Raise Your FICO While You're an MBA Student

Larry Chiang writes about business school. If you liked “10 Things They Don’t Teach You at Business School ” and “How to Work a Cocktail Party“, and “My 10 Best B-Schools and How They Can Help You Too“,  then have a look at his latest topic: Raising Your FICO While You’re in an MBA Program.

Larry’s book release 09-09-09 and BIO

Before he’s done, your FICO credit score will jump even while you take on thirty grand more in scholarly debt.

By Larry Chiang
Congrats on getting into your MBA program.

If you are one of the lucky few on company scholarship, count yourself fortunate. If you’re financing it yourself, lets boost your future school loan financing alternatives by raising your FICO score.

Yes, my soon-to-be captain of industry, you CAN manipulate, hack and alter your FICO credit score for the better. I am your mentor for “deep underground credit knowledge” and am a master of all things insightful and mundane with regards to credit score. Google me… I’m sort of a big deal :-]

Thank me by sending text message love to 650-283-8008. Call it and be freaked out when I answer it. Or be overly courteous and email chiang9@duck9.com, but include my cell to bust through my spam filter.

Here are 9 tips to raise FICO.

-1- Urban Myths Sink Ships.
The credit industry wants you dumb, stupid and in the dark. For example, the industry quotes the average FICO score to be 678 or even as high as 700+. The real average credit score is 585.

-2- Get a FICO Mentor.
To the benefit of my twelve readers this week, you can use my cell number or Facebook Austin TX network page and I will mentor you. Who am I? A guy who has credit educated peeps and is now writing a tell-all book.
http://www.WhatTheyDontTeachYouAtStanfordBusinessSchool.com

-3- Snail Mail is Your BFF.
Snail mail is mail sent with a 41c stamp. BFF is ‘best friend forever’.

I have made millions steering people towards a higher FICO score. The absolute biggest secret is that postage paid, old school stamps preserve your credit rights. Remember, FCBA stands for “Fair Credit Billing Act”  — not the Fair Credit Biatching Act. Yes, 800 number systems were set-up to short-circuit your rights because voicing a complaint does not document your problem in the eyes of the law (FCBA and FCRA –“Fair Credit Reporting Act”).

-4- Know Your Derogatories.
Dispute borderline negatives after running your credit report. A huge urban myth is that getting a credit report hurts your credit score… it does NOT. I repeat, getting your own credit report does not hurt your credit.

My mentor, Mark McCormack, who wrote the book, “What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School“.

Checking your own credit does not hurt your credit because it is a “consumer inquiry”. There are three types of inquiries; consumer, advertiser and credit. Credit inquiries are the only ones that hurt your credit. Print and mail the from HERE http://www.duck9.com/free-credit-report-form.htm

-5- Visualize Growth.
Track your FICO progress on a thermometer. Use one like the ‘Jump-rope-a-thon’ fundraising thermometer that you used in grade school.

-6- Get a Fake Mini Loan.
Make small purchases on a Visa/MC account and pay off in full. This is your fake mini loan: owing $20 to American Express, Discover or Capital One Visa. Credit bureaus make no distinctions between $15.50 paid on-time versus $15,500 paid on time. Ignore leveraging this TIP at your own peril. Procrastinate taking action on this TRUTH and risk wallowing in the lower percentiles.

ACTION: Take two seconds and fill this out and mail it in. http://www.duck9.com/free-credit-report-form.htm

-7- Give Good Google.
Get text message reminders you send yourself via google calendar. On the11th and 21st of every month, I login to EVERY ACCOUNT to make sure all are up-to-date.

I also list out every debt obligation on a manilla folder. For built in redundency, I also get paper bills (to my new dorm address).

-8- Bastard Bills Are Killer.
Find the bastard bill(s) and deal with it/them. An example of a bastard bill is a parking ticket from a city you visited. It grows from a $20 violation to some amount over $100 (almost always). Settle this out by negotiating directly with the original biller (and not the collection agency that bought the debt).

For example, City Of Beverly Hills cited you for a $20 ticket. You ignored it and now the bill is in collections for 5x the original amount. Paying the collector is a mistake. Dealing with the collector and listening to their threats and misinformation is a big, big mistake.

-8b- Orphan bills suck too.
Orphans develop when three people share a utility bill, but no one pays the last bill and YOUR name is on the bill. If your name is on the bill, your credit report will get hit.

SOLUTION: Pay bastards and orphans with a physical check. Why?! Checks are legal documents that tip to scale in your favor. Here is how: In the ‘memo section’ of the check, clearly label the bill to be paid and reference number, “parking ticket  6707-9805 + penalties PAID IN FULL”

Once the check is cashed, you now have the matter cleared if you keep a digital picture or photocopy to present to the credit bureaus.

-9- Document It All In Writing.
Complaining in written form preserves your rights. Emailing or calling does not. See my diatribe on FCBA — “Fair Credit Billing Act”. Complain in triplicate to get RESULTS: write in and cc Complaints.com and CreditCard.org.

-BONUS FICO CREDIT TIP- Pay It Forward.
Cut and paste this blog article to your Facebook in a note. Tell other people about what you learned here. This POST IS NOT copywritten (including this Business Week piece) so cut and paste to pass this advice forward

If you need written authorization, email me larryChiang@duck9.com. Please cite this blogpost and link back.

Larry’s book release 09-09-09 and BIO: http://tinyurl.com/AmazonBio

Larry Chiang is the founder of Duck9, which educates college students on how to establish and maintain a FICO score over 750. He has testified before Congress and World Bank on credit.

He will be a frequent contributor to Business Week’s blog on “What They Don’t Teach You at Business School“. His earlier posts on his last blogging assignment at GigaOm included: How to Work The Room; 8 Tips On How to Get Mentored ; and 9 VCs You’re Gonna Want To Avoid. You can read more equally funny, founder-focused-lessons on Larry’s Amazon blog.