Credit Repair Kit For Dummies

I’m lukewarm about this book.

This book is good if you want general credit information but the title “Credit Repair” is misleading. If your credit is really jacked up like mine then this book won’t cut it. I’d suggest doing online research to find out how you can repair your credit.

The book should have covered things like “pay for delete” which is a negotiation tactic that you use with collection agencies in which you pay the amount that you owe and they delete the negative tradeline off of your credit report. This is something that you would need to get in writing before making the actual payment.

Another term that the book should have covered is “restrictive endorsement”. This is when you give your creditors a check w/ stipulations in the memo like “by cashing this check you are agreeing that this debt is paid in full” or “by cashing this check, you are agreeing to remove the negative tradeline off of my credit report”. Note that this does not hold up in every state so you must be careful.

This book doesn’t really touch on HIPAA information which is needed if you want to remove medical accounts (that have gone to collections) off of your credit report.

My suggestion if your credit is really bad is to do online research to figure out how to clean it up. This book is nothing more than definitions and you could get those online as well.

Rating: 3 / 5

This book helped me get back to the basics of managing my credit – because unbeknownst to and forgotten by many, credit indeed needs to be managed! Also the chapter on budgeting was very useful. Stephen Bucci uses wit and simple everyday language to make the book not only easy to understand and follow, but also engaging. A good purchase for those who need a refresher or reference for real life credit related problems!
Rating: 5 / 5

This was a wonderful book full of lots of details on how credit works. There are lots of tips on how to improve one’s credit and a good discussion of budgeting, identity theft, and dealing with collectors.

I’d recommend this to anyone who needs help with their finances.
Rating: 5 / 5