The answer is yes. I would like to point out that you are not fixing your credit
as much as you are removing inaccurate information. Many consumers are unaware of
the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). This is a federal law to protect consumers;
holding credit reporting agencies accountable for accurate reporting.
Managing your credit report on a regular basis will allow you to identify the accuracy
of what is being reported. Anything a credit repair clinic can do for you, you can
do for yourself at little or no cost. Analyzing your report can be overwhelming
not knowing where to start. If you get stumped with the process and want to ask
a live person a question, you can set a consultation with
one of our consumer advocates.
The information contained in this section will help you fix ERRORS on your credit
report and clean up those "questionable" items. While no one can legally remove
accurate negative information from a credit report, the law does allow you to request
an investigation of information in your file that you dispute as inaccurate or incomplete.
On the other hand, *wink* *wink*, it is perfectly legal to challenge ANYTHING on
your credit report.
It cost nothing for you to request an investigation. The key to credit repair is
that if the credit bureaus cannot verify information on your credit report they
must remove it. For instance, if a credit bureau cannot contact a collection agency
which is reporting a collection on your report, they cannot verify the information,
and the credit bureau must delete the entry.
Good luck on your credit repair journey. If you get stuck, or need some guidance
remember we are a phone call away.
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It’s important to understand your FICO score and how it affects you. Credit scoring
is a grading system that adds or subtracts points based on select data in your credit
report. Late payments, maxed out credit cards, and bankruptcies are negative factors
that take points away. A solid payment history and prudent use of available credit
add points. Your final grade -- your credit score
A credit score is a number based on a statistical analysis of a person's credit
files, that represents the creditworthiness of that person, which is the likelihood
that the person will pay their bills. A credit score is primarily based on credit
report information, typically from one of the three major credit bureaus: Experian,
TransUnion, and Equifax.
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Types of Credit Scoring
There are different methods of calculating credit scores. FICO is a credit score
developed by Fair Isaac Corporation. It is used by many mortgage lenders to determine
the possibility that the borrower may default on financial obligations to the mortgage
lender.
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Basic Repair Guide
There is no magic involved with fixing your credit. Your reports are managed by
three major credit bureaus. These credit bureaus are for profit and paid by your
creditors to report your personal and financial information. The chance that information
is not accurately reported is extremely high with the sheer volume of the population.
Another words, how many people have your same name, or lived at an address you once
lived etc. Mistakes are common and if not corrected can hit you in the pocket book.
There are easy steps to follow that can guide you through the credit repair process.
We understand that you may prefer to have someone assist you instead of doing it
yourself. If so please call to set up a consultation!
- Obtain a copy of your credit report
- Review your report
- List all disputes separately
- Write a letter to dispute the discrepancies
- Send your disputes
- Track your queries
- Wait for a response
- Review your replies
- Repeat if necessary
- Disputing specialized listings
- Plan of action if the listings are not removed
- What to do if I need help?
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Obtain a Copy of your Report
You can do this for free once a year (more depending on the state in which you reside)
It’s best to get all three:
www.annualcreditreport.com or by
calling 1.877.322.8228
Once you have received the three copies of your report, you can then begin the review
process.
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Review your Report
Before you sit down to review your report you should make a physical copy or save
one to your computer. This will help you stay organized and able to compare your
report to the finalized report once the disputes have been corrected.
If you are not familiar with a credit report it can be a challenging to read and
understand. On each report there are positive and negative indicators. We are looking
for negative indicators that need to be disputed and reported correctly. Each CRA
has a different method to indicate a derogatory mark on the report. You can utilize
this link to see what to look for with each CRA when decoding your report. Each
Credit Reporting Agency (CRA) has a key to help you decipher what the information
they are reporting represents. Each CRA has a slightly different format but ultimately
the information they gather is the same.
For example:
Positive Accounts – those being paid as agreed.
Negative Accounts – 30 days+ past due.
Judgments – lawsuits won by collector.
Soft Inquiries – made by consumer.
Hard inquiries – done by creditors having a reason or where consumer has requested
credit.
Personal Information – addresses, alias, marital status, employment etc.
All items listed above have an effect on the final outcome of your credit score.
Now we can begin to review your report! You should search for any information that
does not match your records. For example an incorrect address, name, place of employment
as well as incorrect payment information. Highlight anything you feel you can dispute
on all three credit reports.
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Listing disputes separately
Once you have completed reviewing each report take another piece of paper and list
each discrepancy. You want to list each one consecutively based on most derogatory
to least.
It is required by law, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, that each creditor informs
you that they are putting a derogatory mark on your credit report. Keep in mind;
if you were not informed you can use this as a reason to have this item removed
from your report.
Writing dispute letters
It is in your best interest to dispute any item that is remotely wrong on your credit
report. The goal is to have the mark completely deleted from your report!
You want the CRA to investigate the inaccurate items. Initially you can start by
writing a simple letter stating such and such is “not mine”. Once we get to the
next round of disputing, you will begin to dispute the information with in each
line. Common reasons to dispute are as follows:
- Not Mine
- Did not pay late
- Wrong amount
- Wrong original creditor
- Wrong charge of date
- Wrong last activity date
- Wrong balance
- Wrong line of credit limit
- Wrong status
- Wrong amount used
The most difficult items to remove from your report are judgments, bankruptcies,
legally obligated debts, charge-offs, foreclosures and things of that nature. The
reason for this is that they are the easiest items to verify. You may be able to
have such items removed; however, they will reference a line that was once there.
For example, if you have a late mortgage payment, it may say “included in foreclosure”.
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Sending Disputes
It is vital you send everything certified return receipt. This will prove the CRA
received your dispute and you will have a record of this. You may need this at a
later date. By law, the CRAs are required to respond to your inquiry within 30 days
of receipt of your letter.
The best way to dispute a derogatory mark on your credit report is via U.S. mail.
Largely, due to the fact that you can easily record the steps you took, having signed
copies proving you have gone through the motions.
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Track you Inquiries
It’s very important to document everything you send to and receive from the CRAs.
Make copies of every letter, including any attachments that you send. Keep a file
for each CRA and their particular disputes for quick reference and to back up your
case. Keep precise notes of every phone conversation you have with regard to your
disputes.
Maintaining good records is essential in case items you previously had removed re-appear.
As unfortunate as this may sound, the possibility is there. You can easily have
these items removed if you keep good records.
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The Waiting Game
Once the CRA has received your dispute they are obligated by law to open an investigation.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act states that each CRA should take the following steps
when opening a dispute:
- They have 30 days in which to investigate and resolve your claim. If you used annualcreditreport.com
the CRA has 45 days to find resolution to your dispute.
- The CRA must provide complete copies of your dispute to the entity reporting the
derogatory mark on your credit report.
- Once the resolution has been reached, you will be informed within 5 days of the
outcome. You will receive a written notice of the findings along with an updated
copy of your amended credit report.
- If an item has been deleted, it can not reappear on your credit report unless the
entity supplies sufficient information to report on your credit report again. Hence,
the reason it is so important to document each step in this process.
During the dispute process you may find that your credit was pulled for approval
by a creditor. If this occurs you may have an updated copy of your credit report
sent to that creditor once the dispute has been resolved.
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Review your replies
Now that you have received your dispute back along with an updated copy, you can
go through and compare the original to the new one.
The CRA will summarize, in writing, the changes that were made on your credit report
due to your dispute.
There are 3 different ways your dispute will be resolved:
- The listing may not have been addressed at all. This may be that you forgot to list
the dispute in your letter, or because your request was not clear enough to address.
- The dispute may be verified and will show as “verified” on the report. This does
not mean that you can not dispute this again. The 3 major CRAs all have different
methods to investigating a dispute, so, the 3 collaborated to form an automated
on line system to help this process. In essence they are not really verifying the
physical information with the original creditor; but using an online database. This
obviously poses a problem as what you are disputing is the validity of the data
being reported. If this were to occur you can proceed by requesting a “method of
verification” from the CRA you made your dispute with. This would prove that they
are using the eOscar automated tool. You may try to resubmit your dispute at a later
date, with the chance that you get a different account representative.
- The listing came back as incorrect or unverifiable. This means that information
was not verified by the original creditor, so the negative listing will then be
removed or show as a positive on your credit report. Note that if the original creditor
does not respond to the dispute this automatically is assumed that the mark was
incorrect by the CRA.
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Repeating your dispute attempts
You should keep track of each item you dispute and the reason you did so. Each time
you are denied you may attempt to resubmit the dispute using a different reason.
Reasons for disputing are listed above under the writing disputes heading. The reason
for this approach is if you dispute the right piece of information the original
creditor may not be able to verify and will remove the listing completely. Only
send one letter with your disputes at a time. It does not help to send one everyday
as this really hinders the investigation.
Remember, if your dispute findings are not to your liking, don’t give up! Become
insistent but do not be rude! An account representative only has four minutes to
process each dispute. Every dispute is coded and fit into general categories, so
be patient. With time you can become frustrated with this process. It is best to
keep a cool head as you do not get the desired results when you are difficult to
work with.
Every time you contact the agency you are resetting your 30 day period in which
they have to respond regarding your dispute. Again, be patient and stick to the
plan.
Each time you send a dispute come up with new creative ways to do so. You want to
be innovative but not far fetched. Each representative is only interested in investigating
a dispute that has the potential to be an issue, not in frivolous claims. Generally,
you will want to wait 60 days between disputes for the same listing.
This is going to be a tedious process and it is important you realize that patience
and meticulous records will help you obtain the intended results
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Negative Listing Re-appears
Sometimes creditors will remove a listing from your report while they investigate
the dispute because of the time constraint. However, they can report a listing if
they find later that it is good information, this is legal. What they can not do
is report a listing on your credit report and not notify you. Any creditor is required
by law to inform you that they are reporting a derogatory mark on your credit report;
if they do not follow this process they are in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting
Act (FCRA) and may have to pay you a fine as well as remove the listing on your
credit report.
If they did follow the process and inform you as well as put the listing back on
your report, you may initiate the process of disputing the listing over again.
If you feel that this process is too difficult or time consuming
you may call an experienced consumer advocate to set up a consultation to assist
you at the following number 866.630.7581.
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