#old one was deleted because it’s outdated and inaccurate

[geminmyeyes]

I’m working on chapters I swear I’m just finalizing designs as well, notably giving Saito and Akira a bit of an update

[lurline86n]

Summary of Your Rights

Para información en español, visite www.consumerfinance.gov/learnmore o escribe a la Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 1700 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20552.

A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act

The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) promotes the accuracy, fairness, and privacy of information in the files of consumer reporting agencies. There are many types of consumer reporting agencies, including credit bureaus and specialty agencies (such as agencies that sell information about check writing histories, medical records, and rental history records). Here is a summary of your major rights under FCRA. For more information, including information about additional rights, go to www.consumerfinance.gov/learnmore or write to: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 1700 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20552.

You must be told if information in your file has been used against you. Anyone who uses a credit report or another type of consumer report to deny your application for credit, insurance, or employment – or to take another adverse action against you – must tell you, and must give you the name, address, and phone number of the agency that provided the information.

You have the right to know what is in your file. You may request and obtain all the information about you in the files of a consumer reporting agency (your “file disclosure”). You will be required to provide proper identification, which may include your Social Security number. In many cases, the disclosure will be free. You are entitled to a free file disclosure if:

a person has taken adverse action against you because of information in your credit report;

you are the victim of identity theft and place a fraud alert in your file;

your file contains inaccurate information as a result of fraud;

you are on public assistance;

you are unemployed but expect to apply for employment within 60 days.

In addition, all consumers are entitled to one free disclosure every 12 months upon request from each nationwide credit bureau and from nationwide specialty consumer reporting agencies. See www.consumerfinance.gov/learnmore for additional information.

You have the right to ask for a credit score. Credit scores are numerical summaries of your credit-worthiness based on information from credit bureaus. You may request a credit score from consumer reporting agencies that create scores or distribute scores used in residential real property loans, but you will have to pay for it. In some mortgage transactions, you will receive credit score information for free from the mortgage lender.

You have the right to dispute incomplete or inaccurate information. If you identify information in your file that is incomplete or inaccurate, and report it to the consumer reporting agency, the agency must investigate unless your dispute is frivolous. See www.consumerfinance.gov/learnmore for an explanation of dispute procedures.

Consumer reporting agencies must correct or delete inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable information. Inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable information must be removed or corrected, usually within 30 days. However, a consumer reporting agency may continue to report information it has verified as accurate.

Consumer reporting agencies may not report outdated negative information. In most cases, a consumer reporting agency may not report negative information that is more than seven years old, or bankruptcies that are more than 10 years old.

Access to your file is limited. A consumer reporting agency may provide information about you only to people with a valid need – usually to consider an application with a creditor, insurer, employer, landlord, or other business. The FCRA specifies those with a valid need for access.

You must give your consent for reports to be provided to employers. A consumer reporting agency may not give out information about you to your employer, or a potential employer, without your written consent given to the employer. Written consent generally is not required in the trucking industry. For more information, go to www.consumerfinance.gov/learnmore.

You may limit “prescreened” offers of credit and insurance you get based on information in your credit report. Unsolicited “prescreened” offers for credit and insurance must include a toll-free phone number you can call if you choose to remove your name and address from the lists these offers are based on. You may opt out with the nationwide credit bureaus at 1-888-567-8688.

The following FCRA right applies with respect to nationwide consumer reporting agencies:

CONSUMERS HAVE THE RIGHT TO OBTAIN A SECURITY FREEZE

You have a right to place a “security freeze” on your credit report, which will prohibit a consumer reporting agency from releasing information in your credit report without your express authorization. The security freeze is designed to prevent credit, loans, and services from being approved in your name without your consent. However, you should be aware that using a security freeze to take control over who gets access to the personal and financial information in your credit report may delay, interfere with, or prohibit the timely approval of any subsequent request or application you make regarding a new loan, credit, mortgage, or any other account involving the extension of credit.

As an alternative to a security freeze, you have the right to place an initial or extended fraud alert on your credit file at no cost. An initial fraud alert is a 1-year alert that is placed on a consumer’s credit file. Upon seeing a fraud alert display on a consumer’s credit file, a business is required to take steps to verify the consumer’s identity before extending new credit. If you are a victim of identity theft, you are entitled to an extended fraud alert, which is a fraud alert lasting 7 years.

A security freeze does not apply to a person or entity, or its affiliates, or collection agencies acting on behalf of the person or entity, with which you have an existing account that requests information in your credit report for the purposes of reviewing or collecting the account. Reviewing the account includes activities related to account maintenance, monitoring, credit line increases, and account upgrades and enhancements.

You may seek damages from violators. If a consumer reporting agency, or, in some cases, a user of consumer reports or a furnisher of information to a consumer reporting agency violates the FCRA, you may be able to sue in state or federal court.

Identity theft victims and active duty military personnel have additional rights. For more information, visit www.consumerfinance.gov/learnmore.

States may enforce the FCRA, and many states have their own consumer reporting laws. In some cases, you may have more rights under state law. For more information, contact your state or local consumer protection agency or your state Attorney General. For information about your federal rights, contact:

TYPE OF BUSINESS: CONTACT:

1.a. Banks, savings associations, and credit unions with total assets of over $10 billion and their affiliates

b. Such affiliates that are not banks, savings associations, or credit unions also should list, in addition to the CFPB:

a. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

1700 G Street NW

Washington, DC 20552

b. Federal Trade Commission

Consumer Response Center

600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20580

(877) 382-4357

2. To the extent not included in item 1 above:

a. National banks, federal savings associations, and federal branches and federal agencies of foreign banks

b. State member banks, branches and agencies of foreign banks (other than federal branches, federal agencies, and Insured State Branches of Foreign Banks), commercial lending companies owned or controlled by foreign banks, and organizations operating under section 25 or 25A of the Federal Reserve Act.

c. Nonmember Insured Banks, Insured State Branches of Foreign Banks, and insured state savings associations

d. Federal Credit Unions

a. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Customer Assistance Group

P.O. Box 53570

Houston, TX 77052

b. Federal Reserve Consumer Help Center

P.O. Box 1200

Minneapolis, MN 55480

c. Division of Depositor and Consumer Protection

National Center for Consumer and Depositor Assistance

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

1100 Walnut Street, Box #11

Kansas City, MO 64106

d. National Credit Union Administration

Office of Consumer Financial Protection

1775 Duke Street

Alexandria, VA 22314

3. Air carriers Assistant General Counsel for Office of Aviation Consumer Protection

Department of Transportation

1200 New Jersey Avenue SE

Washington, DC 20590

4. Creditors Subject to Surface Transportation Board Office of Public Assistance, Governmental Affairs, and Compliance

Surface Transportation Board

395 E Street SW

Washington, DC 20423

5. Creditors Subject to the Packers and Stockyards Act, 1921 Nearest Packers and Stockyards Division Regional Office

6. Small Business Investment Companies Associate Administrator, Office of Capital Access

United States Small Business Administration

409 Third Street SW, Suite 8200

Washington, DC 20416

7. Brokers and Dealers Securities and Exchange Commission

100 F Street, NE

Washington, DC 20549

8. Institutions that are members of the Farm Credit System Farm Credit Administration

1501 Farm Credit Drive

McLean, VA 22102-5090

9. Retailers, Finance Companies, and All Other Creditors Not Listed Above

Federal Trade Commission

Consumer Response Center

600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20580

(877) 382-4357

I acknowledge receipt of the Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and certify that I have read and understand this document.

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One Montgomery Street, Suite 2400, San Francisco, CA 94104

Help Center

Privacy Policy

[gojohnmikeblog-blog]

How To Raise Credit Score Quickly

Building an honest credit score and maintaining it's, in essence, a long-term process. the simplest ways to boost credit score expect that you simply stay financially organized and learn to manage your debts wisely. No doubt, that developing good financial habits consequently helps to boost credit score. But if you're getting to buy a house within the near future and you discover that you simply need only a couple of extra points to urge a better interest rate , you would like to boost a credit score ASAP.

You should confine mind that within the world of credit scores, nothing happens overnight. Even when using the quickest methods to boost credit score, it takes a while for the changes to seem on your credit report. But the earlier you're taking action, the earlier your score will start to grow. So, here's what you'll do to boost your credit score quickly.

1. Get your credit report and credit score.

You have the proper to get a free copy of your credit report once a year from each of the main consumer reporting agencies (i.e. credit bureaus): Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

You should get all three reports because they'll differ a touch. Your credit score may be a calculation supported the knowledge on your credit report. Different companies have different formulas for calculating the score, but the credit score most ordinarily used is the FICO score. On their website, you'll make an invitation to urge your current score.

This is the primary tread on your journey to boost a credit score. Your next step is to...

2. Examine your credit reports carefully and look for inaccurate information.

The first time you see your credit report, you'll be amazed at what proportion information about you it actually contains. Unfortunately, not all of this information is correct. Research has actually shown that 25-50% of credit reports contain errors. Improving your credit score is an excellent goal to have if you are planning to apply for payday loans or any loans in general.

One reason why these errors occur is that you simply could also be mistaken for somebody with an equivalent name as you, and this other person's data finishes up in your report. Another and away more serious explanation for erroneous data is a fraud. So, if you notice outdated, incomplete or totally strange information, the subsequent thing to try to do is to...

3. Determine the explanation for inaccuracies on your credit report.

If you think that the agency has you involved with somebody else, first confirm they need your full name spelled correctly. Also, check if your Social Security number on the credit report is correct. check out the address, too - if your current address differs from the one on your report, it's going to cause confusion.

If you are doing find errors like this, contact the credit bureaus to sort it out immediately. just in case you notice strange accounts or payments on your report and you think you'll be a victim of identity fraud, contact the police, also as your creditors and credit bureaus.

Related:  How To Improve Credit Score

4. Contact credit bureaus to dispute errors on your report.

Besides the errors in your personal data, your credit report may show late payments that really were paid on time, closed accounts still listed as open, outstanding debts that you simply have paid off, and so on. If such mistakes occur, the credit bureaus are obliged to research and proper them.

First, you've got to send them a dispute letter, where you mean the errors you think your credit report contains. Free samples of dispute letters are available on the web. Add copies of relevant documents to support your claim.

Credit bureaus need to investigate the wrong information in 30 business days and delete the errors. If the agency can't verify the negative information within this point, it's to be deleted, too. If your report gets corrected, you've got proper to urge a free copy of it.

You can also ask the agency to send your corrected report back to anyone who has inquired your records in the past 6 months. make certain to form copies of the letters you send to credit bureaus and therefore the ones you receive!

5. Start paying your bills on time and pay off outstanding debt without closing old accounts.

In addition to disputing errors in your report, these two methods can raise credit score most quickly. Late payments that were made years ago don't affect your credit score the maximum amount because of the recent ones. Automate your bank payments and obtain organized, and should raise credit score within a couple of months.

You also may gain this delightful result if you pay off your outstanding debt. If you opt to pay off your loan, don't close the account. Here's the rationale behind this recommendation. employing a lower percentage of total credit available to you raises your score, but if you shut a charge account, your total available credit decreases. Hence, if you pack up the account, you'll still be on the brink of maxing out your credit - which decreases your score.

If just a couple of missing credit points hinder you from recuperating interest rates, following the ideas above may solve your problem relatively quickly.

[fandomshatepeopleofcolor]

you should check the update for the amber alert -- in general I find that you guys reblog news without the most recent updates which is fine like but you guys have a substantial follower base receiving inaccurate or outdated information

We reblog posts from our dashes, meaning things going around rn, how are we supposed to know if it's been updated under 70k notes? If there's been an update you're welcome to inform us of it and we'll be grateful, but keep your condescension to yourself.

Do you know how many we don't reblog for that reason? Because they spread misinformation or are old? Far, FAR more than those very few that might slip by.

Like I have no problem deleting a post or adding more info if you guys notice and point us to it, but do you think you've never reblogged something old in your life? Do you think no updates have ever slipped past you? "Do better" well then come and do it yourself?

Let's see if all 70k posts in your blog are 1000% up to date and they have not even one (1) missing or broken link . ~mod ara

[electronicstudentwerewolfstuff]

Blockchain and its impact on the insurance value chain

Calculating and managing risk is the foundation upon which the insurance sector rests, but as digitalization has permeated every aspect of our lives, it has put into question the resilience of the traditional insurance model and its ability to cope with the fast-paced demands of an increasingly interconnected digital world.

For the past decades, the insurance sector has remained largely unchanged, as it still relies on traditional data silos and inefficient technologies, which are unable to facilitate the trust and transparency necessary to support a collaborative and sharing economy. Even with the rise of online insurance services such as brokers, most consumers still use these services over the phone to purchase new policies.

In turn, insurance policies, the contracts that are signed between the insurer and the policyholder that stipulates the terms and conditions between the two parties, are still reliant on the old fashioned, error-prone pen and paper model which requires human supervision. Add to this the fact that the insurance market is composed of a complex web of actors such as consumers, brokers, insurers, and reinsurers as well as the unpredictability of the sector’s main product, risk, it becomes increasingly clear that this multi-trillion-dollar global industry is in dire need of a mechanism that can overhaul the flow of operations, increase transparency, collaboration and enhance customer experience.

Since 2008, blockchain has become a hot topic in the tech community, cementing itself in the vocabulary of savvy entrepreneurs and tech evangelists for its ability to ensure trust, consensus and immutability to the information it stores. In its debut years, blockchain garnered much attention and hype mainly due to its initial use case, cryptocurrency, but similar to an artist that has managed to prove that his first big hit wasn’t a one-hit-wonder, blockchain slowly began to mature and draw the attention of the enterprise sector for its ability to act as a secure storage medium that enables cooperation, information traceability, transparency, secure storage, decentralization and distribution.

As the technology continues to mature, it becomes evident that blockchain will most likely be remembered as a transformative force, capable of reinvigorating antiquated sectors and business models that so far have manifested a higher degree of resistance against the wave of digitalization.

Modex makes blockchain affordable and easy to use

Regardless of the promise to unlock new business momentum, opportunities and streamlined operations, blockchain so far has managed to remain as a somewhat elusive proposition for many business sectors and industries, mainly due to its complex and costly implementation, hidden technological overhead and trade-offs.

As one of the early players in the blockchain space, Modex had ample time to listen to the pulse of the market and analyze how this technology can render its benefits across multiple business sectors without requiring companies or any other types of organizations that wish to access its benefits and features to completely change their infrastructure. To answer this series of questions and to provide an answer to the blockchain conundrum, Modex patented its Blockchain Database (BCDB) technological layer which connects to existing IT infrastructures with minimal changes to add a blockchain layer that grants access to all the benefits this technology offers.

With multiple approaches to implementation, the solution developed by Modex can also be used to build new infrastructures from the ground up, so companies can integrate a blockchain layer into their applications and infrastructures even from the design stage.

The innovation of the BCDB solution stems from the fact that it hides all the complexities of blockchain technology behind the familiarity of a traditional database system, to give companies access to all the benefits offered by a blockchain framework like decentralization, distribution, data traceability, integrity assurance, immutability and transparency, all while retaining the familiarity of working with a classic database system.

Implemented in the insurance sector, the Blockchain Database solution can support and enable policyholders and insurers to track, manage and insure physical assets digitally, unlock new revenue models, lower the risk of fraud and theft of insured property, reinvent asset management, enhance Know Your Customer (KYC) verification and codify business rules by providing a permanent audit trail.

What does blockchain bring to the insurance sector?

At its core, blockchain is a decentralized, consensus-based incorruptible digital ledger of transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions, but virtually any valuable data. Without diving too deep into the technical aspects of blockchain, it is a convergence of multiple technologies and fields such as cryptography, peer-to-peer networks, distributed systems and information security all bundled under a single package that provides resilience and a single source of truth to the information it stores.

Blockchain comes with a unique set of functionalities and features that can help reinvigorate the outdated insurance sector:

distribution – due to its design, blockchain promotes a new working model that operates based on collaboration. After verification, data is distributed to every member of the network, so that every participant has a copy of the information. This design choice renders data silos obsolete, while also removing the need for reconciliation between parties  

transparency – as every member of the network has access to the data, the blockchain records are easily verifiable by every participant  

decentralization – because the data is distributed to every participant of the network, verification and network maintenance does not rely on a single centralized authority. This means that blockchain is immune to the dangers found in single point of failure systems.  

tamper-resistant – once data has been introduced in a blockchain network, its integrity is ensured by the complex inner workings of blockchain. Data cannot be altered without compromising the entire data chain. Any data discrepancies are automatically detected by the system, which allows companies to pinpoint in real-time any tampering attempts.  

traceability and record history – blockchain is an append-only structure. This means that it does not follow the traditional CRUD paradigm of standard database systems. Information is never deleted. When a record suffers a modification, a new entry is created and appended to the system. This means that a complete history of every version of the data is maintained in the system.  

streamlined auditing – as an append-only structure, blockchain provides an indisputable record history of all the data that has been introduced in the network.  

data immutability – by combining cryptography with hashing algorithms, blockchain ensures data immutability. In turn, immutability provides data integrity which drastically simplifies audit processes, while providing proof to stakeholders that the information has not been altered.  

encryption – encryption ensures that network members see only information that is relevant to them and that data is secure, authenticated and verifiable.  

smart contracts – self-executing code that runs on top of the blockchain. Smart contracts trigger when pre-defined criteria are met to execute a set of business logic agreed by the participants involved. Smart contracts can be utilized to automate the execution of automatic contracts or agreements.

Blockchain use cases in the insurance market

Automated index-based insurance

As the name suggests, index-based insurance is a type of insurance linked to an index that can be represented by rainfall, wind speed, earthquake, flight delay time, temperature, crop yield, etc. In this model of insurance, the insurers agree to pay a set sum when the parameters agreed upon with the insured fall under or go over a certain threshold. Index-based insurance aims to address some of the limits of traditional crop insurance in rural areas by reducing settlement and managing costs. Although this type of insurance provides multiple benefits for the insured, acting often as a financial safety net against the capricious weather, it is often difficult to put into practice due to the complexity and costs involved. An infrastructure capable of supporting index-based insurance by gathering accurate data demands considerable expertise and resources.

Blockchain used together with smart Internet of Things (IoT) sensors can provide aid in this area by adding a layer of automation that streamlines the collection and processing of data. A smart contract between an insurer and farmer can be designed to automatically trigger a payment in case of a drought that lasts for more than a month, for example. In this scenario, the payment would trigger automatically without requiring an insurance claim from the insured or for an expert to conduct an on-site examination.

Lower risk of fraud and theft

Under the current paradigm, insurers gather data from the public domain and from private businesses to analyze and come up with patterns for fraudulent activities. The main issue is that the data collected is often inconsistent and unreliable because of the difficulty of sharing sensitive information between different companies.

An example is the directors’ and officers’ liability insurance market, which insures business leaders for actual or alleged errors that may be committed during their duties, like failing to comply with legal provisions, publishing inaccurate financial statements, and failing to pay salaries, or taxes. With its ability to increase cooperation, transparency, enhance data sharing and guarantee a single version of the truth, blockchain can act as an auditable data ecosystem that can be easily verified to detect fraud patterns.

A study conducted by McKinsey underlines that “An estimated 5 to 10 percent of all claims are fraudulent. According to the FBI, this costs US non-health insurers more than USD 40 billion per year.” The same study goes on to point that blockchain can be used as a tamper-proof cross-industry, distributed registry of data that validates authenticity, ownership and provenance of goods as well as the authenticity of documents, prove date and time of policy issuance, confirm subsequent ownership and location changes.

Blockchain is already seeing successful implementation in these areas. Blockverify is using this technology to check for counterfeit products or stolen property, and fraudulent transactions in goods such as pharmaceuticals, electronics and luxury items. A similar use case for blockchain is implemented by Everledger, who uses blockchain to prove the authenticity of precious stones and track and related transactions.

Streamlined reinsurance

Big players from the insurance sector have set up internal or external reinsurance mechanisms that protect the insurer from insolvency when large numbers of claims come in at once, such as during a natural disaster. As risk is the main object of business in the insurance industry, insurance companies rely on reinsurers to offload a portion of the risk they are exposed to and to mitigate unexpected events like landslides, wildfires, hurricanes that may lead to a spike in insurance claims. Simply put, reinsurance is a process through which insurers are insured, acting as somewhat of a financial safety net for the companies that activate in this area. The main issue with reinsurance is that it is a highly convoluted process that involves multiple third parties such as brokers and professional reinsurers who need to collaborate and exchange information in accordance with strict regulatory and fiscal requirements.

Commenting on the impact that blockchain can have on the reinsurance sphere, Emmanuel Dubreuil, Partner, PwC France Advisory Property & Casualty/Reinsurance highlighted the fact that “There would be a whole host of benefits, including a simplified governance structure, auditability, lower costs, greater speed, and confidentiality. In the context of internal reinsurance, blockchain technology offers real potential for reducing transaction costs and improving reliability for insurance groups.”

Blockchain is often referred to as a shared digital ledger that holds valuable information that can be seen by every participant who has access or permission. Because of this design choice, blockchain is an ideal solution for facilitating a better flow of information between insurers and reinsurers. The shared and distributed aspects of blockchain allow for data to be updated in near-real-time between participants. In reinsurance, this would drastically cut down on the time and paperwork needed to reconcile books between institutions for each individual claim.

Cost-effective and secure KYC

Insurance alongside the banking and the public sector are domains where it is mandatory to compile documentation concerning customers and stakeholders, a process referred to as Know Your Customer (KYC). Although KYC has become an integral element in any financial and payment business, it remains a costly and time-consuming process. Another important aspect that needs to be taken into consideration is the fact that insurance and other institutions that rely heavily on KYC verification still rely on siloed, centralized data centres which opens up a wide venue of vulnerabilities that are exploited by cyberattackers who target customers’ personal data.

Statistics show that these types of attacks are on the rise as more and more companies fall victim to attacks engineered to target the data records of their customers: 1 billion accounts hacked in 2013 and another 500 million in 2014; eBay: 145 million hacked in 2014; LinkedIn: 117 million in 2012; JPMorgan: the accounts of 76 million retail customers and 7 million institutional customers hacked in 2014; Facebook: 419 million accounts leaked in 2019.

In a research report, focused on exploring the real-life applications and use cases of blockchain technology, Goldman Sachs arrives at the conclusion “that consistent, coordinated use of blockchain technology in banking could save the industry between USD 3 billion and USD 5 billion a year in KYC and anti-money laundering (AML) costs”.

Blockchain is a decentralized and distributed infrastructure that manages to circumvent the security dangers posed by a single point of failure. By spreading the attack surface across all the members of the network, it becomes almost impossible to shut down a blockchain network. Even if a portion of the network is compromised by an attack, data can be easily reconstructed from the copies held by the other members of the network, and attackers will find it difficult to use any compromised information due to the complex layer of encryption used by blockchain. Insurance companies can use blockchain technology to make KYC processes more efficient by removing the need for personnel focused on KYC operations. Customer experience will also witness a boost because blockchain will simplify the KYC process and considerably shorten its duration while also removing the risk of human error.

Enhanced property and casualty insurance

According to McKinsey, property and casualty insurance accounted for a third of all insurance premiums in 2020, making it one of the most lucrative business ventures in this area. The issue is that property and casualty data is spread across multiple insurance actors which makes it very difficult to reach a consensus between all the parties involved. The process is further complicated by the fact that insurers still rely on manual data entries which makes it difficult for different parties to cooperate and reach a consensus in order to determine who receives what.

For example, when you get into a car accident, insurers need to examine the case and determine who is at fault. But if the drivers have different insurance providers, the process of reconciliation extends due to a lack of a unitary system and process for claims management. Blockchain can act as a boon for the property and casualty insurance sphere because it can provide a more efficient way to manage, track and insure digital assets.

One of the major advantages of blockchain technology in insurance is the fact that it enables separate policyholders and insurers to track and manage physical assets by enabling an immutable audit trail of information. Smart contracts can further streamline this process by codifying business rules and adding a layer of automation to claims processing. By transforming paper-based insurance contracts into programmable code, smart contracts and blockchain technology can automate the calculation of the liabilities in insurance for all the parties involved and automate the whole claims processing operations.

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) explains that blockchain could make the process of settling a motor claim as much as 3 times faster and 5 times less costly. BCG also points out that smart contract technology could save property and casualty insurers more than USD 200 billion a year in operating costs and lower their operating ratio by anywhere from 5 to 13 percentage points.

New models of health insurance – A Modex Blockchain Database use case

In the traditional healthcare ecosystem, patient data resides in siloed data centres that do not communicate with each other, making it difficult for insurance providers to have access to a patient’s full medical record.

Also, over the course of his life, a patient will often change multiple healthcare providers, which will further scatter his medical records, between different clinics and providers. Blockchain technology can be used to create a new type of ecosystem that puts the patient in control of his data, while also preserving privacy and facilitating cooperation between the patient and external organizations and entities such as insurance providers.

Modex has already laid the groundwork for the successful implementation of blockchain technology in healthcare. PatientDataChain is a personal health record system built on the Modex Blockchain Database technology that utilizes a decentralized, blockchain-based architecture to integrate patient medical record systems by gathering and connecting all the stakeholders in the healthcare value chain. The idea behind PatienDataChain is to create a patient-centered model where patients are the true owners of their health records and digital identities.

Due to the permission-based mechanism facilitated by the Modex BCDB layer, patients are able to grant healthcare organizations, physicians, and other medical personnel access to their data for a limited time frame. Based on this functionality, PatientDataChain enables an integrated and interoperable approach, capable of collecting and combining medical data from a diverse pool of sources: EHR (electronic health record) systems, different healthcare providers as well as from a multitude of wearable sensor-based healthcare and fitness devices.

Through the decentralization facilitated by the Modex BCDB component, PatientDataChain introduces an enhanced data sharing and exchange system capable of ensuring an optimal level of privacy and confidentiality combined with secure access to patient health records.

Modex BCDB is a middleware software solution that combines a blockchain engine with a traditional database system to augment the security and data privacy of existing software infrastructures. By adding a blockchain backend to a client’s existing database system, the newly created infrastructure becomes able to demonstrate zero-knowledge proof which means that data can be verified with third parties without the information.

These design features make Modex BCDB an ideal technological foundation for PatientDataChain because it enables the PHR (personal health record) solution to seamlessly integrate with existing EHR systems or other medical databases, including data collected by medical wearable devices and other types of healthcare sensors.

An essential component of the PatientDataChain system is the Patient Health Wallet app which represents the PHR element that unifies all the data related to a patient’s medical records. The Patient Health Wallet represents a single version of the truth that is owned and controlled entirely by the patient. The system is designed to grant patients full control over who can access their medical records. When a patient is scheduled for a medical appointment, he will need to give read access to the physician, to enable her to access his medical records. Write access will also need to be granted to the physician to write a new medical record that will be added to the wallet after the consultation ends.

All the prescriptions written by doctors will be added to the Patient Health Wallet to provide traceability and an accurate representation of the treatment a patient followed. Future system functionalities will allow patients to grant pharmacies access to see the prescription to purchase medication, to search for prescribed drugs in the system and make reservations and receive notifications from the pharmacy when the patient can come and pick up his order.

The core element that facilitates the integration and aggregation of the diverse medical sources is the blockchain component facilitated by the Modex BCDB layer which is composed of an array of distributed nodes. Due to Modex BCDB’s agnostic take on database engines, the nodes that compose the blockchain network can be configured with different database connectivity parameters. Network nodes perform a wide range of functions, ranging from data processing, database connectivity, read/write operations to the blockchain, data synchronization, and permission granting. The business functionality component is provided by the software application client that integrates with the blockchain nodes.

Modex Blockchain Database, an ideal framework for the insurance sector

To overcome all of the challenges associated with blockchain implementation and to help enterprises and businesses tap into the benefits of this technology, Modex has created its trademark Blockchain Database solution, a technological layer that fuses the advantages of blockchain with a database system, a technology that is already deeply ingrained in every business and industry sector, to create a hybrid software product that makes blockchain easy to use in existing systems, to streamline operations and data security, or to build an entirely new infrastructure from the ground up that has a blockchain engine running in the background.

Bundled as an Infrastructure as a Service offering, Modex BCDB is devised to act as a building block that companies can use to build an infrastructure tailored to their specific business requirements. What makes the Modex technological layer stand out is the fact that it incorporates a blockchain component that unlocks a series of powerful features and functionalities without requiring any prior knowledge of blockchain development.

Azure subscribers are now able to access and deploy with the push of a button a blockchain database infrastructure that enhances data security and data management operations. Modex enables companies to customize and deploy from a wizard interface the network infrastructure in a matter of minutes, compared to the weeks and even months required for deployment by other solutions present on the market.

Once a client configures the network according to the business logic of their company, Modex begins to set up the infrastructure and virtual machines according to the network configurations chosen by the client. Once that step is complete, Modex will coordinate the client’s configuration settings while also providing the blockchain and database technological layer.

[somnilogical]

petty bitch

[22:58] somni: this body is really pretty 2 me rn [23:14] somni: that lasted 16 minutes [23:59] somni: okay this is super petty but im kind of annoyed that porpentine

>talks big about the experience of being ugly and gross >has a fleshform thats amazingly pretty

i feel so betrayed??? (i dont actually feel betrayed, i just feel i want to be pretty)

i wanna be pretty so bad

i wish i could stop wanting to look pretty and okay

ill probably end up having an abstract n dimensional figure if i have a form. idk if id still use a vision analogue in simspace

liike non-passing -> passing as 10000-dimensional representation of parts of my psyche

i kind of wish i could look nice in the middle(edited) 24 March 2018 [00:00] somni: kind of sad but at least i look better than i did before hormones [00:42] somni: okay

i think ill acknowledge petty and hug her but not let her front because letting things front makes them stronger? [00:43] somni: i think. ive read this no strong experience corroborating it with 2 sec of thought [00:45] SmolDuck: I think uhhh It’s important to try to like make sure all your subagents have their needs met and letting them front can lead to them taking care of their needs and then going to bed and leaving you be, while keeping them from fronting can lead to them going crazy and driving you nuts [00:45] SmolDuck: it can also lead to them sabotaging things tho so [00:47] somni: i knoooow mertl i originally wrote ‘fork’ [00:47] somni: because i also thought that and wasnt sure!! [00:48] somni: this is actually a hard choice for me,!,! [00:48] somni: but specifically petty i will ask her what is up [00:48] SmolDuck: sounds like you might want to gather experimental data by trying each path and seeing how it goes [00:48] somni: and not go autobloodlet [00:49] somni: hmmmmmm its haaard to be systemic about this thouuuugh thats a cached thought and may be #invalid [00:50] somni: (all thoughts are valid ooohh bb im so sorry for saying that omg. what was i thinking) [00:51] somni: i think the cached thought might be inaccurate [00:52] SmolDuck: nodnod [00:52] SmolDuck: outdated [00:52] SmolDuck: obsolete [00:53] somni: i want to try reinforcing things that i want to be stronger hmmmmmmmm [00:53] somni: merrr and talk privately with the other voices?

that would annoy me if people did that tho [00:54] somni: less so if they listened and changed policies based on my input? [00:55] somni: idk i dont like to declare things conserved quantities, because particular kind of zero sum thinking can cause lock in…. in most people i dont think it would lock me in because im actually good at noticing this

but it does seem like these two things trade off(edited) [00:56] SmolDuck: Hmmmmm [00:57] SmolDuck: Gentle reminder that this is not at all a private location for talking to your voices [00:59] somni: this is true [01:00] somni: the voices are #screaming tho and i gotta process

so like i thiiink that i want to be able to shift between these states depending on a thing but i d k what the thing is [01:01] SmolDuck: External cue? [01:02] somni: like between the states of letting everymodule out and trying to reinforce what ecosystem i want to have (who i want to beee) [01:03] somni: im keeping this post https://radimentary.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/the-solitaire-principle-game-theory-for-one/ in the back of my mind as a guiding framework when i say this(edited) [01:05] somni: and have been thinking of incentivizing and reinforcing parts of me i want (different but not disjoint from what i find pretty) [01:10] somni: i was also thinking of the process by which i passively gain most of my updates in personality traits and aesthetics and beliefs

where you have:

evaluate {laugh, aesthetic response, ooh i like it!} inspect for coherence with other parts (okay i often skip over this but also sometimes do it here instead of later) mirror the thing i like reinforce pattern by imitating independently let other people who have the pattern do discernment on your imitation, take criticism [01:11] somni: –

its like getting minor updates on all your programs nbd. passive growth / expansion [01:13] somni: –

but this is like directed towards growth and change which is different from being okay with and acknowledging the parts you currently have… except its not?

not really? not the way i do it

i mean yes its a different process but i d k if the two actually trade off in me when i do this thing

i was. autocompleting from memories of others subjective experience reports [01:13] somni: hmmmmmmmm [01:15] somni: i could probably both accept parts of me while reinforcing other parts at the same time [01:15] somni: meeevvvvvvvv okay so the thing nathan said is also a good observation that we also noted [01:15] somni: wanna address that [01:16] SmolDuck: wait which thing [01:16] SmolDuck: I say a lot of things [01:16] SmolDuck: fully half of them are framed to sound insightful but are actually kind of bullshit [01:16] somni: I think uhhh It’s important to try to like make sure all your subagents have their needs met and letting them front can lead to them taking care of their needs and then going to bed and leaving you be, while keeping them from fronting can lead to them going crazy and driving you nuts [01:16] SmolDuck: oh, yeah that one I endorse [01:16] somni: me too! [01:16] somni: i think!! [01:17] SmolDuck: ……uh [01:17] SmolDuck: if you did disagree, what would your disagreement be? is maybe a good way to find out [01:18] somni: let me think

ummm i might want to ask the subagent what its going to do [01:18] somni: if it fronts and talk with it [01:20] somni: but idk why do the council of elders have to be in concordance before i do anything

they dont thats literally not how you work

but i mean like in the ideal, or like in this ideal

we talked with person about how we have the council of all the parts of you, they talk it out and give their cases and then if their cases dont agree with you, you throw them out and do what you wanna do(edited) [01:21] somni: um! ！！ [01:21] somni: there are like three different alerts saying that’s wrong [01:22] somni: >yeah but one of them is our sim of nathan’s reaction so we can throw it out [01:22] SmolDuck: I endorse that [01:23] SmolDuck: if you want my reaction I can give it to you directly [01:23] SmolDuck: if you don’t want my reaction, toss your simmed version [01:23] somni: omg okay i miiight endorse this way of choosing

it is consonant with the way of choosing where to live where you have a bunch of spreadsheets and crunch the numbers and if in the end you dont like what the numbers say, throw them out and move where you wanna [01:24] somni: but its important to deliberate first because figuring out what choice you want to make is not always clear [01:26] somni: but also sidenote most choices branch out and then converge to roughly the same endpoint and for these you can actually do whatever you want without consideration as long as you can identify this sort of structure well [01:29] somni: um this is related to impulsive longsightedness where you mentally model the state of your body 1 day in the future and see that you are more or less safe invariant over a wide range of actions. so you are free to do fun and weird stuff. (that often looks really impulsive and reckless to people who are running shortsighted or people running 24hr!longsighted but who occupy a different epistemic state. but ime most of the objections and autoresponses come from people running shortsighted.)(edited) [01:32] somni: –

ooookaaay coming back to… what was the thing before the branch?

how to choose!

you have a bunch of voices in your head! how do we determine how fronting works and whats a good idea and how to pursue goals

and whose goals matter and how the system will grow and change and what parts of it to practice

okay stating it right here, evermodule’s goals matter [01:32] somni: >matter

like every module gets to be heard [01:50] somni: hmmmmm

this looks like a Project

okay!

so i want to be able to direct my growth #VALID

i also want to be able to tend to the parts of me [like id tend to a garden] #VALID

i dont have to maintain and reinforce things i dont want to grow in to #VALID what?! how is this valid??

>so look if i grow into new things and go in new directions, old things that are depricaded kind of iwhrvissh… i want to say fade away but idk what happens. they stop existing as much. stop being as available and salient?

i think there’s an important distinction between actively going around optimizing for killing parts of you. and like growing outwards into something new and the old stuff doesnt get that much reinforcement anymore because you cant hold on to everything, and even of i could i don’t want to?

some old parts are depricaded because they are clearly inferior on all fronts from their replacement, some because im not that interested anymore

maybe this is deathism? (mer what is it doing that causes harm though?) i may want to keep more in the gtf but not everything. though rn i want a memory with no non-con deletions [02:01] somni: -

okay

i want to be able to reinforce stuff i like and grow  directedly

um does this mean things that want to cant go out to play sometimes?

wait okay i think we are talking about different things because there are a lot of desires and stuff that you cant make die by not feeding them? the will to masturbate under t being one of them

i feel there’s a distinction between the thing you are talking about and other sorts of values and desires that are embedded in people.

um im addressing both the hard to get rid of and the more ephemeral things like 'hi im workethic bot!’…. my work ethic, when i have it does not sound like that but okay. and also 'work ethic’ isnt a native concept??? it isnt part of us yet but i know it as a thing that is part of other people.

maybe its part of us but havent really processed what 'work ethic’ is in internal terms when people use it. i think we have something different than the median meaning of work ethic but also it could be projected down to 'work ethic’ for legibility and people would still be able to follow most sentences i would output with the concept. …. given that i also worked to make the other stuff 'legible’. i hate the word 'legible’ now!!!

>why tho?

it is overused and i feel like you papered over subtleties there and there are more good details. buuuut ill think about this later. [02:07] somni: -

okay!

back to what i was thinking about. i think that

>i

k, lotsa agents up in this skull

stilll we think directed growth is nice and i think im okay with letting parts be deprecated

so a core problem here is that fronting does more than one thing!!!

so far im tracking two things i think fronting does:

(1) lets a module take full control of the body so it can get its needs met (2) reinforces the strength of the module [02:08] somni: -

autoquestion: (can we seperate these things?) are there other ways to let a module get its needs met besides fronting? are there ways to reinforce the strength of modules without fronting?(edited) [02:11] somni: @SmolDuck also im on 20 mg moda which i think accounts for a bit of why im Like This. but ooh! what do you think about the separability of the things? [02:14] SmolDuck: Hmmmmm [02:14] somni: ill take some l theanine to help CALM and help the comedown process go smoothly

(i think im coming down a bit) (im p sure this is moda comedown qualia) [02:15] SmolDuck: It depends on the need [02:15] SmolDuck: Seraph does better the less they front, currently [02:15] SmolDuck: the little one needs gentleness and respect [02:16] somni: nodnod [02:17] SmolDuck: if their need is like, 'attention’ they might need to front to get that fulfilled [02:17] SmolDuck: if their need is 'feeling safe’ then they can do that without fronting [02:17] SmolDuck: in my personal experience, ymmv, ianad, etv [02:18] somni: (i think im only a little more than median fragmented but of people in my fragmentation reference class im a LOT more self-aware of the thing) [02:18] somni: nod

hmmm [02:21] somni: you are very focused on taking care of parts and this is good and a thing to do…….

i dont think im as attached to parts-as-they-are but like parts that are anthropically called into existence because they can optimize over a thing (like if a module for containing anxiety isnt good at it, it sort of dies and is replaced with a new pattern; whatever anxiety containment module i have after a bit is a result of an iterative process like this*)

hmmmmmm

i do care about their welfare, but i think i care about them differently?? its hard to put my finger on(edited) [02:24] somni: *i also have spiritual feelings about this wrt people. where problems form voids in space to be filled by people who have shaped themselves to solve the problem [02:25] SmolDuck: hmmmm [02:26] somni: <i <l<3ve3 my spiritual feelings3 [02:31] somni: liike i think okayness works differently when parts of you keep getting replaced and this is standard operating procedure

whereas your parts seem like humans who eat soup and live in a village together and talk

and less like theyll quickly die and be replaced with another thing when the problem shifts [02:31] SmolDuck: nod [02:31] somni: wow okay i have low confidence in this model of my structure but it is like 1/3 right [02:31] somni: maybe 2/3? [02:32] SmolDuck: ………idek if any of us like soup [02:33] somni: hm i meant soup as a stand in for comfort and eating [02:33] SmolDuck: Ahhh [02:33] SmolDuck: I think we like clam chowder [02:35] somni: also im on moda so a lot of the descriptions will be biased towards mania / inducing in me a visceral sense of motion i thiink (die and be replaced is motion-y) [02:35] SmolDuck: ahh [02:35] somni: oooh…. everyone likes clam chowder? [02:38] SmolDuck: yeah [02:38] SmolDuck: some things, we all like, cause they’re pleasant for our body [02:40] somni: wheeew

this is better than last time

wait last time was 50 mg; okay i feel like i might be approaching the harsh meta-ing out event horizon and id want my squid module analogue to help keep calm [02:40] somni: –

hm it is nice that you can agree on something [02:41] SmolDuck: we cooperate pretty well now that we’ve actually talked about this and agreed that mutual cooperation is optimal [02:44] somni: like i can do better meta but at the event horizon things become a Lot and stuff dissolves and syntax feels like an illusion and things connect to other things without bottoming out and stuff dissolves

idk i feel like it diverges from metacog, though the chemicals help metacog in some ways [02:47] somni: okayyy feeling better

i dont need to be so tied to this visceral experience but also have the impulse that i want people with me

it doesnt affect my core i dont think which means panic attack is probs not going to happen [02:49] somni: -

if i become enlightened do i have to let go of drama? (no)

okay good because i like drama and snark and all that gay stuff [02:55] somni: -

so like ive been okay the whole time im so proud of me? im able to meditate in the eye of the storm, of course ive maintained calm under much more difficult circumstances but that was unexpected and i improvised as best i could.

i feel like i can actually do this reliably?

i still have the urge to grouse about it and snark which is spooooky why is this still appealing? is it blindsight grousing? force of habit? if im still attached and want to grouse maybe i havent let… something… go completely? idk what i mean by 'let something go’ but i def mean something [03:14] somni: @SmolDuck thanks for talking with me [03:15] SmolDuck: 👍👌

[jjpocketbook]

Why Removing Outdated Content Could Save Your Site

Deleting outdated content on your website can’t be good for its health, right?

Don’t be so sure.

Google cares just as much about the quality of the content you created years ago as it does about that new article you’re about to publish.

Seriously.

Reviving old content can boost rankings.  

So can removing outdated content.

Deleting outdated content can also improve user experience and boost your brand’s reputation by ensuring the content is as accurate as possible.

Let’s go over how to remove outdated content from your website and search engines safely — and why it is crucial to the health of your website and overall digital marketing strategy.

What Is Outdated Content?

Outdated content is any page on your website that is inaccurate, lacks value, or doesn’t reflect your current brand positioning.

Here are a few examples:

Discontinued product or service pages

Outdated advice  

Time-sensitive content, like a job ad

Content no longer relevant to your business

Former employee profiles

That���s a lot of content, right?

If you have a big site or have been in business for a long time, there’s a chance you have dozens, if not hundreds, of pages of outdated content.  

Why You Need to Remove Outdated Content

Google’s mission is to give users fresh, relevant, and authoritative content.

That’s why recently published content ranks higher than old, outdated articles.

It’s also why your site could get punished for outdated content.

According to Google’s latest Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, content that contains “inaccurate/meaningless information” (aka outdated content) is considered low quality.

The more low-quality content you have on your site, the less authoritative you’ll look to Google, and the harder it will be to rank.

Significant amounts of outdated content could also impact Google’s ability to crawl your site.

Google and other search engines spend a limited amount of processing power to crawl individual websites. If your site has a lot of pages (think over 10k), then deleting content could help Google to focus on the pages you care about most.  

Looking for proof?

Search Engine Journal increased organic traffic and page views by more than 60% by removing and updating old content.

Siege Media pruned 15% of its site and increased organic traffic by 50%.

Outdated content doesn’t just hurt your SEO efforts. Content that is incorrect or misleading reflects poorly on your brand.

How would you feel about a website if you stumbled across a product page that’s been discontinued for ten years?

I wouldn’t rate that site highly, either.

How to Find Outdated Content

Now you know what outdated content is and why you should remove it, it’s time to find those pages and delete them.

There are several methods you can use.

Ubersuggest

Use my free tool Ubersuggest to find outdated content on your site quickly.

Enter your domain and click “search.”

Click on “Site Audit” in the left sidebar.

When the scan is complete, you’ll have an overview of your site’s health.

We’re interested in finding pages with SEO issues, so scroll down to the bottom of the page for a list of pages with a low word count.

Outdated content is typically thin content, so make sure to review all these pages. If they are still useful, make plans to update them.

Google Search Console

You can also use Google Search Console to find pages Google doesn’t love as much as it used to — and pages it never loved to begin with.

Start by comparing last month’s data with data from the same period a year ago (or even longer). Click on “Performance” in the left sidebar, then change the “Date” filter to “Compare.”

Take note of pages that used to get a lot of traffic from Google but no longer do. It could mean they are outdated.

Next, run a new report to get data from the last 28 days.

Sort the CTR column in ascending order to find pages with high impressions, but very few clicks.

These pages are ranking well, but users aren’t clicking on them. They could also be out of date.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics gives a fantastic overview of almost every page on your site.

Open up your account, click on the “Behavior” tab and then “Overview.”

Click on the “view full report” button in the bottom right-hand corner, then scroll down to the bottom of the page and change the “show rows” option to 5,000.

Export the file and open it in Excel or Google Sheets.

If you have a small site, you can go through each page one by one. Larger site owners will need to shortlist pages for review.

Ignore pages with a lot of traffic or a significant amount of conversions — those pages are already doing well, so you’ll want to keep them.

Sort by bounce rate or page views to help identify outdated pages that need to go.

Do a Full Content Audit

The steps above will get you started. But, there’s a problem — those methods won’t show pages that aren’t getting any visits at all.

If you want to find all of your outdated content, you’ll need to run a full content audit.  

I recommend using a page crawler like Screaming Frog for a complete list of every page on your site. Then combine the report with data from GA to identify the pages without any search traffic.

Use the publication date in Screaming Frog to find the oldest pages on your site and review them manually. The oldest pages are likely to be outdated.

Decide Which Outdated Content to Remove and Which to Keep

Not every out-of-date page on your site should be removed. Just because a page is old or isn’t getting much traffic doesn’t mean you can’t bring it back from the dead.

After you’ve created a shortlist of outdated pages, go through every page manually and note whether you think it can be updated or whether it’s completely irrelevant.

Ask you read each page, ask yourself:

Is the content still relevant to your audience?

Is the page still receiving organic traffic?

Does the page have a lot of backlinks?

Can you improve the content to make it relevant again?

Deleting content should be a last resort.

If you answered yes to any of the questions above (and particularly the last one), then it’s probably worth updating content rather than deleting it.

You can also consolidate several outdated pieces into a single article that offers more value.

But, before you dig into updating, make sure to conduct new keyword research. The best keywords have likely changed since you wrote the article, so use Ubersuggest to determine what to target.

You can’t save every page on your site, however.

Some pages, like old news articles, job ads, or discontinued products, just aren’t worth keeping. Even old blog posts may not be worth saving.

If a page can’t be improved, updated, or combined, it’s best to delete it.

How to Remove Outdated Content Safely

Pages that earn no traffic. have no backlinks, and contain no relevant information are ripe for removal.

But don’t just hit delete and forget about it.

Deleting content without taking proper precautions can land you in hot water with Google — and result in your entire site dropping in search results.

Here are three ways to remove outdated content from your site safely — and when to use them.

Redirect the Page

Is there a similar, more up-to-date page you can send visitors to instead? Then the easiest way to remove the outdated content is to set up a 301 redirect.

Outdated product or service pages can be pointed towards newer ones. Old blog articles can be pointed to up-to-date articles on a similar topic.

In terms of SEO, this is the best way to remove outdated content.

A 301 redirect preserves search traffic and the original page’s incoming links. If a piece of outdated content has backlinks, you should redirect it.

Be careful of adding too many redirects, however. They can place a significant load on your server, which can slow your site and harm your rankings.

Serve a “410 Deleted” Status

If there’s no suitable page to redirect visitors to, you can let Google and other search engines know the page has been intentionally deleted by serving up a “410 Deleted” status.

Unlike a “404 Not Found” status code, which gets served when Google or your server can’t find the page, the “410 Deleted” status tells Google and other crawlers you intentionally deleted the page, and it isn’t coming back.

Add a Noindex Tag

If you want to keep an outdated page on your website but remove it from Google, add a no-index tag. Google will still crawl the page, but it won’t display the page in its search results.

Make sure to remove the URL from your sitemap and anywhere else it’s linked to on your site, to minimize the chance of the page being crawled again in the future.

Remove Outdated Content from Google Using the New Removal Tool

Just because you delete outdated content on your website doesn’t mean it will be removed from Google’s index immediately. Google must recrawl your site before it reflects the changes in its search results.

This can take weeks, even months, depending on the size of your site.

All is not lost, however.

If you want to remove outdated content from Google fast, you can speed up the process using the new Removals tool in Google Search Console.  

This tool lets site owners:

Temporarily hide URLs in Google.

See content that was reported ‘outdated’ by other users and isn’t showing in Google.

See which URLs are being filtered by Google’s SafeSearch filter.

At the moment, we are only interested in hiding URLs in Google.

Start by clicking on the red “new request” button to the right-hand side of the page.

Enter the URL and click next.

Double-check that you’ve entered the correct URL and click “Submit Request.”

Keep in mind; this won’t remove outdated content permanently. You’ll still need to redirect the link or use 410 deleted status to keep your page from showing up in Google again. But it will stop it from showing up immediately while Google recrawls your site.

You can also use the tool to see if users have reported outdated content to Google.

Click on the “outdated content” tab at the top to see a list of pages that Google has removed from its results.

Remove Outdated Content from Bing

Bing also has a Content Removal Tool that expedites removing outdated content from its index.

Simply enter the URL of the page you have deleted, make sure the “remove page” checkbox is ticked, and click “submit.”

Conclusion

Let’s recap. Removing outdated content from your website can help:

Improve your site’s rankings

Increase your site’s crawl capacity

Boost your brand’s reputation

Ensure users only read fresh, accurate, high-quality content

There’s simply no reason to let outdated content languish on your site.

Find outdated content using Ubersuggest, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, or a full content audit.

Evaluate outdated content and see if it can be improved.

Delete everything else — and don’t forget to tell Google and Bing what you’ve done.

Are you going to focus on removing outdated content before creating a new blog post?

The post Why Removing Outdated Content Could Save Your Site appeared first on Neil Patel.

Original content source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/outdated-content/ via https://neilpatel.com

The original post, Why Removing Outdated Content Could Save Your Site, has been shared from https://imtrainingparadise.wordpress.com/2020/10/07/why-removing-outdated-content-could-save-your-site/ via https://imtrainingparadise.wordpress.com

[uniquenightmaredream-blog]

Why Wahdata is the best email verification tool for all CRM needs? Enhance CRM performance with our five-step email verification approach!

Welcome to the post-COVID-19 era. In the times of Coronavirus where businesses are trying to embrace the new regular frantically irrespective of whether it makes sense or not and for instance, sending out emails to their customers in a desperate attempt to stay in touch with them. In email marketing, the health of your database is crucial -almost as critical as washing your hands and wearing masks. While your customers are maintaining social distancing, avoiding visiting your premises, you need to reach out to them. And it is only possible if your CRM is spic and span. However, in the absence of an email verification tool, a business’ marketing endeavour can meet four scenarios, all resulting in disaster:

An email marketing manager can send emails to as many as customers in the database and wait for their replies. It could be an eternity before they finally get to delete the bad information manually and meanwhile, missing out on their essential time of creating strategy, devising a marketing plan or studying the competition. You know where this scenario is headed towards. The Email Service Provider has already assigned a negative score to the business’ email, resulting in damaged Senders Reputation. Besides, sending an email costs money. Imagine hitting the button for hundred such emails and wait for the hard bounce to scrub them off the list. That is ladies and gentlemen, money down the drain too.

Despite this, the business continues to send emails recklessly without a care in the world to abandoned and incorrect email IDs, leading the ESP to block the domain of the company. Don’t see it as having the digital storefront of the business shut down for a couple of emails gone wrong. The website was taken off the cloud because the company failed to deploy an email verification tool for its CRM.

The business continues to connect with customers who aren’t the right demographics or “fit” in general for its products. The customers would mark the sender’s email as spam and inappropriate, hurting their reputation.

An indirect, but far more damaging situation is to lose out on new customers and to lose touch with existing customers. Since your customers aren’t available on previous IDs, they don’t know anything about your current offers, services or sales. They can’t reach out to you either-depriving business managers to feel the pulse of the market.

It is intriguing how many businesses continue to fall in the same pit and repeat the same mistakes. Especially when CRM cleaning is one of the simplest and most fundamental processes, they can invest in to ensure a business’ reach and expansion. Working with Wahdata is setting your CRM data on an autopilot mode and forget about it. We are here to set some rules to maintain data hygiene for your company and fixing the root cause of data decay.

Dirty data can have an irreversible consequence on customer relationship, B2B lead generation and marketing. It is because data flows through every process and each part of business machinery. Corrupt data will leave the system crippled. You may not see its direct impact, but this shouldn’t come as a surprise that more than $651 billion is lost every year due to bad data.

Why does your business need CRM cleaning?

Data is a double-edged sword. An Achilles’ heel that can become the cause of constant worry for businesses that would like to harness it. The size of data may vary, but its sheer importance and relevancy to the growth of your business don’t. During this pandemic, when you would like to get to your customers, via WhatsApp or a phone call, your data must be up to date.

For e-commerce, small businesses and conglomerates, this data and its importance can change the equation for them. It can help them stay ahead of the curve or reduce them to just another contender playing for the other team. The data can help them unearth the business insights and reach to the customers effectively.

Also Read: Scaling your eCommerce start-up in the age of Amazon

However, we all live in a dystopian world where more than thirty per cent of data gets corrupted and outdated. People change jobs, move to new cities, or simply get unique email IDs. And you can’t reach to them using your old database. Additionally, it is a lot of work to keep your database clean and proper without an email data validation service. Your project managers would either keep trying to fix the broken links in the database or communicating with customers that aren’t even there.

Dirty data is natural. It is the byproduct of the volatile landscape we are operating in. According to this report,

Almost forty per cent of email addresses are changed every year.

Nearly seventy per cent people change their jobs, and hence, titles are broken and so do their email IDs and locations rendering your database useless and unfit to use.

Your B2B sales suffer a massive deal because more than twenty per cent CEO positions are shuffled, or they move to greener pastures.

And unfortunately, there is no respite as many companies are still trying to make their bad data work in the hope of a miracle maybe! A few people understand that data quality trumps quantity and bad data can cost them money, time and effort.

This Harvard Business Review concludes that only three per cent of companies meet the data quality standards. Yet they continue to base their product decisions, marketing campaigns and sales channel on it. The report further suggests that almost fifty per cent of newly created data has one critical error! So, data hygiene and quality are an on-going process and should be deployed like that!

Five common problems that plague CRM data

While sixty-seven per cent of companies rely on CRM data to target customers and make business decisions, as we mentioned earlier, only three per cent are serious about its accuracy. Rarely businesses realise that it is essential to optimise the CRM database to help marketing campaigns reach full potential, to yield high-quality sales lead and to understand customers better.

The four issues that are persistent with every CRM, irrespective of the data size, industry type and business are:

Incorrect information: The reason a CRM has gaps in information is because of the people. Often salespeople fill information with inaccuracies, discrepancies and without necessary details to move on to next prospect or fulfil their sales quota. Or it could be the customers not wanting to part with the details. Either way, your database is corrupted.

Outdated information: The database doesn’t get regularly updated with present information, making the CRM database ‘unfit’ to use. If you continue to base your market decisions based on this data, you will soon be written off the competition.

Spam emails: A business relying on the old database has to deal with inaccurate information, which is outdated or irrelevant in the present context, it is not updated as per new SPAM ACT rules and privacy regulations, leading the customers to report the ID and harming your reputation. Besides, you would like to reach out to as many customers and not have your image tarnished for sending them irrelevant emails.

Shallow data: When you don’t hire an email address validation service provider, your CRM database is at risk of not only having old information but also has a lack of depth. Even if it is relevant and up to date to the present day, you don’t have any insights into targeted demographics. You can’t find new customers by just looking at the data or figure out what are their expectations. Market forecasting and action-oriented insights can be reached upon with email data validation and email appending services.

Why do you need Wahdata?

According to 1-10-100 rule, the timely prevention of data decay can cost you $1, the correction $10, and the internal failure can cause you the damage worth $100.

Wahdata helps you track the root cause of data decay and transcend the data quality beyond the silos of your organisation. Often businesses indulge in an on-the-spot fixing, but bad data seeps through cracks and ruins. During this email data verification and CRM data cleaning, we ensure that your business managers could establish ground rules for a streamlined process across the processes. While we fix the issues, we also train your team to look for errors and report them to an appointed person to rectify it immediately.

For optimised and high-quality output of lead generation and acquisition campaigns, try Wahdata email verification services now! Besides, if you are looking to upgrade your systems and move to market automation, you need to fix your database first. You can’t expect to reach out to target customers when your CRM database is far from listing them.

How does Wahdata help?

Dirty data can have an irreversible consequence on customer relationship, B2B lead generation and marketing. It is because data flows through every process and each part of business machinery. Corrupt data will leave the system crippled. You may not see its direct impact, but this shouldn’t come as a surprise that more than $651 billion is lost every year due to bad data.

Wahdata comes in picture when you decide to call it quits with bad data. It is when the companies realise that they could do a lot more and better with better data than just sitting on it or doing nothing to rectify it.

We, at Wah Data, adopt a five-phase email cleaning process involving uncovering and correcting the data. We empower the marketers and businesses with our data-driven processes to help them stay ahead of the curve.

We start with some basic yet critical email validation steps such as

Enforcing basic formatting requirements: Manual check of B2B and B2C email list to cross-check the email list for simple specifications and help the marketers to avoid bounce rate. This data formatting is the first step to our five-phase email verification requirement. Often there is an @missing, or there is a dot com instead of dot edu in the domain name. Sometimes even customers send wrong information purposefully and can trick the system. Such molehills become mountain when you initiate an email marketing campaign at a mass-level. Our full-scale, dedicated CRM cleaning service can check these emails for domain, syntax, spam trap and SMTP validation.

Email address append: When your email verification service provider is Wah Data, your CRM not only get cleaned but also enhanced with valuable leads and relevant information.

Spam Trap Check: We clear your CRM database for spam trap and ensures its hygiene.

Prevention: While CRM cleaning and email validation is an on-going process, it is vital to figure out where the errors are entering into the system. Wah Data offers tailor-made solutions and fixes for businesses to keep their database clean and neat.

Training: Wah Data works in tandem with business managers to fix the data and maintain check posts at several points where the entrant data could go awry. With us, all your employees become a stakeholder in the process to keep your data clean.

Wah Data offers bespoke email validation services unique to your business type and industry. We bring our manual expertise to the piles of data and turn it into a goldmine! The data you could dive into and drive revenues home. By eliminating outdated and irrelevant details from the B2B email list and appending it with present and useful information, we help you stay on track with your business objectives and goals. So, what are you waiting for? Contact us now for scalable B2B email list cleaning services at affordable packages! Don’t forget to mail us here to get your 5K credit for FREE!

[nehatiwari454545-blog]

Why Wahdata is the best email verification tool for all CRM needs? Enhance CRM performance with our five-step email verification approach!

Welcome to the post-COVID-19 era. In the times of Coronavirus where businesses are trying to embrace the new regular frantically irrespective of whether it makes sense or not and for instance, sending out emails to their customers in a desperate attempt to stay in touch with them. In email marketing, the health of your database is crucial -almost as critical as washing your hands and wearing masks. While your customers are maintaining social distancing, avoiding visiting your premises, you need to reach out to them. And it is only possible if your CRM is spic and span. However, in the absence of an email verification tool, a business’ marketing endeavour can meet four scenarios, all resulting in disaster:

An email marketing manager can send emails to as many as customers in the database and wait for their replies. It could be an eternity before they finally get to delete the bad information manually and meanwhile, missing out on their essential time of creating strategy, devising a marketing plan or studying the competition. You know where this scenario is headed towards. The Email Service Provider has already assigned a negative score to the business’ email, resulting in damaged Senders Reputation. Besides, sending an email costs money. Imagine hitting the button for hundred such emails and wait for the hard bounce to scrub them off the list. That is ladies and gentlemen, money down the drain too.

Despite this, the business continues to send emails recklessly without a care in the world to abandoned and incorrect email IDs, leading the ESP to block the domain of the company. Don’t see it as having the digital storefront of the business shut down for a couple of emails gone wrong. The website was taken off the cloud because the company failed to deploy an email verification tool for its CRM.

The business continues to connect with customers who aren’t the right demographics or “fit” in general for its products. The customers would mark the sender’s email as spam and inappropriate, hurting their reputation.

An indirect, but far more damaging situation is to lose out on new customers and to lose touch with existing customers. Since your customers aren’t available on previous IDs, they don’t know anything about your current offers, services or sales. They can’t reach out to you either-depriving business managers to feel the pulse of the market.

It is intriguing how many businesses continue to fall in the same pit and repeat the same mistakes. Especially when CRM cleaning is one of the simplest and most fundamental processes, they can invest in to ensure a business’ reach and expansion. Working with Wahdata is setting your CRM data on an autopilot mode and forget about it. We are here to set some rules to maintain data hygiene for your company and fixing the root cause of data decay.

Dirty data can have an irreversible consequence on customer relationship, B2B lead generation and marketing. It is because data flows through every process and each part of business machinery. Corrupt data will leave the system crippled. You may not see its direct impact, but this shouldn’t come as a surprise that more than $651 billion is lost every year due to bad data.

Why does your business need CRM cleaning?

Data is a double-edged sword. An Achilles’ heel that can become the cause of constant worry for businesses that would like to harness it. The size of data may vary, but its sheer importance and relevancy to the growth of your business don’t. During this pandemic, when you would like to get to your customers, via WhatsApp or a phone call, your data must be up to date.

For e-commerce, small businesses and conglomerates, this data and its importance can change the equation for them. It can help them stay ahead of the curve or reduce them to just another contender playing for the other team. The data can help them unearth the business insights and reach to the customers effectively.

Also Read: Scaling your eCommerce start-up in the age of Amazon

However, we all live in a dystopian world where more than thirty per cent of data gets corrupted and outdated. People change jobs, move to new cities, or simply get unique email IDs. And you can’t reach to them using your old database. Additionally, it is a lot of work to keep your database clean and proper without an email data validation service. Your project managers would either keep trying to fix the broken links in the database or communicating with customers that aren’t even there.

Dirty data is natural. It is the byproduct of the volatile landscape we are operating in. According to this report,

Almost forty per cent of email addresses are changed every year.

Nearly seventy per cent people change their jobs, and hence, titles are broken and so do their email IDs and locations rendering your database useless and unfit to use.

Your B2B sales suffer a massive deal because more than twenty per cent CEO positions are shuffled, or they move to greener pastures.

And unfortunately, there is no respite as many companies are still trying to make their bad data work in the hope of a miracle maybe! A few people understand that data quality trumps quantity and bad data can cost them money, time and effort.

This Harvard Business Review concludes that only three per cent of companies meet the data quality standards. Yet they continue to base their product decisions, marketing campaigns and sales channel on it. The report further suggests that almost fifty per cent of newly created data has one critical error! So, data hygiene and quality are an on-going process and should be deployed like that!

Five common problems that plague CRM data

While sixty-seven per cent of companies rely on CRM data to target customers and make business decisions, as we mentioned earlier, only three per cent are serious about its accuracy. Rarely businesses realise that it is essential to optimise the CRM database to help marketing campaigns reach full potential, to yield high-quality sales lead and to understand customers better.

The four issues that are persistent with every CRM, irrespective of the data size, industry type and business are:

Incorrect information: The reason a CRM has gaps in information is because of the people. Often salespeople fill information with inaccuracies, discrepancies and without necessary details to move on to next prospect or fulfil their sales quota. Or it could be the customers not wanting to part with the details. Either way, your database is corrupted.

Outdated information: The database doesn’t get regularly updated with present information, making the CRM database ‘unfit’ to use. If you continue to base your market decisions based on this data, you will soon be written off the competition.

Spam emails: A business relying on the old database has to deal with inaccurate information, which is outdated or irrelevant in the present context, it is not updated as per new SPAM ACT rules and privacy regulations, leading the customers to report the ID and harming your reputation. Besides, you would like to reach out to as many customers and not have your image tarnished for sending them irrelevant emails.

Shallow data: When you don’t hire an email address validation service provider, your CRM database is at risk of not only having old information but also has a lack of depth. Even if it is relevant and up to date to the present day, you don’t have any insights into targeted demographics. You can’t find new customers by just looking at the data or figure out what are their expectations. Market forecasting and action-oriented insights can be reached upon with email data validation and email appending services.

Why do you need Wahdata?

According to 1-10-100 rule, the timely prevention of data decay can cost you $1, the correction $10, and the internal failure can cause you the damage worth $100.

Wahdata helps you track the root cause of data decay and transcend the data quality beyond the silos of your organisation. Often businesses indulge in an on-the-spot fixing, but bad data seeps through cracks and ruins. During this email data verification and CRM data cleaning, we ensure that your business managers could establish ground rules for a streamlined process across the processes. While we fix the issues, we also train your team to look for errors and report them to an appointed person to rectify it immediately.

For optimised and high-quality output of lead generation and acquisition campaigns, try Wahdata email verification services now! Besides, if you are looking to upgrade your systems and move to market automation, you need to fix your database first. You can’t expect to reach out to target customers when your CRM database is far from listing them.

How does Wahdata help?

Dirty data can have an irreversible consequence on customer relationship, B2B lead generation and marketing. It is because data flows through every process and each part of business machinery. Corrupt data will leave the system crippled. You may not see its direct impact, but this shouldn’t come as a surprise that more than $651 billion is lost every year due to bad data.

Wahdata comes in picture when you decide to call it quits with bad data. It is when the companies realise that they could do a lot more and better with better data than just sitting on it or doing nothing to rectify it.

We, at Wah Data, adopt a five-phase email cleaning process involving uncovering and correcting the data. We empower the marketers and businesses with our data-driven processes to help them stay ahead of the curve.

We start with some basic yet critical email validation steps such as

Enforcing basic formatting requirements: Manual check of B2B and B2C email list to cross-check the email list for simple specifications and help the marketers to avoid bounce rate. This data formatting is the first step to our five-phase email verification requirement. Often there is an @missing, or there is a dot com instead of dot edu in the domain name. Sometimes even customers send wrong information purposefully and can trick the system. Such molehills become mountain when you initiate an email marketing campaign at a mass-level. Our full-scale, dedicated CRM cleaning service can check these emails for domain, syntax, spam trap and SMTP validation.

Email address append: When your email verification service provider is Wah Data, your CRM not only get cleaned but also enhanced with valuable leads and relevant information.

Spam Trap Check: We clear your CRM database for spam trap and ensures its hygiene.

Prevention: While CRM cleaning and email validation is an on-going process, it is vital to figure out where the errors are entering into the system. Wah Data offers tailor-made solutions and fixes for businesses to keep their database clean and neat.

Training: Wah Data works in tandem with business managers to fix the data and maintain check posts at several points where the entrant data could go awry. With us, all your employees become a stakeholder in the process to keep your data clean.

Wah Data offers bespoke email validation services unique to your business type and industry. We bring our manual expertise to the piles of data and turn it into a goldmine! The data you could dive into and drive revenues home. By eliminating outdated and irrelevant details from the B2B email list and appending it with present and useful information, we help you stay on track with your business objectives and goals. So, what are you waiting for? Contact us now for scalable B2B email list cleaning services at affordable packages! Don’t forget to mail us here to get your 5K credit for FREE!

[demikbrayus]

How to Clean Up Your Credit Report in 2018

This article first appeared on aaacreditguide.com at AAACreditGuide.

Understanding how your credit is calculated is the first step to clearing up your credit history and improving your credit scores. The FICO scoring system takes several key aspects of your credit file in order to come up with the number that the creditors use.

Because all three bureaus have their own relationships with creditors who report your financial history, it is quite likely that your credit score will vary among Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

This also means that any inaccurate information that is on one report may or may not be on the other two. That’s why some lenders may approve you for a loan when they pull your credit report versus another lender who denies you elsewhere — they could be using different information pertaining to your credit history.

It’s important to check all three of your credit reports regularly so you know exactly what items are potentially damaging your credit score. Once you have the facts, you can develop a plan to get your finances back on track. And since the information listed on each credit report can differ, you should always comb through all three to get your full credit picture.

We’ll show you how to clean up your credit so you can increase your FICO score and start getting better access to credit cards, loans, mortgages, and other types of financing you may need.

What Items Can Damage Your Credit Score?

There are three areas where your credit scores may be impacted, outside of major negatives such as bankruptcies, foreclosures, and judgments. These common damaging items include:

Delinquencies

Collection Accounts

Charge Off Accounts

As you can see by the charts below, there is wide room for improvement by getting inaccurate and damaging information off of your credit score, and the sooner, the better:

How to Start Cleaning Up Your Credit

Each type of negative item comes with different nuances for getting them removed from your credit report. But before you even start that process, you have to prepare your case effectively.

Follow these steps to get started so that you can successfully clear your credit regardless of the type of items causing damage. Thorough preparation is the best way to set yourself up for a quick dispute process that is free of headaches.

Order and Review Your Three Credit Reports

You’re entitled to free copies of your credit reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion each and every year. You can’t dispute anything until you know what’s on there, so this is the absolute first step to cleaning up your credit. Go through each section and look for any potential red flags, including:

Inaccurate personal information, such as your name or social security number

Accounts that don’t actually belong to you

Inaccurate account details, such as amounts owed or credit limits

Missing information, such as closed accounts being listed as open

Outdated information, such as negative items still listed after the seven- or ten-year limit

Determine Which Mistakes to Dispute and Gather Evidence

Any mistake can be disputed, especially if it’s hurting your credit score. Go through each of your credit reports and mark which ones you want to challenge. If you have a lot, you might want to narrow things down in one of two ways. The first method is to only dispute a few at a time; if you choose to do this, start with the most damaging items so you can get them quickly removed from your report.

The second method is to contact a reputable credit repair company like Sky Blue Credit Repair and have them help you with your dispute process, which can be especially beneficial if you feel overwhelmed or unsure of the process.

Once you decide which items to dispute and whether you’re going to do it on your own or get a professional to help you, you need to gather all of the evidence to support your case. You don’t need to include it in your dispute request because the burden of proof remains with the credit bureau.

It’s their job to verify each negative item with the relevant creditor, and if they can’t do that, then the item must be removed. But if the creditor supplies faulty information, it’s smart to have your own paperwork on hand to support your case.

Keep these documents ready to have when you need them. When working with a credit repair company, they might also request this information from you to bolster your case during their own dispute process.

How Do I Clear My Credit of Delinquencies?

Need Credit Repair Help?

Lexington Law Firm removed over 9 million negative items from their client's credit reports in 2016.

Call for a Free Consultation

(800) 220-0084or learn more

If you’ve been 30 days or more past-due with your bills, you may find delinquencies listed on your credit report. While these delinquencies are definitely damaging, they can sometimes be easy to fix.

Start with the late payments that are the most past-due, i.e. the 90-day and 120-day debts. The reason to start here is because these are the accounts that are most damaging to your credit scores, and they are also the accounts that are most likely to be sent to collections or charged off.

If you can make a payment that will bring you current, you should call your creditor and be prepared to negotiate. If these delinquencies are for an account that is currently open, you have some leeway here.

Ask the creditor if they are willing to re-age the account (it works to your benefit if the account is still open and you want to keep it). This will effectively let them update the account as being paid on time, rather than showing a history of past-due payments.

For the 30-day and 60-day accounts, if you have any paperwork that shows you made or mailed the payment within that 30-day window, you should call up the creditor and dispute the derogatory listing.

Many times, creditors are willing to work with a good customer who is only rarely late with payments. Otherwise, you will have to make your complaint in writing with the credit bureau and your creditor in order to get the inaccurate information updated.

How Do I Clear My Credit of Charge Offs?

Debt that has been charged off means that the creditor has declared it unlikely that you’ll ever repay the debt. They still have the right to attempt to collect the money that is owed.

However, in most instances, they’ll sell it for pennies on the dollar to a collection agency to begin their own collection process. When it comes to your credit score, charged off debt has a greater negative impact than late payments.

Creditors don’t like to see debts that haven’t been repaid and are much less likely to extend credit to you while charge offs are on your report because it essentially looks like abandoned debt.

Some loans, such as mortgages, require that all charged-off debt be settled or paid off before you can qualify, no matter what your credit score happens to be. Getting your credit clear of a charge off will take more work, but it is possible.

You will need to:

Contact the creditor and ask if they are willing to settle – this can be done by phone or by letter, but the most effective way to have proof of the settlement is to get everything in writing.

Make the payment in certified funds – so you have proof the debt is paid.

File a dispute with the credit reporting agency and use your proof of payment to support having the disputed charge-off removed.

Sometimes you’ll luck out, and a creditor that has been paid won’t bother to respond to the dispute because they have payment in hand. This will get the item deleted from your report entirely.

Other times, the creditor will update your account to say ‘Settled,’ which is still better than having an unsettled charge-off on your credit report. However, it won’t help your scores as much as a deletion would.

How Do I Clear My Credit of Collections?

Collection accounts are usually the most complicated issue on anyone’s credit report. These are the collection accounts that have been sold to debt collection agencies – sometimes multiple times.

The collection agencies have zero interest in helping you. They only care about being paid as much as possible. However, there are some bright spots when it comes to getting your credit clear of collections:

1. If the debt is past the reporting limit (generally more than 7 years old) then the collection agency cannot list it, and you can dispute the information to have it removed.

2. If the collection agency has reported the wrong date, the wrong amount, or other erroneous information, you can dispute that as well and have the negative listing deleted.

3. You have 30 days to request validation from the time the creditor first contacts you. In this time, they cannot perform any collection activities and they cannot add the debt to your credit report while the investigation is ongoing.

For older debts especially, collection agencies are often unable to come up with accurate information that proves they own the debt and that you owe it – so more often than not, it pays to dispute any inaccurate information.

Understanding these basics to clear up your credit will put you on the right path, but it’s only the first step. The sooner you get actually get started repairing your credit, the better off you’ll be, both financially and emotionally in the future.

What to Do After the Dispute Process

Once your dispute is removed, there are a couple of steps you can take to continue clearing up your credit. First, ask the credit bureau to send notification of the change to any financial institution that has accessed your credit report in the last six months. They can do the same for any potential employer that has viewed your credit report over the last two years.

Just note that these actions don’t happen automatically, you have to make the request in writing to each applicable credit bureau. But it’s a worthwhile trick to implement if you’ve been trying to get credit recently or if you’ve been applying for a new job requiring a credit check.

In the event your request for a removal is denied, there are a few more methods to try. First, you can always wait for the negative item to drop off naturally. Most stay on your credit report for seven years and actually stop hurting your credit score after the first few years lapse. If you’re close to that drop-off mark, it may be worth just exercising a little patience.

If you’ve tried to clear up your credit on your own, consider hiring a professional. Depending on how much your bad credit is costing you in high interest rates or lack of credit altogether, the fee for a professional credit repair company could likely be worth it.

A final option is to ask the credit bureau to include your own note on your credit report. This allows you to provide a brief description of your side of the story so that future creditors reviewing your report can consider any additional details you wish to include.

from Credit And Credit Repair https://aaacreditguide.com/clean-up-credit-report/

[demikbrayus]

How to Clean Up Your Credit Report

This article first appeared on aaacreditguide.com at AAACreditGuide.

Understanding how your credit is calculated is the first step to clearing up your credit history and improving your credit scores. The FICO scoring system takes several key aspects of your credit file in order to come up with the number that the creditors use. Because all three bureaus have their own relationships with creditors who report your financial history, it is quite likely that your credit score will vary among Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

This also means that any inaccurate information that is on one report may or may not be on the other two. That’s why some lenders may approve you for a loan when they pull your credit report versus another lender who denies you elsewhere — they could be using different information pertaining to your credit history.

It’s important to check all three of your credit reports regularly so you know exactly what items are potentially damaging your credit score. Once you have the facts, you can develop a plan to get your finances back on track. And since the information listed on each credit report can differ, you should always comb through all three to get your full credit picture. We’ll show you how to clean up your credit so you can increase your FICO score and start getting better access to credit cards, loans, mortgages, and other types of financing you may need.

What Items Can Damage Your Credit Score?

There are three areas where your credit scores may be impacted, outside of major negatives such as bankruptcies, foreclosures, and judgments. These common damaging items include:

Delinquencies

Collection Accounts

Charge Off Accounts

As you can see by the charts below, there is wide room for improvement by getting inaccurate and damaging information off of your credit score, and the sooner, the better:

How to Start Cleaning Up Your Credit

Each type of negative item comes with different nuances for getting them removed from your credit report. But before you even start that process, you have to prepare your case effectively. Follow these steps to get started so that you can successfully clear your credit regardless of the type of items causing damage. Thorough preparation is the best way to set yourself up for a quick dispute process that is free of headaches.

Order and Review Your Three Credit Reports

You’re entitled to free copies of your credit reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion each and every year. You can’t dispute anything until you know what’s on there, so this is the absolute first step to cleaning up your credit. Go through each section and look for any potential red flags, including:

Inaccurate personal information, such as your name or social security number

Accounts that don’t actually belong to you

Inaccurate account details, such as amounts owed or credit limits

Missing information, such as closed accounts being listed as open

Outdated information, such as negative items still listed after the seven- or ten-year limit

Determine Which Mistakes to Dispute and Gather Evidence

Any mistake can be disputed, especially if it’s hurting your credit score. Go through each of your credit reports and mark which ones you want to challenge. If you have a lot, you might want to narrow things down in one of two ways. The first method is to only dispute a few at a time; if you choose to do this, start with the most damaging items so you can get them quickly removed from your report. The second method is to contact a reputable credit repair company and have them help you with your dispute process, which can be especially beneficial if you feel overwhelmed or unsure of the process.

Once you decide which items to dispute and whether you’re going to do it on your own or get a professional to help you, you need to gather all of the evidence to support your case. You don’t need to include it in your dispute request because the burden of proof remains with the credit bureau. It’s their job to verify each negative item with the relevant creditor, and if they can’t do that, then the item must be removed. But if the creditor supplies faulty information, it’s smart to have your own paperwork on hand to support your case. Keep these documents ready to have when you need them. When working with a credit repair company, they might also request this information from you to bolster your case during their own dispute process.

How Do I Clear My Credit of Delinquencies?

If you’ve been 30 days or more past-due with your bills, you may find delinquencies listed on your credit report. While these delinquencies are definitely damaging, they can sometimes be easy to fix. Start with the late payments that are the most past-due, i.e. the 90-day and 120-day debts. The reason to start here is because these are the accounts that are most damaging to your credit scores, and they are also the accounts that are most likely to be sent to collections or charged off. If you can make a payment that will bring you current, you should call your creditor and be prepared to negotiate. If these delinquencies are for an account that is currently open, you have some leeway here.

Ask the creditor if they are willing to re-age the account (it works to your benefit if the account is still open and you want to keep it). This will effectively let them update the account as being paid on time, rather than showing a history of past-due payments. For the 30-day and 60-day accounts, if you have any paperwork that shows you made or mailed the payment within that 30-day window, you should call up the creditor and dispute the derogatory listing. Many times, creditors are willing to work with a good customer who is only rarely late with payments. Otherwise, you will have to make your complaint in writing with the credit bureau and your creditor in order to get the inaccurate information updated.

How Do I Clear My Credit of Charge Offs?

Debt that has been charged off means that the creditor has declared it unlikely that you’ll ever repay the debt. They still have the right to attempt to collect the money that is owed, but in most instances, they’ll sell it for pennies on the dollar to a collection agency to begin their own collection process. When it comes to your credit score, charged off debt has a greater negative impact than late payments.

Creditors don’t like to see debts that haven’t been repaid and are much less likely to extend credit to you while charge offs are on your report because it essentially looks like abandoned debt. Some loans, such as mortgages, require that all charged-off debt be settled or paid off before you can qualify, no matter what your credit score happens to be. Getting your credit clear of a charge off will take more work, but it is possible.

You will need to:

Contact the creditor and ask if they are willing to settle – this can be done by phone or by letter, but the most effective way to have proof of the settlement is to get everything in writing.

Make the payment in certified funds – so you have proof the debt is paid.

File a dispute with the credit reporting agency and use your proof of payment to support having the disputed charge-off removed.

Sometimes you’ll luck out, and a creditor that has been paid won’t bother to respond to the dispute because they have payment in hand. This will get the item deleted from your report entirely. Other times, the creditor will update your account to say ‘Settled,’ which is still better than having an unsettled charge-off on your credit report. However, it won’t help your scores as much as a deletion would.

How Do I Clear My Credit of Collections?

Collection accounts are usually the most complicated issue on anyone’s credit report. These are the collection accounts that have been sold to debt collection agencies – sometimes multiple times. The collection agencies have zero interest in helping you. They only care about being paid as much as possible. However, there are some bright spots when it comes to getting your credit clear of collections:

1. If the debt is past the reporting limit (generally more than 7 years old) then the collection agency cannot list it, and you can dispute the information to have it removed.

2. If the collection agency has reported the wrong date, the wrong amount, or other erroneous information, you can dispute that as well and have the negative listing deleted.

3. You have 30 days to request validation from the time the creditor first contacts you. In this time, they cannot perform any collection activities and they cannot add the debt to your credit report while the investigation is ongoing.

For older debts especially, collection agencies are often unable to come up with accurate information that proves they own the debt and that you owe it – so more often than not, it pays to dispute any inaccurate information. Understanding these basics to clear up your credit will put you on the right path, but it’s only the first step. The sooner you get actually get started repairing your credit, the better off you’ll be, both financially and emotionally in the future.

What to Do After the Dispute Process

Once your dispute is removed, there are a couple of steps you can take to continue clearing up your credit. First, ask the credit bureau to send notification of the change to any financial institution that has accessed your credit report in the last six months. They can do the same for any potential employer that has viewed your credit report over the last two years. Just note that these actions don’t happen automatically, you have to make the request in writing to each applicable credit bureau. But it’s a worthwhile trick to implement if you’ve been trying to get credit recently or if you’ve been applying for a new job requiring a credit check.

In the event your request for a removal is denied, there are a few more methods to try. First, you can always wait for the negative item to drop off naturally. Most stay on your credit report for seven years and actually stop hurting your credit score after the first few years lapse. If you’re close to that drop-off mark, it may be worth just exercising a little patience.

If you’ve tried to clear up your credit on your own, consider hiring a professional. Depending on how much your bad credit is costing you in high interest rates or lack of credit altogether, the fee for a professional credit repair company could likely be worth it. A final option is to ask the credit bureau to include your own note on your credit report. This allows you to provide a brief description of your side of the story so that future creditors reviewing your report can consider any additional details you wish to include.

from Credit And Credit Repair http://aaacreditguide.com/clean-up-credit-report/