Your Score

August 28, 2017
Former mortgage lender Davenport offers a handy, one-stop guide to understanding—and fixing—your credit score. Outraged at practices he found predatory and nontransparent, Davenport left the industry to instead provide credit-management services. He brings both sides of his expertise to answering common credit-related questions. Credit is undeniably big business, and in Davenport’s eyes, it’s also a creepy one, wherein credit bureaus and consumers have an inherently adversarial and imbalanced relationship; credit bureaus, he posits, want customers to think their scores are complicated, but anyone can learn how they work. His offering is a step-by-step manual to understanding your “real” financial score, not the estimate provided by free annual reports. He guides readers through identifying and fixing common mistakes, making sense of the report itself, and building a strong credit profile. Readers can skip to the sections pertaining most to their needs, such as discussions of home purchases, credit-card management, identity theft, establishing credit, school loans, and surviving disasters such as foreclosure and divorce. Davenport has written a clearheaded, must-read guide for anyone looking to decode the most influential number of them all. Agent: Farley Chase, Chase Literary Agency.

October 15, 2017

"Almost nobody understands how the world of consumer credit really works," writes Davenport (founder, CEO, Regal Financial), with coauthor Rudy in this how-to guide, which seeks to "demystify the entire consumer credit business." Davenport, who now runs his own credit management firm with many high-profile clients, was formerly a mortgage lender and loan originator for what he calls the "other side"--the enormous Bank of America and Wells Fargo. This adversarial tone toward the credit industry persists throughout the book, and Davenport's advocacy is strongest when he offers practical tips rather than heated bluster. Highlights include laying out the relevant credit score factors, providing an action plan for fixing the five biggest credit mistakes, details on preventing identity theft, and a fascinating, highly detailed set of step-by-step instructions for correcting an error with the three credit bureaus. VERDICT Despite the occasional repetition, this book offers useful points for any person seeking to improve or gain control of their credit score.--Doug Diesenhaus, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

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