Angie Salcido, Repairing Credit in Reno With Compassion

The credit repair services industry is growing rapidly in the US and here in Reno, and for good reason.

“If you have bad credit, you can't get an apartment, you can't get credit cards, you can’t get auto loans, or anything like that,” Salcido, who has been at this for over ten years now, explained. 

Millions of Americans have very poor credit, with a FICO score evaluating creditworthiness of between 300 and 579. Debilitating credit can come from difficult livelihoods or theft and scams.  

That’s where “credit doctors” such as Salcido come in.  She remembers a client whose mother stole her identity when she was 16, with more than 90 identified problems.  It took her about a year to clean the mess up, she says, bringing her credit score back to a respectable 720. 

Clients can come through her doors for a free initial visit. 

“What we'll do is we'll get you scheduled for a free credit consultation, kind of go over things and see how much time you need to work on your credit, or if it's just a quick fix, then we can kind of advise from there and just come up with a game plan of how to fix your credit scores,” she said.  “Even if you come and say hi, and we look at your credit, I'm just happy to help and I can give you the guidance that you need to work on your credit.” 

Sorting out issues with the three major credit reporting bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, can be a real headache, including in cases involving mistakes.  

“You have to know the laws and you have to know the Fair Credit Reporting Act. And a lot of people think that they talk to each other as three different credit bureaus, which they don't, they all report different information,” Salcido said.  

“So basically you would dispute the information and state the laws of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. And as consumers, we can dispute anything on our credit report and they legally have 30 days to investigate the accounts.” 

People who get helped through her office are a varied bunch, from people trying to buy vehicles or a home to business owners with late payments on their credit.  

Situations can get complex, but these don’t daunt Salcido. “I had a client who co-signed for his daughter and then he sold his house,” she said of one particular case. “He was not able to basically get a new house because that debt was on his credit. So it was 16,000 repo and we basically settled for about 7,000 and got it removed completely from the credit report and he was able to purchase a house.” 

Getting help through government agencies can lead to more frustrations, she says.  “I think it's easier for you to go to an expert, just like if you had a legal situation, credit is very particular and it's the way how you dispute it. So you can dispute anything online, but you might not dispute it correctly,” she said.  

If they decide to take on her services, she says it’s about $100 per month to work on their credit.  “Basically we will go in and dispute everything that's negative on the credit report. It takes about 45 days for the responses to come back from the credit bureaus because they legally have 30 days to investigate the accounts. And then we do updates every 45 days. So we'll kind of reach out to the clients, send them emails, let them know what's been deleted and what the next steps are … move forward.” 

Salcido says there is lots of value in getting in person, in state assistance.  “You always want to work with somebody that's in state because you want to be able to go into their office and answer any questions that you have and you want to sit with somebody face to face. It is your credit profile. You want to make sure that you're able to talk to that person and get any questions answered,” she said. 

A San Diego native who came to Reno for family reasons, Salcido used to work in the mortgage sector when the big real estate crash happened in the late 2000s.   She first started helping people in Northern Nevada with loan modifications and said assisting people with credit issues felt like a logical progression in her own career.

During our interview, she was happy to give out free advice.  

“Keep those balances low,” she said.  “I mean if you have a limit of $500, you want to be under $150 on the credit card limit, because utilization can basically make your scores go down 80 points, anywhere from 80 to 100 points.”

She also recommends always monitoring personal credit scores and having “at least two to three revolving accounts, which is credit card accounts, to make sure that you're building some positive credit scores.”

For hard on their luck local gamblers, Salcido said:  “Do not take out all of that money from your credit cards because you're going to have to pay it back….It's not easy with a high interest rate. “

Younger generations, she says, should know how to build their credit scores and get help early on.  She recommends parents adding their children on their cards as authorized users, and try to push their older kids to purchase a home as soon as possible, rather than rent.  

“I have a 16-year-old son, he's on two of my cards. I think he's probably got a 800 credit score. And then just monitor your credit scores and then you can be on your way with purchasing a home or buying a car,” she said. Her daughter was able to buy her own home in her 20s.  

Salcido warns of getting certain credit cards though, as she does during teaching sessions she gives at the Children’s Cabinet.

“I tell all my high schoolers, look at that interest rate and look at that annual fee because your credit card is going to be for life. You want to keep that open for life because if you're closing credit cards, it hurts your credit scores. So I would really look at those interest rates and then look at the annual fee and make sure you're comfortable with keeping that for life. I want them to start with good credit scores. I don't want them to get into trouble with like what they do at colleges. It's important for them to have that education so that they can basically use that knowledge in life. A lot of those students [come from] broken homes and basically they are coming out of foster care, all that stuff. So they've had identity theft. So I think it's really important for us to get in there and and teach about that.”

If given a chance, Salcido says she would like to teach in high schools and at the university level.   Having good credit is so essential to our current lives, she said, and too often, sadly, not taught to us in our families and schools.  

Do people let their anger and frustration spill over while interacting with her, we asked? 

“I’m just very compassionate about the situation and let them know. I try to stay positive. I mean, I do feel like a counselor sometimes, but you know, every situation is different and I let them know that, ‘hey, this is what we can do to fix it and we're gonna get you out of this situation,’” Salcido said of helping others. 

Our Town Reno reporting July 2023