On the show today we have… Joseph Kidworth on Credit Repair and More!
Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify
Show Links:
– Joseph Kidworth on Facebook or Kidworth Group
– Website – Kidworthgroup.com – GREAT resources on the site!
– Bankruptcy & Foreclosure with Richard Symmes SIC 072
Show notes for Joseph Kidworth on Credit Repair and More!
The Vantastic Life is…
– is in Park City UT and snowboarding at Snowbird!
Joe is in Park City, Julie is in Seattle, and Joseph is in Costa Rica.
Julie
Introducing Joseph Kidworth of the Kidworth Group where they do credit consultation and…
Joe
Tell us your life story.
Joseph
I’ve lived all over the world! Czech Rebulic, Italy, Costa Rica, etc.
Moved to the US and joined the military, and got a job with AIG. But I had a friend working for Well Fargo and making a lot more money.
So, I got a mortgage broker job. Then I got into credit because I was looking at loans and saw people having issues with credit.
Then I sold my mortgage company, and got with Ricard Symmes and started working on credit.
Julie
Where are you (business)?
Joseph
We are in Seattle, but mostly work with people online.
Julie
How do you intertwine with the real estate industry?
Joseph
We get business from attorneys. And from loan officers and car dealerships.
Julie
What type of debt do you see that’s the straw that broke the camels back? Like a common denominator.
Joseph
Yes, I would say medical collections is a HUGE market. Insurance is expensive. We get a lot of medical collections.
Julie
Wow, what can people do about that? First, have insurance, but what happens..
Joseph
In some cases the insurance will cover it, but they missed out on procedures, and then they don’t cover it, and we have to get involved.
I had this happen to me, where I was getting an MRI, but Overlake Hospital didn’t do the right procedures, and it wasn’t covered for $5k. I had to dispute this, and eventually it was covered.
But people get so tired of this, and they don’t have time to fight these things.
So that’s where we come in. We break it down into 3 different levels.
Julie
This could happen to anyone at any level, right?
Joseph
Yep
Julie
What’s next?
Joseph
Credit cards.
Medical we do have a federal HIPA law, and that’s what we use to go after medical collections.
Julie
How would you combat that?
Joseph
There are 2 types of medical collections. A doctor release, or internal recovery department.
It’s no one’s business to know why you went to the doctor. And we can go after these with the HIPPA law.
If it’s recovery department, we try to settle those.
Julie
Can anyone negotiate these?
Joseph
We do ask for any medical hardship, and that’s when we get Richard involved.
Julie
They probably know you, huh?
Joseph
I have a story about parking tickets!
Thank goodness you don’t live in Philly. They put boots on your car in Philly.
For the most part are collected by a company in Vancouver WA. We deal with them many many times.
I had a friend that worked there, and they told me they had a picture of me up on their wall that we throw darts at.
People have racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in parking tickets.
Julie
I hope I never have to talk with you about that.
Joseph
Going back to the medical part of it. If it’s a 3rd party collection, it’s in violation of HIPPA law, but if a judge signs off on it, that is legit.
I had a client that waited 6 months to sign up with me, and that allowed them enough time to get the judge involved.
Julie
What does it cost.
Joseph
We do have a retainer.
Julie
Do you see job loss as an issue?
Joseph
Well, that is part of it, but for the most part it’s folks that aren’t responsible and they max out their cards. Nobody every taught us credit, not even in college.
Julie
Do you categorize into certain levels of trouble? Like what’s the worst situation.
Joseph
I had a client that filed bankruptcy twice. When I looked at the credit report I saw that she was trying to do it a third time.
I have the married couple that lived in mom and dads extra house. They were making $375k a year, but they had 168 negative accounts on their credit report. These folks were blowing $6-7k a month on JUNK.
Julie
How long does it take to recover, and how long does it take to recover?
Joseph
The couple that I was talking about… we got a 70% deletion in 6 months. Then we kept working and got 90%, and it wasn’t effecting their credit anymore.
Lexus Nexus sells all of your public records to the credit companies.
So we have to go after them. They have to prove to us that they have the rights to sell the information. For the most part they send a huge packet to the client and then we can get all of the removed from the credit reports.
The bureaus are tough, but that’s when Richard Symmes comes in.
Julie
So, what we are doing is giving you a super team here to help yourself or your clients! Joseph Kidworth and Richard Symmes.
What is the severity of credit issues?
Joseph
I tell my clients it can take 3-6 months or less, on a case by case bases.
Julie
That is no time at all!!!!
This sounds like something some people should do regularly.
Joseph
I tell people to check their credit twice a year. The credit companies make mistakes all the time!
Julie
What does that cost?
Joseph
We do a free consultation. The credit report is $1. Then we give you a complete analysis and let you know what we can do, and what it will cost.
Julie
We have a local guy that can help you right here locally. You should go local.
Maybe we can get Joseph to come to one of our local meetups.
Joseph
I would love to come myself personally.
Julie
What can not be removed?
Joseph
The credit bureaus are the only people that can remove things from your credit report. So we go to the companies to require documents to prove things on the credit reports.
Julie
I remember something from 20/20 from back in the credit crisis.
Joseph
We have a video on our website from 60 mins that’s actually great for our company.
Julie
Do you deal with unpaid nursing home bills?
Joseph
We do. We also deal with child support bills.
The reason we go this route is we are looking to remove an account permanently. There are many credit repair companies out there that will go after the reporting companies. The will get removed, but they will sell the info to another company, and the same things will get reported again a few months later.
Have you heard of Lexington Law? They do bureaus disputes. People pay them money, and the they get things removed from the credit reports, but they pop right back up.
Julie
Wow, everyone should be doing this!
Save yourself from mishaps. You need good credit.
Joseph
True! I have people that come to me that need cars right now. I tell them to get the car at a high rate, and then we can fix their credit and refinance them to a lower rate.
Julie
Does it matter how many credit cards you have?
Joseph
You can have as many cards as you like. You should keep the balances under 25% of the credit limits. But under 7% will boost your scores even more!
Julie
What if you max it out and then pay it off?
Joseph
Well, if you max it out, it gets reported to the credit companies.
Even if you pay it off, if you max it out, it gets reported. You shouldn’t max out your cards. Get multiple cards, so you don’t max them out.
There are strategic ways to pay your credit cards.
Julie
What’s that?
Joseph
You can pay your mortgages, credit cards, and car loans twice a month and you will pay them down faster.
Julie
How about short sales?
Joseph
I do have a couple of them in Bellevue that focus on short sales. But it’s a dying market.
Julie
In our real estate investing crowd it’s interesting.
What is the hardest type of credit issue from your perspective?
Joseph
Any account that’s gone into default within the last six months. At that point they maintain the debt in-house, and they are more organized.
Julie
How about identity theft?
Joseph
Most important thing is monitor credit monthly, or do it twice a year. My identity was stolen a few months back. I got a notification from Transunion that there were a credit inquiry from Well Fargo in Texas.
Julie
Would you monitor my credit for me?
Joseph
Yes, we can do that for them with the login details.
Julie
How about military stuff?
Joseph
We do help the military a lot. We help green suiters. Donating money. Any clients that sign with with short resources. The military is a great market. They have a meeting once a month, and civilians are welcome.
Julie
Can you share that with us?
Joseph
Yeah, I can set that up.
Julie
That would be fantastic! We like to teach our military friends how to use their VA loans, which can be great!
I would love to be the bridge for that information.
We are having a meetup on Tuesday’s at the Milton Lodge. Join us!
I would love to work with you personally on a platform to educate young adults. How can they start building credit safely?
Joseph
Get a couple of secured credit cards and maintain the card under 25% of the credit limit.
Piggy back off of mom and dads credit history. If they have good credit. They can add kids as authorized users, and that will be transferred to their credit history.
Don’t apply for all kinds of credit cards. Just one or two from your bank (Wells Fargo, Capital One, etc.).
Keep your inquiries under 3 every 6 months.
Julie
What do you know about using rent toward credit?
Joseph
Rest was an alternative credit. Bring 12 months of cancelled rent checks and that’s another way to build alternative credit.
Julie
This is fantastic, and we are going to wrap it up. We would love to see you at the Seattle Investors Club. Face to face, and weekly!
No topics, we just see what comes up.
Joseph
Facebook – Joseph Kidworth or Kidworth Group
Website – Kidworthgroup.com – GREAT resources on the site!
Julie
Use Joseph Kidworth to get this done for you!
Joseph
I love to talk to people! Call me up!
Julie
You can find Seattle Investors Club meetups on meetup.com. Just show up. You can leave early, just show up.
We are in Burien on Tuesday’s and Redmond on Thursday’s, and Thursday’s in Pierce County at Milton Lodge with Larry and Marishka.
Best way is to connect with us on Facebook or Meetup.com. https://www.meetup.com/SeattleInvestorsClub
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