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# The Lobster becomes first Santa Monica business to go solar under city initiative
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/lobster-lights/
- Published: 2007-06-13T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-25T00:15:13.000Z
- Author: Kevin Herrera
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Mike Heayn Real Estate 101*

YOU ARE WALKING ALONG THE BEACH with the sun in your face and sand between your toes. Vacationing in Maui is for you. After some thought, you decide that you want to come back year after year, but you do not want to stay in a hotel. What you want is a beach house. The problem is that you cannot afford a vacation property by yourself — so you look for partners. Partnerships can enable a group of people to acquire an asset such as a beach house. However, partnerships, according to one company, can help improve a person’s credit score. One online company called Instantcreditbuilders.com or ICB claims to help a person improve their credit score in 90 days or less.

First, let’s talk about your credit and what it means to lenders. A credit score is a numerical number ranging from 300 to 850, often called a FICO score. The higher the score the better the credit. Credit scores are calculated using a number of variables such as number of revolving and installment lines of credit, the length of time someone has had credit and a series of other variables. Three credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax and Trans Union — have proprietary formulas which assemble credit data and generate a credit score. Each company has a name for a credit score, however, Experian owns the rights to the FICO name. Lenders purchase your credit score along with your credit history from the companies in what is known as a tri-merge credit report. Since one company may have information the other does not, lenders want to make sure they have an objective picture of a person’s credit history. In general, the credit with less or no derogatory marks receives a higher score, which can translate into a lower interest rate. However, ICB has found a unique way to circumvent years of poor credit history through partnerships.

Instantcreditbuilders.com wants to help you improve your credit score so you are not taken advantage of by predatory lenders according to their Web site. What they do is not, as of today, technically illegal. On one hand, you have an individual who needs to improve their credit, so they hire ICB and pay them a fee. ICB goes and finds people with excellent credit in exchange for payment. Some lenders and credit bureaus have a problem with what they do next. ICB adds the person with mediocre credit to one of the trade lines of the person with excellent credit. When someone who does not have great credit is added to someone with great credit trade lines they essentially fool the computers at the credit bureaus and reap the benefits of the better trade line. After a few months the person with mediocre credit is removed from the trade line, but keeps the excellent credit holders trade line history,which can increase a credit score hundreds of points.

When applying for a loan from a lender, a person is asked if any of the information they provided is false. If a person has several trade lines that were not theirs, it could be deemed as false information. The other issue at hand is with rates. Lenders charge a higher rate to people with low credit because they are deemed as more of a credit risk. That risk is offset by a higher rate. Improving your credit quickly may seem like a good idea, but change is in the air.

It is likely that this practice will be eliminated in the near future due to lender and credit bureau concerns. In the end, the safest and most legal way to improve your credit is slowly over time by making timely payments and paying down debt yourself.

MIKE HEAYN is a Washington Mutual Multi- Family Loan Consultant. He (310) 428-1342 or

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 13, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/061307.pdf?ref=smdp.com)