2. Personal Credit Services
Included with: All R.I.G. membership levels
Service type: Monthly
It all starts here.
For truckers, especially sole props and single member LLCs, your personal credit will have an affect on every aspect of your trucking business. Good personal credit will open doors to things like the ability to borrow money at decent terms, get lines of credit, lower insurance premiums & factor rates, and expand the fleet with truck loans. Bad personal credit closes all of those doors.
How Personal Credit Works on the RIG
Initial Score Analysis
In this critical first step, we perform a comprehensive review of your credit reports from all three major credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. This allows us to understand your current credit situation, identify inaccuracies, and pinpoint areas for improvement. Our thorough analysis serves as the foundation for the personalized strategy we’ll develop for you.
Credit Usage Analysis
We delve into your credit utilization, which is the ratio of your credit card balances to credit limits. This ratio has a significant impact on your credit score. We offer actionable advice on how to optimize your credit usage to positively affect your credit score, such as paying down high balances or redistributing debt.
Setting a Goal
Once we have a complete understanding of your current credit status, we help you establish realistic, achievable credit goals. Whether you’re aiming towards get a business loan, or simply improve your financial health, clear goals will guide our joint efforts and help you measure progress. The goals are usually set in incremental stages so that we have signposts for progress.
Dispute Resolution
If our initial score analysis uncovers inaccuracies or discrepancies on your credit report, we will embark on a dispute process on your behalf. This involves contacting the credit bureaus and your creditors to correct errors, such as outdated information, unauthorized inquiries, or incorrect account statuses, which can negatively affect your score. The dispute resolution stage can begin and end quickly, or in some cases, take several months until we have achieved the goal of clearing everything up.
Updates on Progress
We will keep you informed with regular updates that outline the actions taken and the resulting changes to your credit score. These updates serve as a motivational tool and allow us to adjust our strategies if needed. Updates are sent to you whenever we have one, via email. You will also be able to check yourself throughout your BLF portal or even by looking at your credit report.
FICO Score Management
Once the hard stuff is out of the way and we have seen improvement, we will want to keep on top of your FICO and make sure it is remaining at a good level. We provide guidance on factors that can improve your FICO score, such as maintaining a good payment history, and tips on avoiding pitfalls that may cause it to drop.
Maintenance
Maintaining a good credit score is an ongoing effort. Even after reaching your initial credit goals, we offer strategies to help you sustain your credit health. This involves advice on disciplined spending, timely payments, and prudent credit management. Nobody likes being told what to do, so everything we say is only a suggestion!
Teamwork!
In order to truly achieve the results we are after, we need teamwork. We’re in this together.
What it is NOT.
An overnight fix.
Personal credit takes time to both repair and build. A low credit score is often the result of years of bad decisions and bad breaks. While it is possible to see improvement quickly, there is no guarantee of this.
A one-size-fits-all.
Credit solutions will differ from one person to another. Every single credit profile is unique, and thus the steps to repair and build are also unique to the credit user.
A debt repayment program.
Credit repair services is not a program that lowers monthly payments or arranges settlement payoffs. While we can, and will, advise you on what debts to pay down and when, we don’t really get too involved in requesting/offering payment arrangements to creditors (although we do sometimes). We can however, make a recommendation to a non-profit credit counseling organization that can assist you in these matters.
Entirely up to us.
If you are truly serious about building your personal credit you are going to need to be a part of the process with us. This means you might need to make some changes to the way you have previously done things (or not done them!). It might not be easy at first, but it will be worth it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if my personal credit is already good?
If this is the case for you (sadly it is not for most of our trucking clients), then you will really not have any need for this component of your R.I.G. membership. We will focus on the other R.I.G. components that you do need. It’s also good to keep in mind that if anything does happen where your credit takes a hit, we can jump in and help.
Will I need to use a credit monitoring service?
If we are working towards repairing your credit, then yes. At least for the first several months. This is needed for all of us to be able to track changes as we go. We recommend BLF clients sign up for Creditcare, which is an excellent service. We will usually tell you when it is okay to cancel your Creditcare membership.
How do I track my progress?
You will be able to see all of the changes to your report in two ways;. via checking your credit monitoring service and via updates from us. We notify our clients of every single change to your FICO score as we go along via instant email updates.
How soon will I see improvement?
This all depends on what’s hurting your score and why. However, it is not uncommon to see credit shoot up a bit, especially at first. On average, most clients see a reasonable improvement within 8 months. But keep in mind, every client is different.
I’ve heard credit repair is a scam. Is this true?
No. Credit repair, as a service, is a perfectly legitimate and real thing that works as long as whoever is performing the service knows what they are doing. The problem with the credit repair industry is that most people who call themselves credit experts are nothing of the sort.
Can’t I do this myself?
Absolutely. The question is do you want to? Repairing credit takes a bit of know how and a lot of effort. Especially if there are disputes on a personal credit report. Truckers in general, don’t exactly have a lot of spare time on their hands and staying on top of disputes and letters to creditors can be very time consuuming.
What happens if I cancel my R.I.G. membership?
As long as you are a paying member of the R.I.G. we will continue to monitor your credit and make sure it is remaining constant (or hopefully improving. If your score has improved nothing will happen to it if you cancel your R.I.G. membership.
I have have friend who needs help with credit. Can you help?
Maybe. BLF is a business consulting firm, and thus most of our clients are trucking business owners. The R.I.G. was designed for them, and personal credit is actually a “perk” included for free on the R.I.G.. It may not make sense to enroll a non-trucker as a full R.I.G. member.