Kymo Dockettt

Lillian Hamlett


Lillian B. Hamlett, is a Receptionist/Project Assistant at Wiley Rein & Fielding L.L.P. Law Firm. Ms. Hamlett is a powerful advocate for Christianity as she believes communicating the gifts of love, kindness, gentleness, long suffering as well as self control are important ingredients in extending professionalism to the corporate clients at her law firm. She held the office of Vice President the first year of the Metropolitan 2004 Tenant Association. She continues to have an on-going enthusiasm and concern for our tenants' plight in purchasing the Metropolitan. Ms. Hamlett discovered the opportunity to secure our building was an opportunity too important to let get away. She feels that the Metropolitan is a great place to live and own and wants to be God's instrument in making that a reality for everyone. Ms. Lillian B. Hamlett is a great cook and enjoys engaging in Bible study and creating floral arrangements. She has been a resident of the Metropolitan for 5 years.


KYMO DOCKETT



Kymo Dockett is one of two new board members elected in May 2005. He is a copy operator at the Mills Corporation and a writer for an on-line Christian ‘Hip Hop’ magazine at www.WTWmagazine.com. He especially enjoys writing because “ it allows me to make a difference in young people’s lives by introducing them to Christ in a contemporary way”. He wanted to become a member of the board because he saw the potential of the current board’s efforts toward helping tenants buy the Metropolitan. He desires to see tenants become building owners and pledges to become instrumental in the efforts of MTA. Mr. Kymo Dockett has lived at the Metropolitan since 2003 and looks forward to his new role as Editor/Writer of Metro 2004 News (MTA Newsletter).


What Is Your Credit Score? By: Kymo Dockett

If someone was to ask you what’s your credit score, would you know it? To be frank with you, I jacked up my credit in my twenties. Now in my thirties, I wanted to get my credit together and pay off all my debts. About two years ago, I worked out an arrangement with Sallie Mae (The company I owned money to.) to not only pay off my loans but get the negative information I had accumulated off my credit report.

Through hard work and faithfulness I finally got Sallie Mae to erase the late payments off my credit report. After that, I remember checking my credit online and feeling overjoyed that my score had went up over 100 points. I went from having bad credit to very good credit. So a couple of months ago I applied for a program that needed to pull my credit report. I was shocked that my old score showed up. Was this some kind of conspiracy to keep me down?

What I didn’t realize was that there are three credit bureaus. The good credit score I saw online was from the bureau who had erased the negative information off my report. Evidently, the other two bureaus didn’t get around to doing so. So I’m still in the process of trying to repair my credit. One thing that I have learned is that having quality credit is an ongoing process that takes a lot patience.

As the Metropolitan Tenant Association buys this building, credit will be important. This is one reason why the Tenants Association wants to do anything they can to not only help you own your apartment, but help you get you credit straight. Be on look out for a Credit Fair that they are sponsoring in the coming months. Credit counselors will be here to help you get your score together.

Meanwhile, there are things you can do right now to begin this process.
The first step is not only checking your credit but making sure that you get a merge report from all three credit bureaus. Below are some other tips in how you can go about repairing your credit. This is not a hard process, but a process that takes time and patience. Don’t let opportunities pass you by in life because of your credit. Remember the first step is the hardest and the last step is always the most rewarding.

Inaccurate Credit
Reports

Newspaper stories over the last several decades have repeatedly highlighted the problem of inaccurate information contained in credit reports. According to a 1998 study by the Public Interest Research Group, out of the credit reports surveyed, 29% contained serious errors that could result in the denial of credit, 70% contained mistakes or errors of some kind, 41% contained incorrect personal demographic identifying information, 20% were missing major credit cards, loans, mortgages, or other accounts that are critical to demonstrating consumer credit worthiness. It is up to you to check your credit report and do something about the mistakes. If you don’t do it yourself no one will.

Fair Credit Reporting Act
To address this issue, and provide a remedy to consumers for poor record keeping on the part of the credit reporting agencies, the US Congress first passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) in 1971. It has, since then, been revised and refined several times, most recently in 1997. The laws established by this act require the credit
reporting agencies to remove all obsolete, inaccurate, irrelevant, outdated, misidentifying, incomplete, incorrect, erroneous, and misleading information from their credit reports. Keep this in mind as you go through this process.

How Long Items Stay on a Credit Report

In most cases, bankruptcies will remain on a credit report for 10 years following the discharge of the bankruptcy. Other entries remain for about 7
years from the date of the last activity. This means that, generally, the 7-year clock is reset whenever you generate any activity on a non-delinquent account, including making a payment. But once the account has gone and remained delinquent, the clock cannot be reset. Some unscrupulous creditors will try to reset the clock by reselling the account, but this is not correct. The FTC has made their position clear on this.

Repair Your Credit
Here are the steps required to restoring your good credit:
(1) Obtain Your Credit Reports,
(2) Review Your Credit Reports
(3) Request Correction and
(4) Await Response That's all there is to it.

Seems easy enough, but you must have patience, because the credit bureaus are not always very cooperative. They make their money by providing credit reports to lenders, not by fixing bad information in their databases. While you are following this process, you should simultaneously pursue another strategy, dealing directly with your creditors.