Red light camera tickets a credit risk
Red light camera tickets a credit risk – About a month ago I started getting calls from banks and mortgage companies that their loans all over Albuquerque were falling through for auto and mortgage loans. The reason? Years of red light camera tickets recently went into collections, all at one time, and thus put on the credit reports of Albuquerque consumers. Sure enough, I had many clients come in to have meetings to see if they were credit ready wise. Scores were knocked down between 35 and 45 points for each collection entry for these red light tickets.
A city can proceed with consumer collections as they happen, but when years of collections are put on consumer credit reports on this large scale, it can be devastating to the economy of a city.
In every incident that I looked at, the consumer was not notified of collection placement – and should have been, according to the law – before the collection agency placed the debts on the consumer’s report. Consumers must have validation of debt upon request, so we contacted the New Mexico Attorney General’s office and advised them of the situation.
Credit Rescue Now was also on the phone with Credit Watch, the collection agency for red light tickets. The representative for that organization let us know that all red light camera tickets are to be removed from a consumer’s credit report upon receipt of payment. This is good news.
A lot of residents of Albuquerque do not know there was even a red light ticket placed on their credit reports. My recommendation to check all your credit report to see if you have any of these collections. If so, just pay it and it will be removed from your report.
I hope this information will help all who have run into this situation. Remember we have free credit classes and free manuals on the second Saturday of every month. Please RSVP to 505.899.1448.
Until next time, good credit to you.