My team leader Dave receives guru advice from a couple of different guys. One in particular is a guy named Jay Conner from the The Private Money Authority. In our attempt to find private money, we came accross Marty Banks from Credit Card Builders. We wanted to make sure this wasn't a scam, but even his guru guy Jay recommended him. To be on the safe side, we wanted to check with you. Does anyone know if either one of these people/companies are legit? Are they reputable? Has anyone had any first hand experience with them individually or together?
Credit Card Builders Claim (according to Dave), that can establish Business lines of credit on behalf of the customer up to $250,000 over the course of a year at a interest of 0% for a fee to their company of $3,500. Does this sound right? I mean how can this be?
Thanks for any help.
To fund real estate deals you need unsecured business lines of credit. It is not hard to obtain $100k to $250k of unsecured business lines of credit yourself. If you have a corporation or llc over 2yrs old, high levels of unsecured lines of credit can be obtained with a strong Dun and Bradstreet Paydex Score, Credit Profile and a "low 5" business bank rating.
Here is what you do:
1) Establish a strong internet presence for your company by listing it on at least 15 sites-- Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Scoop It, Bing, Manta, 411, Google+, Google Places, etc.
2) In addition to your business checking account, open an expense and savings account in the same bank. Purchase a certificate of deposit and borrow against it (now you have a secured loan ).
3) Make regular deposits for 90 days to establish a favorable bank rating.
4) Add higher level trade references to Dun and Bradstreet to provide depth to your Paydex Score (net 30s are usually lower amounts; you'll need higher approvals from your trade references-- 2k to 4k).
5) Upload your company financials to Dun and Bradstreet to complete your file and create a strong credit profile.
6) After 90 days apply for unsecured lines of credit. Here is why you'll be approved:
* a bank has already loaned your business money (secured loan); Dun and Bradstreet, Experian Business and Equifax Business have all reported your loan(s). The secret is to pay back and repeat the secured loan at least 3 times in the 90 day period.
* the added trade references will add credit profile depth, as will uploading your financials
* your deposit activity and use of bank products (cd) shows ability to repay
* bank rating is formed after 90 days of deposit activity
@Chris Licavoliwould CCB help for new LLCs? I just got my LLC account up and running and would love to be able to get a business line of credit soon or in the further i should say..
Yes CCB actually creates for you an LLC in who's name, the credit is established. You can probably use your own entity if you have one already, but they said that credit card companies are more likely to lend to certain types of businesses over others. CCB recommended using a "consulting" type of business as most likely to be funded to the max.
@Chris Licavoliwould-That's correct. LLCs with a focus on Consulting, Marketing, and/or Business Education are looked at more favorably by banks. CCB did not use my standing LLC (and it was 3 years old at the time, but my CIC Code was also for REI-not attractive to banks).They will need to create one just for this purpose. You will continue to do business with the LLC you created; and the LLC they create for you will be for this purpose (and future funding) only.
@Chris Licavoli @Cynthia Calhoun
Thank you for information, greatly appreciate it..
probably will go through them even though i just created a LLC... seems like their problem is legit and is actually working....
@Chris Licavoli @Cynthia Calhoun
Thank you for the feedback. Would you mind sharing the amount at zero interest you've received in the first application batch, which was submitted in the first 10 days of you signing up with Credit Card Builders?
I had some free time on my lunch break and wanted to drop in and cover some of the misinformation out there on business credit. This is a long post but very valuable to those reading. Keep in mind, some of our members receive a large amount right away, while some receive smaller amounts in the first 10-30 days depending on their credit standing when they begin. We greatly appreciate the feedback. Typically our clients have between 650-800 credit scores but we can even help people improve with lower scores as well. So of course those with lower scores have realistic expectations and understand coming in they will receive less in the beginning. But once moving the debt off the personal credit report and transferring to the business credit report, or negative items are removed, the 'lower credit score client' ends up getting improved personal credit scores as added benefit to working with us, and that translates into more access to business credit on subsequent application batches. We work with you for a year and we can help low AND high credit score clients. We are not 'one funding round and done' like ALL of the others. Our program and our high fluency client and lender communication is much more involved and frequent.
A big benefit, which brings all of our clients more funding, is that we negotiate all of your accounts to work up to the maximum amount possible, whereas NO others in the space have relationships or a team granting the ability so they cannot perform this key aspect. The bottom line is, if there are no negotiations taking place,
that means you are literally paying a company 9-15% -thousands of
dollars in success fees- just to cross their fingers and submit a few credit applications in
your name. This is extremely minimal service for the thousands you're paying. The reason they can't negotiate is they do not have the specialized knowledge because they do not solely focus on business credit at zero interest, they are not authorized to carry the process out, and do not have the strategy turned into a science as we do. We have a lot of former business credit bankers and underwriters on our team, so it is a piece of cake for us to run a client through our negotiations process and get large limits. Since others out there are mostly general business loan brokers who are simply referring your file out to a fulfillment company who actually creates the credit for you (Credit Card Builders literally provides service fulfillment for many affiliates and credit companies who advertise as if they do it themselves. They use our services for fulfillment but present it as if they are the service provider). They send us their clients because they are unable to capitalize as well on business credit applications as we are due to the fact that we have an entire team negotiating client's accounts daily, but by sending us their client for fulfillment they can charge their clients even more than $3500 or 9% (that's what we charge), by spreading their focus and pushing clients into more expensive loans. We also work with a much wider variety of credit scores and even wider range of business industries that most others out there cannot fund, many of our clients and affiliates have come to us instead of going elsewhere based on the 100% factual insider information you're reading.
We solely focus on zero interest business credit, whereas others call what they are offering business credit, but then it turns out to be vendor credit, high interest merchant advance or revenue lending which doesn't compare to unsecured zero interest business credit which we specialize in. We also do not illegitimately cash out your cards and then charge a high fee for it. Some smaller vendors out there 'cash out' by simply charging the clients card to their merchant account (not a smart practice) to cash out the amount desired which is not a legitimate method, and can cause your card to be charged the cash advance rate in addition to the service fee you have to pay the loan broker/credit building company. Also, if a lot of people charge back with this provider, provider can lose their merchant account and you will be hit with a cash advance fee, on top of the 6% fee they charge. Instead we give you free methods that will allow you to take cash off with little to no fees (we do not charge anything for the cash removal methods we provide, this is free after you become a member and you carry the strategy out via instructions provided in our Cash Harvesting Packet.)
I am looking forward to many more years of continuing to help all of you access funding at zero interest! After 8 years we have had huge growth year to year, bring in more and more each month (3-4 mill per month) and we've perfected what we do and we care and appreciate our clients. If anyone wants more information please contact us directly (I am not leaving contact information to avoid being flagged as spam as some other forums do, so please message me)
Great post Mike. I received $195,000 in zero percent credit between me and my partner. I use it all the time to purchase supplies for materials for investment projects. Thank you!
can cards be used to purchase reo properties ?
Mike:
I know Jay Conner personally and he is a stand up guy. He also does allot of JVing with Papa - Ron LeGrand. I don't think that Ron would JV with people who are not creditable.
As far as the credit card builders guys I don't know them, but know that they have been around the RE industry for a while.
Let me also add - most all things in RE of whatever field you are in, you can perform these steps yourself. The reason there are "gurus" out there is because I like a lot of people don't want to spend hours/days/weeks/years figuring a particular system out.
I sold a Credit Building course several years ago that I used in my RE investing business and it helped me gain several lines of credit, so upon suggestions of friends I developed into a course. Having technical training and writing in my background it was easy and fun for me to do. My point is I did take several years learning the system I put together and the whole reason for selling it was to reduce the learning curve of other people. And to make money -not going to lie there! I would rather follow the advise of somebody who has done it and can show me the land mines instead of me stepping on them.
Point is use a forum like Bigger Pockets to ask questions and for referrals.
@Aaron Vaughn
Yes absolutely in fact me and my father just purchased a RE property using these cards, it is just a matter of someone actually taking the actionable steps, or not.
@Pat Gage
Thank you, and yes we have helped many of Jay Conner's students. Funny you mentioned Ron, we are in the beginning phases of working with Ron's students. David Fagan, Lou Brown, Scott Meyers, and many other well-known experts and Real Estate trainers in the space are also our supporters. There's a long list of others who stand behind Credit Card Builders, if you want to learn more connect/message/email me to swap contact information.
Thanks,
Mikebanks@ Creditcardbuilders .com | COO
@Aaron Vaughn
Yes absolutely in fact me and my father just purchased a RE property using these cards, it is just a matter of someone actually taking the actionable steps, or not.
@Pat Gage
Thank you, and yes we have helped many of Jay Conner's students. Funny you mentioned Ron, we are in the beginning phases of working with Ron's students. David Fagan, Lou Brown, Scott Meyers, and many other well-known experts and Real Estate trainers in the space are also our supporters. There's a long list of others who stand behind Credit Card Builders, if you want to learn more connect/message/email me to swap contact information.
Thanks,
Mikebanks@ Creditcardbuilders .com | COO
Mike,
I'm considering signing up but one thing that worries me is when you apply for so many credit cards, won't it destroy your fico score?
@Vik, @Chris, @Cynthia,
When you received your credit cards, did you get a hit on your credit score?
Thanks
Ches
@Chris Licavoli wats up chris im nolan from Milwaukee WI ... Ive read your comment about your journey with credit card builders. im considering using their services but i am still a little skeptical ... maybe we can connect through message or email more about what the service was like thanks chris
@Stanley Whigham that was really useful info, thank you for sharing with the community.
@Michael Jone, Michael, how would that work? Can you message me?
Hi To Mike from CCB
I have also done some research and was very interested in the $1 option where you charge a rate of 9% on the amount that is secured. Since I have a score of above 700, I think I qualify for this option. My question is this: Would you still provide support on how to liquidate the instalment that is granted. I know you provide a lot of support for the $3500 option, but what about the $1 option? What are all the elements of support or mentorship you provide under this deal?
Hey all,
I'm able to get a bogo on this product for a short while, and at the discounted fee of $3000 that makes each of our investment $1500 upfront. The fee is normally $3500. I've already inquired about how the bogo works and each of us will get all the same benefits in our own LLC. If you don't have an LLC no worries, they make one for you included in the cost. There would be no connections financially or otherwise between us. We each get our own log in to access the site, etc. Really, it's a good deal at that price. I've paid a lot more for money in the past.
I'm from Beaver, PA, 20 miles NW of Pittsburgh. Lived here all my life and am a licensed RE agent in PA, as well as an investor, having done rehabs for both flip and hold. I'm currently working on wholesaling. I've been in the RE business since 2004 with a bit of a break for the past 5 years to travel. I tell you all this to assure you I'm legit and not out to steal your $1500.00.
Please let me know ASAP if you'd like to take advantage of this, as the time for the offer is running out. I think it's a good deal and I really don't want to pay $3000. $1500 is so much easier to swallow. :)
@SeanMatthews, I also saw the 9% offer, but really, that's a whole lot of $$$ in the long run. Yes, it's an option for someone who can't come up with the upfront, but even on $100,000 that's $9,000! Whoa!
One thing to know is that there is a 60 day money back guarantee. I've checked BBB and their rating is good. On the average, they say that your money begins to be available 30-45 days after you sign up.
@Sean Matthews Yes we do provide that under the PB option. The main difference between our 12 month membership and our Performance Based option is the way you pay, and where we need your credit score when you begin. The rest is essentially the same.
My experience thus far has been mixed and while I paid 3k it appears fundandgrow now offers program for 2500.
My first batch of credit was 63500 but somehow 25k of that was received thru my personal credit NOT unsecured biz lines of credit??@Mike Banks
My first rep left company and I was never told who to contact in their place.
I had 2nd rep contact me after numerous emails to first rep go unanswered. 2nd rep tried to spin how beneficial additional 25k was for my personal credit...bear in mind I had a mid fico of 800 with very low credit utilization...I never gave them permission to apply for personal credit cards on my behalf.
The suggestions they made to remove inquiries were ineffective and it has been 3 months and they have not applied for 2nd batch yet because of inquiries not being removed.
Tread carefully as I am sure my experience isn't unique.
@Sean D. we have tons of testimonials and screenshots proving the huge results that come in. You can look these people up on social media to verify them. We have plenty of verifiable video testimonials on Youtube and Facebook, and hundreds of verifiable testimonials on our website. I'm sure some of our clients will come here soon to share the results they received personally.
If you've ever seen our Web Class, you would have known how HUGE this part of the process is...
Now that I'm thinking of it, if anyone would like to see our free educational Business Funding Web Class which very clearly details all of these aspects of our program, just message me.
In the meantime, here are screenshots of results we've produced before and after. As you can see in the left column there are a lot of ZERO's, but in the right column you'll see the huge results after WE negotiated each account.
See below for a couple client testimonials and their correlating screenshots directly from our CRM (I took those screenshots from our CRM just now, the testimonials are slides from our Web Class in case you're wondering):
@Ashley Pimsner, It was great speaking with you yesterday and thank you for sharing your results thus far.
What you shared is somewhat typical, 65k on the first batch and we always wait 2-3 months before applying for subsequent batches.
Just to clear the air about the personal account, Ashley and I spoke and after chatting about why we applied for that personal account and all of the other minor issues, Ashley was very gracious and satisfied with the results our plan moving forward. He mentioned he was a bit steamed at first and afterwards tried to delete the post but could not delete it. We both agreed that in general if clients have concerns it is best to just call to resolve it with us directly and we'll resolve it because we sincerely care about our clients, but we also don't want our hard earned reputation being tarnished over simple things that can be resolved on a brief phone call without going to the internet. The best way to handle a concern is to contact the company you're working with directly and resolve it with the company.
In the end, relationships and communication are so important and I know this for a fact because all we did was talk out the concerns as I detail below, and now we're back on the same page totally happy to be working together. I understand the concerns, and as entrepreneurs and investors, we understand the benefit of building relationships. Just reach out to me/us directly and we'll always make things right.
Re the concerns:
The personal credit can be moved into business credit very easily as I discussed with Ashley. He was very happy to hear this, and having another personal credit account at 0% interest will only add strength to a credit report and lower debt to credit utilization.
We typically get our clients $30,000-$150,000 in 30 days, but some get even less because it varies based on multiple credit factors, not only scores, but history, length of time accounts have been open and much more. That's why we work with our clients for 12 months at a time, to obtain multiple application batches, not just the first one. Many people get up to the $250,000 mark while some do not.
We also do NOT just apply, apply, apply and apply again within a 1 month period, immediately after we initially applied. That does not work.
We ALWAYS wait 2-3 months between application batches, and in some cases longer than that. Hence the 3 month delay between batches he mentions.
This is to allow for seasoning to accumulate on the accounts as well as to allow for the inquiries to be removed and or lose 'weight'.
In some cases some of the inquires do not come off after the first dispute cycle, so it can take multiple attempts.
We go over this with clients on their initial consultation call and reiterate these points throughout, but we understand that our clients want more zero interest funding once they get their first batch with us. After we get that first batch our clients are usually licking their chops awaiting the next batch of zero interest funding. :) I wrote this to share the reality of the situation, I want everyone to be clear on the concerns and resolution.
1. RE $2500: We definitely do not offer our program at $2500, that statement was false and we went over that on our call. It's been years since we offered that price. In fact, we're planning on increasing our pricing from the $3500, but that's another story.
2. A client of our posted on this thread about getting the program for $2700, but what Ashley didn’t know is that client manipulated the URL link and reached an old affiliate link which was set at $2700. This price was for an old wholesale relationship, which means the affiliate received no commissions, just the $300 discount. We charge $3500 and on webinars we offer discounts, but never down $2500. That post has since been removed from this thread if you're wondering what I'm talking about.
3. As Ashley and I discussed, the only reason we ever apply for personal credit for ANY client is to add strength due to the client having limited personal credit. We usually go over this multiple times with our clients, and they are usually happy to build their credit if needed but there may have been a miscommunication which caused this to be a bit of a shock. When seeking business credit, the banks want to see some personal credit strength, specifically personal credit cards with substantial limits. Many of our clients start our program with high scores, but limited credit so we need to apply for personal credit in some cases. Even if you have high credit scores, you can still have limited or new credit. This could mean you have few credit cards, or you've recently begun using credit, but your scores could still be high in that scenario. We help people build credit if needed before applying for business credit. In Ashley's situation we may have been able to avoid personal altogether which we discussed on our call, but in the end it was a judgment call by us and we take responsibility for the $65,000 we created, and plan to create a lot more in the coming months for Ashley.
4. Regarding our rep leaving and it taking a couple emails to connect; we have an amazing team, most of our staff has been with us over 4 years. Infrequently, like all the great companies who groom their employees well, we will have a team member leave us. This specific person had a great resume and decided to start his own business. Nothing to be ashamed of there. And we still were in contact despite the discomfort from the transition in reps, we sent the inquiry removal guide as we do with all clients and followed up. From there, we typically wait 2-3 months between application batches before going back to the bank to give a couple short months for those accounts to accumulate good payment history, which helps in the next batch as I mentioned earlier. We consult with our clients and discuss these things throughout the membership, but in some cases after the first batch, our clients just cannot wait to get more zero interest credit. :)
5. Which brings us back to the 3 month lag time, it's standard we wait a couple months between application batches. Like I said this was due in part to the inquiries taking a couple of rounds to come off and due to us wanting seasoning to accumulate on the accounts we set up.
Just to reiterate, we created $65,000 at zero interest, some of which was personal credit that only helps by adding strength and it will be transferred into business credit on future applications.
We look forward to a long term business relationship with Ashley and all of our clients.
@Jason Alexander I would like to take you up on the offer for the digital book you wrote. I have plenty of time :) I will send you a PM with my contact info
Sean D.,
I've been through two very successful rounds with Credit Card Builders and they have tripled the initial approval from $42,000 to $147,500! We are about to do round three. These guys are the real deal and if you need capital, it is worth the expense and trouble to get started with a unsecured line of credit. I highly recommend Credit Card Builders and the company is extremely professional and customer service oriented.
Erich
I have used CCB and there services. They are now known as Fund and Grow. They are not a scam. I paid the $3500 and brought a partner with me. They got both of us our own funds. So far Fund and Grow has gotten me 22K in personal credit. For my credit score and length of time i've had my credit score for (I'm 20 years old), I would say they did a hell of a job. That was my first batch about 3 months ago and I am currently waiting for my second batch. They told me I needed to "season" my personal credit cards for about six months before they could apply for business credit. I wish they could have obtained me all 5 personal credit cards they were going after, but one bank denied me and another needed more information to process. I ended up getting three out of the five. I partly blame myself for not giving Fund and Grow the information, but partly hold them accountable for no asking me for the information. I think I could have obtained more lines if I would have been on top of my lines. I suggest if you decided to give them a try, that you keep up with the process when they try to obtain your cards and always keep "pressuring" them to stay on top of your file.
Hope I was useful.
I am an investor from Frederick, MD mostly active in Baltimore. I am obviously not a big poster, but have a first hand knowledge here. Our company, 2 partners started with CCB the beginning of February 2016 with a $15,000 unsecured line. We finished the 1st round middle of May with $95,000. So, we picked up 80K in new unsecured credit. Not quite as high as some of the others on here, but we applied at two companies using my brother's 740 credit score and full time job, which usually we do pretty well with, right before speaking with CCB. We got turned down by both. He has never paid a bill late in his life, but the debt load we were carrying from our investing was creating the problem. We used there recommended credit site to "balance juggle" our way to a better application. Then all of the approvals they negotiated to higher limits than initial approval. I consider myself a DIYer, but I wouldn't do it myself. No way is the average person getting the same results.
Disclaimer: The 0% are all intro rates. It isn't 0% forever. And, you have to put some work in. As an investor, putting in some sweat equity shouldn't be a big deal, but it works better if you are an active participant.
@Jason Alexander Great response! You laid out the details so they would make the most sense. I would be very interested to exchange a PM, as I am looking for secured/unsecured lines at the moment and after talking to 5 banks today, I'm feeling a little lost. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Good Afternoon, My name is Arthur and I am a Small Business Owner here in the Atlanta Area, and I would like to take just a moment to Express my sincere Gratitude and Appreciation to the Fund&Grow Team (formally Credit Card Builders), and in particular, Robert Moran, who is my personal Business Consultant. I would like to thank you for your Professional Business Acumen, and your ability to raise the credit limits on the Business Credit Cards that you were able to attain for me.
This shows a very high level of Superior Negotiation Skills, Business Tact and Professional Communications. This just helps to solidify and confirm that we made the right decision, to elicit the help of the Fund&Grow Team, as we Expand and Grow our Company, by Raising Capital and Building Business Credit. Once again, thank you Robert and the entire Fund&Grow Organization, for your professional service and Superior Performance. Please Keep up the Great Work.