CreditCRM members aren't worried and are probably pretty happy with Operation Clean Sweep. They do things the right way and operate a successful credit repair business that does everything legally and within compliance. That comes with a business model designed by an expert in the field that set things up right in the beginning.

Edward Jamison designed CreditCRM with the right tools and the proper advice to give his business franchise partners what they need to easily sail through what is a raging storm for their competitors. There are definite competitive advantages to going with your own CreditCRM business.

Remember the phrase "if i told you i'd have to kill you" from tv and movies? Then you can understand why I can't publish some of the things I've learned about CreditCRM because they actually do give you the advantage over the competition. Edward worked hard to put this together the right way and it wouldn't be fair for me to tell you why CreditCRM members are able to continue with business as usual while most of the industry runs for cover. You'll learn much more by calling them yourself.

Contact Andrea at (310) 268-0580 ext. 210 or email andrea@jamisonlawgroup.com and tell her you want to learn more about CreditCRM. And tell her you heard about their system here at Mortgage Planner Tools.com

The FTC is going after at least 36 credit repair companies in what it calls "Operation Clean Sweep". Why are they doing this? It looks as though they are going after the companies that claim to be able to remove "black marks on your credit whether they area accurate or not". They say they will scrub your credit report and remove items that are negative even when they are accurate. They make false promises and now they are going to pay for it.

We all know that consumers will pay a credit repair company to improve their credit even though many of the items that hurt them are 100% accurate. And there are plenty of companies out there that will dispute everything in sight down to the page number on the credit report. When I was originating I used to get email ads from credit repair companies claiming to be able to get you what you needed, a quick sizable improvement in your client's fico score that would enable you to get them a better rate or in some cases make the difference between qualifying for a loan or not qualifying.

As John Ulzheimer alluded to in a CNBC interview, some of these companies are nothing more than glorified letter writing companies. They send out waves of dispute letters hoping something sticks to the wall and that they can get it removed from the credit report. I've seen credit repair companies claim to get bankruptcy and foreclosure items removed from your credit. I'm really amazed that the FTC is only talking about 36 companies right now.

Which leads me back to CreditCRM. I watched a video clip that Edward Jamison just sent out to his CreditCRM members. It shows them a fine example of why they have a system in place with training and ongoing coaching that helps to ensure they do things the right way and stay above board in everything they do. You won't find a CreditCRM member making claims about doing something that is illegal like scrubbing accurate information off of your credit report. These people get training from an expert and ongoing coaching. Last time I looked you had at least 20 hours of training that comes with your CreditCRM business. Most people I know in lending can speak for maybe up to 30 minutes and tell you everything they know about credit. Can you imagine how much you would learn from 20 hours of instruction from Edward  Jamison. And then you have monthly coaching calls and additional pieces like the video that was just sent out. That's why CreditCrm members are such valuable referral partners. They'll give you and their clients valuable and accurate advice. Knowledge is power, and knowledge is money in the bank. And the wrong advice can ruin you almost overnight.

Edward has just shown his CreditCRM members how to use the FTC Operation Clean Sweep article to set themselves apart from the rest of the crowd and use it to their advantage. They can talk to someone about the difference between what they do and what many others in the industry practice and claim.

If you want to start your own credit repair business, whether it is to have a stand alone business or to help you gain more clients and revenue for your mortgage business, you need to stick with the professionals that will steer you you clear of the mistakes or bad training that will get you into trouble. Go with an expert that has years of experience (not to mention a law degree, which we won't hold against him).

Today more than ever you need to make the right business decisions or your company can end up as a statistic.

Call CreditCRM if you want to become an expert in Credit or if you need a referral partner you can trust. If you want more information on the system read this link on CreditCRM and then contact Andrea at 310 268-0580 ext. 210 or andrea@jamisonlawgroup.com and tell her you heard about their system here at Mortgage Planner Tools.com

"And I can help protect and improve my clients fico and dti while helping them to eliminate all of their debt?"

Yes, and there are additional benefits for both the mortgage planner and your client.

We're going to look at a way for you to win more loans and make more money while putting your client into a smaller loan than the competition and preserving more of their precious equity. And you'll gain more future business too.

Let's look at the typical cash out refi as has been done the vast majority of the time and how you can provide superior service and go beyond for your client. Ensure more future business and earnings for you while providing a better solution for your client.

The typical loan officer will use as much of the client's equity as they can to pay off as much of the client's debt as possible, and will do this every time the client comes back in after having built up their debt again and again. They want to maximize the loan amount to make a higher commission. Each time this happens the client's equity decreases and eventually there isn't enough equity left to help them again and they are in deep trouble and possibly on the verge of losing their home. And you won't see any more transactions from them. You probably aren't the one who did the 2nd or 3rd cash out anyway as most people were too embarrassed to go back to the same mortgage company. What got the client into trouble? They got used to the new mortgage payment and spending the extra cash freed up in the refinance and then went on to use their newly freed up credit cards.

There is another way to use a cash out that benefits everyone, is better for the client, ensures additional future transactions for you, and earns you more money. In the old typical cash out refinance, you "pay off" some higher cost debt (usually compounded interest credit card debt) and transfer the debt to the lower cost (simple interest) mortgage debt. You used home equity to transfer that debt, you did not pay off the debt.

This is where you can use our fully administered debt elimination program to win the loan, earn more, and save your client more money while getting them completely out of debt with a plan that is followed for them. It's a fantastic mortgage planning tool that will set you and your services apart from the competition. You can put your client on track to save from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. What we suggest is that you use as little equity as possible to pay down enough debt to obtain an improvement in cash flow if it is needed which can be used as the margin (overage payment) in our program. We'll address the remaining debts in our program which will allow the client to eventually use the cash flow freed up by eliminating the debts to dramatically improve their retirement contributions or contribute to other investments. You also earn a commission for our program that pays you more than the additional $30,000 to $50,000 you were going to use to transfer the debt over to the mortgage.

When you "pay off" all of the debt in the refi the old way, the client gets used to the new lower monthly payment and spends the money instead of using it to improve their retirement or investing it. You'll hear the loan officer say they advise their clients to use cash freed up by a maximized cash out refi to pay down their mortgage, which almost no one does for any length of time if they do it at all. Plus you have just sucked a portion of their equity out of their home that could take years to rebuild. And you may have left them with an LTV that doesn't allow them the ability to do another refi if they need one or could benefit from an improved rate change in the near future with a rate & term.

Using our method, you retain as much of their equity as you can which allows you to help them when they need another mortgage transaction and gives them options they won't have the old way. It also allows them to get used to a payment that will not only eliminate all of their debt, but go on to build their retirement or other investments. You may also be able to give them a little payment relief on top of all this while still retaining most of their equity. And our program works with our clients current investment strategies including leveraging their mortgage through equity management.

Within the monthly payout in our program we'll free up more cash as we pay off each debt building up the monthly cash flow and using it to truly pay off the debts. That cash flow we free up can then be used by the client to beef up their retirement after or even while we are paying off the debts. It's very important to factor in that less than 10% of your clients are building a retirement fund that will let them retire comfortably and provide for them. Many of them will be dependent on family members or have to continue to work when they should be enjoying their retirement years.

Now also realize that in our program we will be helping the client to protect their credit through an advanced bill pay system that follows the personalized comprehensive debt analysis program our system created for them. We'll also be improving their debt to income (dti) ratio and credit which helps them to more easily qualify for future mortgage transactions when they need them. And who are they going to go to in the future for additional "makes sense" mortgage transactions but the one who put them on track to eliminate their debt and build their retirement.

So by doing the cash out refi the smart way we can ensure that the client retains as much equity as possible, actually pays off their debts, is able to build their retirement, has more options in the future, and protects and builds their credit.

Learn to explain this to your prospects and then ask them which type of company they want to work with. Explain the difference between the company that wants to "kind of pay off" all of their debt with their home equity and what you can do to truly pay off their debt while protecting and preserving their home equity. It makes for a pretty clear choice.

We'll first compare our program to other programs like consolidation and settlement and then to the old standby method of paying down debt involving a cash out refi .

Consumer programs that consolidate debt are usually either a consumer credit counseling or debt settlement business. While they can offer a short term benefit and erase some debt, they can also damage your credit for years and could actually cost you far more than you saved in the long run. The creditors report the settlements to the credit bureaus and the clients credit score can drop dramatically. And this is after the client's score has already gone down due to late payments since they were usually in the position of not being able to keep up with their bills. Now let's say the client gets back on their feet and needs to use credit to buy a refrigerator , a car, or get a refinance or new mortgage. If they can qualify, they are going to get much higher rates due to their credit scores and the extra interest they pay on everything over the next several years could easily cost them more than they saved. Especially in the case of a mortgage, where the higher rate could cost them tens of thousands in additional interest paid. These type of programs are really for someone who is already underwater, or has negative cash flow, which may not be a client for our program today. But these programs are being aggressively marketed towards the average consumer on the radio, tv, and the internet, and many people don't understand the true cost of these programs. Someone who has already gone through this type of program and still has some debt to pay off along with a mortgage may be a good candidate for our program. We'll help protect what's left of their credit and help them to rebuild it while putting them on the right path financially as I'll explain later.

Now let's look at the typical cash out refi as done 99% of the time and how you can provide the same service and go beyond for your client ensuring more future business and earnings for you while providing a better solution for your client. The typical mortgage company will use as much of the client's equity as they can to "pay off" as much of the client's debt as possible, and will do this every time the client comes back in after having built up their debt again and again. They were not able to, and did not, give their client a lasting solution. Each time this process happens the client's equity decreases. If they continue to go through this process, as many have, they will eventually find that there isn't enough equity left to help them again and they are in deep trouble and possibly on the verge of losing their home. And you won't see any more transactions from them. You probably aren't the one who did the 2nd or 3rd cash out anyway as most people were too embarrassed to go back to the same mortgage company. What got the client into trouble? They got used to the new mortgage payment and spending the extra cash freed up and then went on to use their newly freed up credit cards. We are called consumers for a reason.

There is another way to use a cash out that benefits everyone, is better for the client, ensures additional future transactions for you, and earns you more money with a higher client retention rate. When you do a cash out refi, you "pay off" some higher cost debt (usually credit card) and transfer the debt to the lower cost mortgage debt. You used home equity to transfer that debt, you did not pay off the debt. What we suggest is that you use as little equity as possible to pay down the debt and obtain an improvement in cash flow which can be used as the margin (overage payment) in our program. We'll address all of the remaining debts in our program which will allow the client to eventually use the cash flow freed up by eliminating the debts to dramatically improve their retirement contributions. When you "pay off" all of the debt in the refi the old way, the client gets used to the new lower monthly payment and spends the money instead of using it to improve their retirement or investing it. Plus you have just sucked a portion of their equity out of the home that could take years to rebuild. And you may have left them with a loan to value (LTV) that doesn't allow them the ability to do another refi if they need one or could benefit from an improved rate change in the near future with a rate & term. You may also be able to give them a little payment relief on top of all this while still retaining a lot, or most, of their equity.

Using our method, you retain as much of their equity as you can which allows you to help them when they need another mortgage transaction and gives them options they won't have the old way. It also allows them to get used to a payment that will not only eliminate all of their debt, but go on to build their retirement or other investments. Within the monthly payout (overall debt payment) in our program we'll continuously free up more cash as we pay off each debt building up the monthly cash flow and using it to truly pay off the debts. That cash flow we free up can then be used by the client to beef up their retirement after or even while we are paying off the remaining debts. It's very important to factor into your strategy that less than 10% of your clients are building a retirement fund that will let them retire comfortably and provide for them. It's not enough to just go into retirement debt free, you need a lasting income too. Now also realize that in our program we will be helping the client to protect and build their credit, and we'll be improving their debt to income (dti) ratio which helps them to more easily qualify for future mortgage transactions when they need them. So by doing the cash out refi the smart way we can ensure that the client retains as much equity as possible, actually pays off their debts, is able to build their retirement, has more options in the future, and protects and builds their credit.

Keep in mind that the client doesn't need a new loan or a line of credit to get into our program. Learn to explain even a few of these points to your prospects and then ask them which type of company they want to work with. It makes for a pretty clear choice.

Please send any questions you may have about our program to me at

kirk@ibsbrokersolutions.com or call me at (562)743-1895.

We are often asked about the difference between our program, the Financial Compass, and a program that is a mortgage cycler which uses a HELOC 2nd and requires the regular use of software by the client.

With a mortgage cycler, you need to have a HELOC 2nd or be able to qualify for one. And you need to have room on it to pay for the (up to $3500 or more) software and also take a chunk of money out of it to pay against your 1st mortgage. You deposit your income into the HELOC in order to lower your average daily balance and pay your bills out of it later in the month, working to minimize the HELOC costs. You need to either input all of your financial transactions into the software each month or reconcile accounts for the life of the program (several years). Over time the program is designed to periodically have you take out money from the HELOC and put it against your 1st mortgage. And then "rebuild" the money you took out through your discretionary income and applied to your 1st mortgage.

In theory, this could work for a very disciplined person like a financial professional who will perform the necessary input and not over spend. Where I do see a problem with a mortgage cycler is in the wild card.

That wild card would be the consumer. As we all know, the majority of the consumers we have seen in the mortgage industry are not extremely disciplined. If you give them a HELOC with a check book and an ATM card attached to it they are most likely going to over spend and will not gain the proposed savings from the mortgage cycler program. We all know this. We’ve watched clients over the years come in for a cash out refi and wipe out their credit card debt. Then they go out and rack up their cards again and come back to use up more of their equity to do it all over. Do we really think this is someone who is going to faithfully input all of their financial transactions into the software every month and also not overspend out of their HELOC? Many have already shown that they do not have the discipline needed to reduce their debt. Is that going to change overnight because they were sold a program and given instruction to input all of their financial transactions into a software program? They need and deserve more than that.

Now what happens if they have an emergency and have to use the available credit in their HELOC? What happens if the bank freezes or reduces the available credit in the HELOC which we have seen happen for the last several months? Or if they have to refi out of their 1st due to an adjustment or negative amortization? People can, and have, lost the available credit in the HELOC or the HELOC itself. Now you have an expensive software service that you can no longer use and a savings program that no longer works.

Your average consumer needs a program where they don’t have to do any additional work, give up their time, or learn how to use software and are not given “wide open” credit cards again. We get them out of debt over time in a fully administered debt roll down program that only frees up credit as we accelerate the pay down over time, which is safer for the consumer. We help them to learn to live off of cash and not credit as they go through the program. We're helping them to establish new habits that will improve their financial outlook and change their future. And very importantly, we are using a flexible payment over time to not only eliminate their debt, but then that available cash can be used to beef up their retirement plan or other investments. And that is key. If they get used to spending less on their debt they will consume that money and not contribute what is needed to their retirement. All you have to do is look at the assets of many of your clients in the forties and fifties to see how many are not building up an adequate retirement.

Another factor to consider is that in a mortgage cycler the client has to deposit all of their income into the line of credit to receive the "benefits" of the program. Most of the people I talk to don't like the idea of depositing all of their income into a line of credit. And that's another difference between our programs. We are able to give the client a fixed monthly payment amount that will achieve the goals in our program. That leaves the client with the rest of their income available to them in their own bank account to use as they need. We also set up 2 or more drafts per month so that we can mirror the payments as close to the time the client was sending them out before getting into the plan. And if the client needs to make an adjustment to their program payments it's easy to do. We have a very flexible program.

We do all of the work for the consumer through our TPA (Third party administrator) to ensure their success along with ensuring on time payments which can protect and improve their fico and debt to income ratios leading to easier to qualify borrowers the next time a refinance can save them additional money. And they may be able to go rate and term as opposed to cash out giving them a better rate too.

Since we don't qualify by credit or equity, we have a program that is available to a much larger market, and can often help consumers who do not qualify for a loan today. Our program also works with many investment strategies including equity management. It also gives the consumer the ability to make choices in what they want to do with their money and how to invest when they have eliminated or reduced their debts and just have a mortgage left.

It also may make more sense for the client to leverage their mortgage and invest in their retirement at that point. While mortgage cyclers are generally marketed to pay off your mortgage, that is often the wrong strategy for the consumer who has more expensive compounded interest rate debt that should be addressed well before the mortgage. But the easier sell is to target the mortgage as it elates an emotional response to help close the sale. Our program goes after the most expensive debt first, and provides options other programs don’t. We aren't going to dictate to the consumer where or how they should invest their money, That's something they can strategize with their financial professional on. We create choices and options for the client that they would not have had on their own.

The other reason I see the mortgage cycler pushed with a line of credit is, in my personal opinion, the need for an MLM company to be able to pay the salesperson and their up line out of the new untapped line of credit. We’re not an MLM nor do we need a line of credit to capture the discretionary income and calculate the most efficient manner to get your client out of debt while bringing options and flexibility back to their finances.

Further more, we have created a mortgage cycler ourselves and decided to shelve it as it doesn’t create either dependable savings or the level of savings our current program can achieve. This goes back to the possibility that the client will slowly use up the available credit in the line or have an emergency or necessity that requires them to use it. The Fed’s own research has shown that homeowners with a HELOC have a lower personal savings rate (at times as bad as -13%) than homeowners without a HELOC. We want to keep your client out of trouble, not put them into a trap similar to the cash out refi trap that repeats itself.

While there are many arguments that can be made over whether a cycler will reduce the cost of the line of credit, it’s very difficult to argue against the fact that most consumers have been going deeper into debt and do not have the discipline needed to escape the cash out refi and home equity line of credit traps that continuously siphon off their home equity and leave them deeper in debt. Some companies are starting to use a credit card as the line of credit for their program. Credit cards are often the reason the client got into trouble in the first place. It doesn't sound like a good idea to me and that's going to be easy to sell against for our people. Without the availability of a HELOC or ability to qualify for a personal line of credit, these programs that once marketed as "not a debt roll down program" and bad mouthed it are now starting to move in that direction themselves.

We've been doing this for 10 years and have thousands of successful clients in our program. We've been doing it the right way for the last 10 years and have a mature program that is continually tweaked and improved. Other companies are just now getting started and will no doubt have the bugs and "growing pains" to go through associated with a new program.
And they have to overcome their previous negative stance towards a debt roll down program, which has worked successfully for years. And we didn't burn our clients by giving them a program that stopped working when they lost their HELOC.

I suggest to the people I meet that offer the mortgage cycler that they include our program in their menu of services to cover the larger market that their product can not help. It doesn't take much convincing. It just makes sense to be able to help more people that need it and to be able to place them in the best program for their needs. At the end of the day, that's why we're here.

Everything was great except for flash. I couldn't get it to work for anything. I read dozens of posts and tried everything from uninstalling and installing the flash 10 beta to copying files to the plugins folder.

Here's what finally worked for me.

I went to the windows/system32/macromedia/flash folder and double clicked on the NPSWF32_FlashUtil.exe file and let it update itself. I had thought the program just wasn't registering in my system. This did the trick.

This is the file name for flash version 10. If you have 9 your file name will be different. The file name has a 9 in it along with "util".

It seems this registered the program and now my flash is back. And I have to get back to work.