Welcome to the GSCSC, Inc. website, and the GSCSC, Inc website blog. In this article, we will be discussing tradeline and trade reference scams. Many companies out there today try to sell you invalid tradelines or invalid trade references for your personal credit reports, and for your business credit reports. DO NOT BUY THESE TRADELINES OR TRADE REFERENCES. They just don’t work. Here is how they get you.
Tradeline Scams
We get dozens of calls daily from people looking to enhance and improve their personal and business credit profiles with the addition of aged or seasoned tradelines and aged or seasoned trade references. This article will go over the different types of tradelines and trade references and what these tradelines and trade references can and cannot do for you. Keep in mind all of the information that you read on the Internet, and compare it to what we are providing here.
Before we talk about the different types of tradelines, and trade references being sold out there today, I want to address one item that a lot of people forget while they are hunting for ways to improve their credit score.
A HIGH CREDIT SCORE IS NOT WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR……LET ME REPEAT THAT…..YOU ARE NOT LOOKING FOR A HIGH CREDIT SCORE…..LET ME EXPLAIN.
When I ask customers why they want a tradeline for their personal credit profile, or why they want a trade reference for their business credit profile, they frequently tell me that they want a better credit score, but in reality it is not a high credit score they want, but instead they want to be approved for a loan of some sort. They want a mortgage, car loan, business loan or just a credit card. What they are seeking is purchasing power, but they do not go about it the right way. Instead, they buy fraudulent tradelines or trade references with the false hope of gaining purchasing power.
What you must understand is that your personal credit report is not public knowledge; but, your business credit report is; your friends and neighbors don’t know your personal or business credit scores unless you reveal it, or they are pulled and purchased, and most times your family doesn’t even know it. If that is the case, there is no reason to have a high credit score other than to improve your ability to purchase items on credit.
That being said, do not let anyone sell you a tradeline or trade reference on the merits of the score you will obtain from it. Having a 750 personal credit score and a PAYDEX business credit score of 80 will not guarantee that you have any purchasing power. That is like having a shiny new red car without an engine; it may look nice but it won’t get you anywhere, especially if its fraudulent!
Authorized User Accounts Scam – AU accounts did wonderful things to your credit score and took advantage of a major loophole people used to build their credit. You could “piggyback” onto someone else’s credit line and not only see large increases in your credit score but you were able to qualify for bigger and better loans.
The problem is that this loophole is all but effectively closed. In April of 2007, FICO announced that they would change the scoring model to remove this loophole. Since then, FICO and the credit bureaus have been involved in a lawsuit and the scoring model has not yet been updated.
THIS DOESN’T MEAN THAT YOU ARE STILL ABLE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE LOOPHOLE. Even though the credit bureaus haven’t eliminated the loophole, the lenders have. You must understand that the lenders read the newspapers also, and as soon as this loophole was made into public knowledge their underwriting guidelines changed to specifically address credit reports that have multiple authorized user accounts listed. This means that even if you were to add authorized user accounts and see large credit score increases you would still get denied for your loan. Unfortunately, many people are still selling this type of tradeline. They are even sometimes calling them “joint” accounts or “seasoned primary accounts”.
Aged Primary Account Scam – One of the new ways scammers are preying on people is to sell them what they call “aged primary trade lines“. The thought here is that they would add you to an account that is years old, thus tricking the scoring model (similar to authorized user accounts). The problem is that the credit bureaus have already closed that loophole years ago. When a company adds a new customer the credit bureau is expecting new data. How do you think it will look if a credit card company has a new client that magically has years of history. Why didn’t this company report them before this date? The credit bureaus know exactly what is happening and have closed this loophole before it ever opened. When a creditor reports old history on an account they will show the date opened as 2 or 3 years ago (whatever the supposed open date is) but they will not show any payment history. This means that your credit report may look like it has an account for 2 or 3 years but you will see no score increase or any other benefit. In addition to the closure of the loophole, the credit bureaus are aggressiveley pursuing these companies that are reporting false data and closing them down. When they are closed down, all the clients that have ever been reported have their accounts instantly removed from their credit reports. They lose the account, score increase and lose all of their money.
The only tradelines that are legitimate and can stand the test of time are primary tradelines that are not artificially aged, and which you as the customer, must actually do business with. If you are not doing business with a reported tradeline, it will get red flagged.
Our tradelines and our trade references are not artificially aged, and while they will ultimately help your credit score they will allow you to actually get approved for the loans you are seeking. Our shiny red car comes with an engine!
Trade References, much like tradelines for personal credit fall into these same categories as well. D&B, Experian Business, and Equifax Business are all privy to these schemes, and red flag companies and reporters all the time. Be certain that you abide by Federal, State, and local regulations for the use of tradelines and trade references. Do not get caught up in the easy, fix it overnight scams out there. Do things proerly and professionally.
If you have any questions about this article, send them to our technical support department at: support@gscsc.net. You may also call toll free at: (800) 922-5170, or you may reach us direct at: (775) 297-7250.
Tags: credit, credit bureaus, credit score, credit scores, credit scoring model, D&B, Equifax, Equifax Business, Experian, Experian Business, FICO, trade references, tradelines