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Things To Know Before Repairing Your Credit
By: Darren McLaughlin
There are certain things that are very helpful to know before you embark on your
journey of credit repair. This article will cover these points. Credit repair is
your right. You may feel somewhat guilty for making a mess of your credit, but
there's no reason to spend time punishing yourself. When you deal with the
credit reporting agencies, you need to be clear headed and unemotional. Make a
record of all of your dealings with them, because you may well end up in dispute
with their version of facts.
The main right you have as a consumer is to have accurate information reported
on your credit report. The reason behind the Fair Credit Reporting Act is to
make sure that people have a mechanism to dispute potentially negative credit
data. Recent studies have shown that a large percentage of all information
reported by credit reporting agencies is inaccurate or outdated. It behooves you
to make sure the information is up to date, and positive. Removing negative
tradelines will greatly increase your credit score, which will result in lower
interest rates across the broadest spectrum of loan products.
One key area to make sure to dispute is any wrong address data. If it's an old
address that you don't live at anymore, and in particular it's associated with a
bad account, you'll want to make sure to dispute it with all 3 major credit
reporting agencies. There is no way for them to prove you live at an address
that you say you don't live at, so simply dispute the line item as "never lived
at this address" and you should have a very high degree of success in removals.
Once you've successfully disputed your old addresses you're in a better position
to argue your other derogatory items. You'll want to keep very accurate records
as you do this, because the CRAs only have 30 days to respond, and you'll want
to hold them to their obligation. The best way to ensure their compliance is to
use a return-receipt requested mail so that you have a signature and a date and
time stamp of when the letter was received. This clearly shows the CRA that you
"mean business" and it also helps protect your 30 day dispute period. Even if
the CRA has an infraction, it will be up to you to document it and to follow up
and get the negative info removed. Truth be told, dealing with the CRAs is
usually not easy, but sheer dilligence should ensure your success in the long
run.
The process of credit repair can take six months or longer for results to be
evident. But it's something that can be done for very little money, and with
very little effort. You need to maintain a positive attitude, keep excellent
records, and follow up. Studying the Fair Credit Reporting Act will be the best
method you can find for learning what your rights are, and you can easily join
the Credit Repair Forum to ask specific questions from people who have been in
the same situation as you, and have successfully clawed their way back to the
top. Good luck with all of your efforts.
About the Author:
If you're interested in Credit Repair and Credit Reports please visit: http://www.credit-repair-forums.com
and http://credit-reports.credit-repair-forums.com
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