can join us. Please RSVP at our Events Link.

 

The Costs of Bad Credit – Part One

I have always thought having and using credit was expensive. The whole idea of paying money to use money irks me. In our society, borrowing money is a necessary evil in order to build a good financial history. So, after high school or college, we enter the financial world and start using credit. Some of us used credit to enhance our lifestyles with purchases of stereos and TV’s; others purchased cars or even homes. Of course, we were all aware there is a cost to using credit. We pay a fee known as interest to borrow or, in a sense, rent the money we don’t have.

But for some of us, there were some hard lessons learned about the costs of using credit. When a payment is late, there is an additional late fee added on to your costs. A typical credit card late fee can be as high as $35. The late fee on a mortgage can average 5% of your monthly payment. A $3,000 monthly mortgage payment would have a late fee of $150! Late loan payment fees apply to RV loans, motorcycle loans, ATV loans, and other types of consumer loans.

Credit card companies will not only charge you a late fee, they will also charge the cardholder penalty interest. Your credit card’s interest rate may be a nominal 14.5%. But a late fee will cause that rate to more than double to 29.99%! Now any money you borrow through your card will cost you twice as much in interest as it did prior to your late payment. What’s the difference? One thousand dollars held for one year at 14.5% interest will cost a borrower $145. The same amount of money held for one year at the penalty interest rate of 29.99% results in a cost of $299! Is it like that forever? No. If you make six months of on time card payments after being charged with a late payment, you can get your credit card’s interest rate back to the original rate.  

Another one of the costs of credit are the fees paid by someone who allows a debt to go into collection. A debt or bill becomes a collection when the debt is reaching its first date of delinquency; usually the 90th day of nonpayment. At that point, the firm holding the debt can try to collect it themselves through their lending department or internal collection department or they may sell the debt to a collection agency. That collection agency buys it at a discount of 10%, 20%, or more from the original holder. The agency will also place their own “collection” fees on the debt. This may increase the debt by another 10% or so. When you consider late payment fees and collection fees, it makes paying on time look so attractive!

Late fees, penalty interest rates, and collection fees are only part of the cost of bad credit. Making credit mistakes also means there is a hit on your FICO score, reducing it. When one’s credit score gets low, the cost to do business via credit increases.

Part 2 of "The Costs of Bad Credit” will feature the expense of high cost credit products intended for families with compromised credit scores who cannot access regular affordable credit products. Check this blog next week for the scary conclusion to, “The Costs of Bad Credit.”

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And don't forget our Meriwest Facebook page.  We love to get new fans and have them check in when they visit our branches. It is also a great way to keep up with new products and services and what your credit union is doing in the community.

Our next "Credit Myths and Repair Workshop" will take place at our Milpitas Financial Center on Aug. 29th at 6PM. Credit Myths goes over the Top Ten Myths of credit and how to access your credit report for FREE.  I hope you can join us!

Have a great week!

Benjamin Franklin's Legacy of Money Management

Benjamin Franklin is probably the Founding Father who was most financially aware. I have assembled some of his more memorable lines here and added my own explanation to them. As you read these quips, remember the age in which these were written. Back in the late 1700’s, it was frowned upon when one borrowed. Both Shakespeare and the churches warned people against lending and borrowing money.

Let’s keep in mind, in 1785 there were no consumer lending laws to protect us from predatory lenders. As more than two hundred years have passed since Ben was publishing his thoughts on financial education, there have been numerous changes in how we borrow and how lenders work with us. Today, borrowing to purchase a home or a car is fully acceptable. When credit is granted, it is done through a very careful approval process where a borrower’s income and past credit management is put under scrutiny.

But, just like in Ben Franklin’s time, it is not a good idea to go too far into debt

Let’s consider some of his sayings:

When you run in debt; you give to another power over your liberty. -  And  - The borrower is a slave to the lender, and the debtor to the creditor.

Meaning that when we are in debt, those who hold our debt control us and take away our freedom to a certain extent. While in debt, we are slaves to the monthly payment!

Rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt.

Franklin had a great disdain for being in debt. In those days, if you were in debt, the whole town knew it. He would rather be hungry than owe money.

Tis easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it.

This relates directly to “Wants vs. Needs.” Essentially he is saying, fight the urges to spend money. As you fight those urges, it will be come easier and easier to suppress the desire to spend.

For age and want, save while you may; No morning sun lasts a whole day. 

Save for your retirement and for the things you want. Start now, start early. There is no time like the present to begin. You have a limited amount of time to make a good return on your retirement funds.

Get what you can, and what you get hold; ’Tis the stone that will turn all your lead into gold.  

It seems that Ben Franklin also understood time and money. Saving your money in an appropriate investment can turn a few dollars into many or “what you hold into gold!”

Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.

Little things add up. It’s like two sodas from the coke machine everyday. .75 cents per coke, twice a day, five days a week, for fifty two weeks = $360! Could we find a better way to spend or save $360?

Buy what thou hast no need of, and before long thou shalt sell thy necessaries.

If you buy the stuff you want you may eventually have to sell the important things you need to pay for the stuff you want.

All of these things are as true today as they were 230+ years ago. It is not a good idea to go into debt. It is still a good idea to save. It is still a good idea to invest. It is a good idea to have a budget and adhere to it. This is timeless advice that we can all use.

But let’s also remember that not all debt is bad! There is debt that can help us. A loan on a home allows us to write off the interest that is paid annually, thus saving families thousands of dollars in hosing costs making that home more affordable for them. A car is a personal asset that gets us to work on time. So, a car loan can be considered part of an investment in our personal economic development. 

And for all of you out there looking for our next financial education workshops, your summer wait is over. Our next workshop will be "Reality Based Budgets for Teens" at our Milpitas Financial Center at 6PM on Aug. 22nd. 

Our next "Credit Myths and Repair Workshop" will take place at our Milpitas Financial Center on Aug. 29th at 6PM. 

I hope I will meet you at one of our seminars! Have a great week!