One of our Certified Business Credit Counsultant's will perform an in-depth audit and review your financial situation, perform a credit report analysis and determine the solution that best fits your needs.

Whether it's simply creating a budget or showing you how to challenge inaccurate information in your personal and business credit reports, we will assist you in getting back on the right financial track.  And since every individual's situation is different, you can rest assured that the program we design is custoimized just for you. 

As a credit counseling client, you will receive:

• The "Start Smart Guide to Personal Credit Management," a comprehensive book that teaches you everything you need to know about credit bureaus, credit laws, credit scores and how to rebuild your personal credit.
• An in-depth credit report review explaining the factors that determine your credit score and how what's in your report is either helping or lowering your scores.
• A customized action plan on how to improve your credit scores.
• A copy of the book "Principles of Building Business Creidt," that teaches you the step-by-step process to establish a business credit profile and build business credit. 

If you'd like to learn more about how our credit counseling program can help you improve your credit scores and finances, call us today at (504) 821-4855 or complete our counseling request form now to schedule your free, confidential consultation.  

You can begin the Credit Report Review process before your scheduled appointment by obtaining a copy of your "3 in 1" or tri-bureau credit report (Experian, Equifax and Transunion).  Under the FACT Act (Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act), you can receive your credit reports FREE of charge from all three national credit bureaus (there is a fee to obtain each credit score) by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com.  We can obtain your credit reports in our office at no cost to you.

A Lesson on Credit Scores 
by Norman D. Roussell 

 I was prompted to write this article because, despite my knowledge of credit reports and scores, I realized that I still don’t understand everything about today’s credit scores that I should.  

Let me explain.

Today, I decided to obtain my free credit reports from www.annualcreditreport.com. Although I subscribe to each credit bureau’s monthly monitoring service, I felt the need to get a better understanding of the free report process so that I could share it with my clients. The first report I looked at was my Equifax report. To my surprise, my FICO score had gone up 2 points. Great!  The next report I looked at was my TransUnion report. When I received their score it was up an astonishing 70 points! Really great!  And then I looked at my Experian report, which had fallen an astonishing 70 points. Bummer! 

Although I became alarmed at the disparities, I knew that TransUnion and Experian used their own scoring models so I began to investigate further. The good news is that my FICO scores hadn’t shifted much at all, it only appeared that way because of the bureau-specific scores based on bureau-specific scoring models at TransUnion and Experian.  For example, FICO scores range from 300-850, while Experian PLUS Scores range from 330 to 830 and TransUnion BEACON Scores range from 400-950.  They’re all based on the FICO scoring model and bankers and lenders still mostly (if not only) use FICO scores to make credit decisions (Equifax still uses the standard FICO scoring model).

I think it’s unfair to consumers for TransUnion and Experian to have us believe our scores are really great (when they may not be) or really poor (when they really may not be), but I know the bottom line for those companies is to make money by selling our credit information.  They must believe that their score is the best score in order to re-sell the information, but the bottom line is that FICO scores are still the best scores.

So if you plan to obtain your credit scores through annualcreditreport.com, I still recommend that you obtain your FICO scores to see your credit scores the way lenders see them.  

 08/24/2007