Right now, the Obama administration wants to help small businesses get loans by injecting $30 billion in to community banks.  This will allow up to $300 billion in new loans to small businesses.

As reported by Bloomberg news the other day, experts have doubts about this plan: “Bankers say the problem isn’t scarce credit, it’s lack of demand from creditworthy firms in a weak economy. The result may be more loans given to distressed firms and higher losses.”

I continue to be puzzled why so many experts and those in our government do not understand that the bad economy has rapidly stressed the root of the problem, individual credit scores.  After all an individual’s credit score is the main way credit is determined for most small businesses.

This is what happened.  The bad economy stressed personal and small business finances, caused downsizing, delayed payments, defaults, etc.  It made otherwise good creditworthy people have a significant drop in their credit score.

Now however, many have recovered from their personal or small business hardships.  If not for their depressed credit score, they would be “creditworthy”.

Problem is the downward effect on credit scores can remain for up to 7 years, regardless if the financial condition has improved.

So, it really is a credit score problem, pure and simple!  Fix that and the economy can roar back to life.

What is now needed is a massive credit score restoration program.  There is not much the government can do about that, but individuals should know that there are many credit report errors that can be fixed and things like identity theft removed from their credit reports.  Creditors are more likely to grant goodwill corrections of negatively reported items to those now in good standing.  Many small debts, weighing down credit reports and credit scores, can now be paid to collection agencies for much less than face value.  All this will help improve credit scores and rapidly.

SmartCredit.com can help individuals and small business owners in this endeavor.  It allows them to take personal responsibility for their credit score and credit education.  Smart Credit has an unrestricted free trial where members can use the Jean Chatzky Score Builder app to see where they stand and what their future credit score could be if recommended Action buttons are used to work out issues directly with creditors.  Smart Credit is connected to over 36,000 creditors for fast and effective results with the simple push of a button.

It is time we all recognize that until credit scores improve for millions of individuals and small business owners, the economy and the unemployment rate will remain bad.

David B. Coulter – Founder and C.E.O. of SmartCredit.com

Credit reports have lots of information about your credit history.  As with anything so complex and full of data, the credit report is not easy to read or understand, let alone find an error.

Creditors report to national credit reporting agencies (i.e. – TransUnion, Experian, Equifax) who then prepare a credit report.  You, creditors and the government are among those who can see your credit report.  Your credit score is based on this credit report.  When creditors report incorrectly, it can have a major effect on your credit score for years.

Errors happen because names are similar, addresses are mismatched, social security numbers are off by a digit or two, accounts get crossed.  It happens all the time.  In fact, the Public Institute Research group has reported that up to 80% of credit reports have errors.  Its almost never the fault of a national credit reporting agencies.  They are data repositories and simply report information they get from creditors, collectors or court houses.

The problem is most people don’t know how to find find errors and it is your personal responsibility to ensure your credit report is as accurate as possible.  There are few easy ways to understand your credit report and even fewer tools to fix problems.

So what can you do?

SmartCredit.com has a very simple, easy to understand credit report with Action buttons to fix credit report errors, get goodwill corrections, eliminate identity theft and settle debts.  There is personalized video assistance and pop-up bubble help that shows you were to look for things like errors.

Below is a screen shot showing how to find credit report errors and take action, within the Jean Chatzky Score Builder app, included free with SmartCredit.com membership:

Be proactive about your credit report and credit score!  Use SmartCredit.com and its unrestricted free trial to see your free credit scores.  Use the action buttons to communicate directly with over 36,000 creditors for anything you need, including credit score improvement, remove identity theft and even get a goodwill removal of negative items on your credit report.  You can even ask for a more competitive interest rate on your credit cards.  It’s fast and effective and just takes the simple push of a button.

SmartCredit.com also includes both credit monitoring and identity protection, with a mobile rapid response system, for the fastest way to detect and stop identity theft.  Remember, you need both credit monitoring and identity protection.  Having one or the other is not good enough.  Credit monitoring alone will only show you what’s happened after the damage is done. Our identity protection with mobile rapid response will help you stop fraud before it impacts your credit and finances.

Additionally, identity theft insurance or guarantees are often not a good way to fix the problem.  It will simply bog your down in endless paperwork and third parties trying to do the work you can easily do with the push of a button in SmartCredit.com

David B. Coulter – founder and C.E.O. of SmartCredit.com

President Obama recently signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.  It is commonly known as the Financial Reform Legislation and is designed to help prevent economic failure.  To accomplish this it has many new regulations and restrictions on lending and credit.  Its far reaching effects go all the way down to your individual credit score.

This legislation means your credit score is now more important than ever to get a loan or financing for both you personally and for small business owners whose personal credit is used.

Among other things, lenders will be required to certify that consumers have a reasonable ability to repay a loan.  Lenders will look at your income closely, but this will also force more scrutiny on your credit score and credit report showing your prior ability to pay your obligations.

This means your credit score is now more important than ever to get a loan and especially a mortgage.  It is interesting to note that Auto lending is exempt from this legislation, but your credit score plays a big role here too.

Make sure your credit score is the best it can be, before you apply for any loan.  Also, make sure you have credit monitoring and identity theft protection.

How to get the best credit score possible.

No credit score will last forever.  It will change over time as your credit patterns change, or you get new credit, or perhaps you use too much available credit.  Think of your credit score as a snapshot of your credit performance at a fixed point in time.  Your score can go up or down depending on how you manage your credit.

Your credit score is based entirely on your credit report.  It is one of the most powerful tools creditors use to assess your credit risk.  Credit monitoring and identity protection will help protect your credit score and your efforts to get a loan.

Be proactive about your credit score!  Use SmartCredit.com and its unrestricted free trial to see your free credit scores.  Use the action buttons to communicate directly with over 36,000 creditors for anything you need, including credit score improvement, removal identity theft and even get goodwill removal of negative items on your credit report.  You can even ask for a more competitive interest rate on your credit cards.  It’s fast and effective!

Smart Credit also includes both credit monitoring and identity protection, with a mobile rapid response, for the fastest way to detect and stop identity theft.

David B. Coulter – founder and C.E.O. of SmartCredit.com

For some reason, this World Cup is more popular in the United States than ever.  The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa lasts almost a month and for Soccer fans the passion is unbelievably high.  It is new for many of us here in America and unfortunately for some diehard fans; it can be very distracting.

I have a friend of mine who says his credit score goes down almost 50 points every World Cup because he is too distracted to pay his bills.  It’s not that he doesn’t ultimately pay his bills; he just lets it slip past the due date.  It’s that late payment ding on his credit report that lowers his credit score.

Many of us in America might find this hard to believe, but I can understand why this happens.  Being new to Soccer, I will say this World Cup has me addicted.  I have watched every game.  Some games are very early in the morning and others I watch on DVR into the late hours of the night.  I am reading everything I can about it and following the charts and statistics.  Even given that, I am nowhere near the enthusiasm of some Soccer fans, especially those with immigrant and family ties to other countries. Yet, I have found myself behind on simple things like my blogs.

The problem is, the World Cup is almost a month long from start to finish.  There is very little down time.  Have you ever tried to segregate parts of the Internet to avoid accidentally seeing sports scores on say Google News?  What about telling friends and colleagues: “Say nothing about the World Cup, not a word”.  It’s not easy to wait until after work to watch a recorded game.

So, if you find the World Cup has you paying your bills maybe next week or perhaps after the finals of the World Cup, then know you may have years of a lower credit score.  I know the anxiety and tension might be high, but take a deep breath and pay your bills.  You’ll be glad you did, even if, during the excitement of the World Cup.  Also, don’t ignore your credit monitoring or identity theft alerts either.

David B. Coulter – Founder and C.E.O. of SmartCredit.com