[jotucker1983]

This is just my opinion, but I don't believe Credit Repair companies have a lot of value, as what they are supposedly going to do to fix your credit report, you can (and should) do yourself. Or in this case, your merchant should be doing these things.

Your FICO score is mainly 35% payment history, 30% amounts owed, 20% new credit/types of credit used and 15% length of credit history. If the merchant has a very low FICO score, it's most likely he has a very bad payment history, maybe has a high credit utilization rate, and maybe has some serious collections or charge-offs or bankruptcy related filings listed.

He would need to build positive history by opening other accounts and paying on time, while making sure to pay off the outstanding negative balances. If he has a bankruptcy on his report, charge-offs, etc., he will have to wait until they fall off, but in the meantime he can be building positive history with the other account(s).

This will help increase his FICO score in general, note though that there are different "types" of FICO scores such as FICO 8 and others.

If something is on his report that shouldn't be on there, or something is reported inaccurately, then he needs to contact the Credit Bureaus to begin a dispute investigation.

There's no need for a Credit Repair company (in my opinion).

[Lender Of Gold]

Your FICO score is mainly 35% payment history, 30% amounts owed, 20% new credit/types of credit used and 15% length of credit history. If the merchant has a very low FICO score, it's most likely he has a very bad payment history, maybe has a high credit utilization rate, and maybe has some serious collections or charge-offs or bankruptcy related filings listed.

He would need to build positive history by opening other accounts and paying on time, while making sure to pay off the outstanding negative balances. If he has a bankruptcy on his report, charge-offs, etc., he will have to wait until they fall off, but in the meantime he can be building positive history with the other account(s).

Much appreciated for the breakdown of the FICO score, when you put it that way it may just be up to me to educate merchant on how to relieve those problems myself.

An interesting question is, when do I give up? I have this merchant (grocery, 35K monthly, 25K cards) take 24K @ .45 over 6 months, so for his renewal I wanted to put him on a CC split deal, But literally everyone has declined b/c of his credit (below ~500) and averaging 5-6 NSFs a month since the deal. Despite the NSF's he is making the majority of daily payments and hasn't run off with the money or changed his account yet (haha).

I keep telling him I need just one/two good months and I'll have some ammo to get him money but he just can't seem to keep regular cash in his account ever since he went over 50-60% (and he's been hungry for the money for awhile now) I really really want to help him as a current client in my book, and I feel a split would relieve his NSFs and help his cash flow.....but perhaps he may just be destined to go bankrupt and the underwriters were correct in giving him the high risk rate, and I might be wasting my time...

As for maxis and Chad, appreciate the quick feedback, I'll call those guys soon. I'm all about honing the craft. but also using this product to genuinely improve people lives whenever possible even if the money's expensive