How You Can Repair Your Credit Report

Credit Repair After Bankruptcy

Matt Douglas (www.youcancreditrepair.com) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 05:16:43 -0600

With a bankruptcy mark on your report your score will be lowered considerably. However there is hope, you can remove this mark and by building some positive credit you can create a good score.

There is a lot of inaccurate information that claims a bankruptcy will be on your report for 10 years. This is not true you can remove it without waiting 10 long years. We suggest that you:

1. Dispute the mark with the bureaus.

You can do this yourself or hire a credit repair service to dispute the mark on your behalf. Did you know that the bureaus do not check public records when they investigate an item? Public records are where this mark is recorded and where the bureau would find verification.

Congress passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act and this says that the bureaus must remove any item on your report that can not be verified. People frequently ask if credit repair is legal. It is not only legal but this act explicitly says any mark you do not feel is accurate can be disputed. There will never be any legal ramifications for filing a dispute with the bureaus.

Before you dispute the bankruptcy it is a good idea to make sure that all other negative marks read "included in bankruptcy." The reason is once the initial bankruptcy mark is removed you will dispute all the other negative items because you do not have a bankruptcy mark on your report. There are rumors that it is much easier to remove this mark after two years.

2. Once you have removed the initial mark, you can start disputing each negative item.

You will be able to challenge the mark on the basis that your report does not show a bankruptcy. Therefore each item should be deleted by the bureaus upon investigation.

3. We suggest you start building positive credit. This is most effective by opening a new revolving line of credit such as a credit card.

With on time payments you will build a positive payment history, this is heavily weighted when your score is calculated. It will also help if you keep your balance under 30% of your limit because this will help your utilization ratio. This means you will have better ratio of available credit to debt.

While it is not illegal to dispute an accurate mark on your report it may not be the most ethical thing to do. However in my opinion charging people outrageous interest rates upwards of 30% and charging late fees is not ethical either.

In sum a positive payment history, report clear of derogatory items, and a good ratio of available credit to debt is the recipe for a 700 plus score. This will improve your quality of life by; saving you money on large deposits, high interest rates, and the embarrassment of a denial.

For a free credit consultation call 1-866-246-7311 or for a free credit repair letter used to dispute the bureau or for a free online credit repair e-book visit us.

Delete Late Pay History

Matt Douglas (www.youcancreditrepair.com) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 11:55:23 -0600

Late payments are not equal; a 90 day or 120 day late pay will cause a large amount of damage and is seen as a very negative mark by lenders. However a 30 day or 60 day late payment will not do much damage.

You can remove a 30 and 60 day late pay from your report by contacting the lender and asking them to erase it. Frequently they will do this in order to keep you as a customer and in their good graces.

A phone call and a letter including the reason is the most effective method. Also be respectful and nice to them because they do not have to remove this mark.

A 90 and 120 day late pay is much more difficult to remove. However if your account is still open then you should contact the lender, and ask for removal of the mark.

It is a good idea to make sure your account is up to date before making this request. Typically if the lender sees a history of late payments they will not remove it.

If the lender is not willing to remove the mark we suggest that you dispute it with the bureaus. You can do this be writing a dispute letter and sending it to each bureau or you can hire a service to do this for you.

This mark will stay on your report for a maximum of seven years. Additionally your account will go to collections after 180 days or six months of delinquency.

The reason a creditor is able to remove this mark from your file is because they report to the bureaus monthly. Thus all they have to do is not report this negative mark, the next month.

Your only way of getting help from the creditor is if you account is currently in good standing. Additionally there is information about negative marks and that they will stay on your report for 7 years.

This is not true; any item can be removed at any point in time, the maximum amount of time an item can remain on your report is seven years. There are a few exceptions such as a bankruptcy. The Fair Credit Reporting Act clearly says that the maximum amount of time is seven years. There is no minimum amount of time an item must stay on your report and can thus be removed at any time.

In sum the first step is contacting the lender, if you still have the account, and then if that is unsuccessful dispute it directly with the bureaus.

For a free credit repair letter used to dispute the bureaus visit us or you can get a free credit repair consultation by calling 1-866-246-7311, also you can see more tips to credit repair by visiting us.

Additionally you can see a ezine article about credit repair services here.

Remove Tax Lien - From Your Credit Report

Matt Douglas (www.youcancreditrepair.com) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:50:26 -0600

If you have a tax lien being reported on your report you score is in serious trouble. You should remove this item as soon as possible.

The first step is to request validation from the bureaus. This is done through sending a dispute letter directly to each.

Surprisingly it is not out of the ordinary for incorrect information to be reported on your credit. It is estimated that 1 in 4 people have inaccurate information on their report.

Upon receipt of your letter the bureau will investigate the mark. They will contact the state or federal government and ask for verification that the debt does exist.

If it is verified then you will have to make some form of payment. Depending on the amount you owe it may be in your interest to contact a tax negotiator.

This is because they can often negotiate a reduced payment for you. However you can also negotiate directly with the government.

This debt can be collected on for 10 years. It will be reported on your report for 7 years once it is paid. Once you pay your lien in full, we suggest you wait 3 months and then dispute the mark with the bureaus again.

It has been learned that once payment is made the tax departments will frequently ignore validation requests from the bureaus. Thus your lien will not be verified and the bureaus will remove it from your report.

Additionally if this mark was make in error then send any documentation along with your dispute letter to prove that. Repayment The IRS and state government often accept partial payment.

To propose this to them you will make an offer in compromise, often called an OIC. When the government decides to accept your OIC or not they will look at your; ability to repay, your assets, and your income. It can help your cause if you send a letter pleading financial hardship.

It may be in your interest to hire a tax attorney or negotiator to help negotiate a repayment amount. It is not absolutely necessary but nonetheless a good idea.

In sum, take action today and get this lien off your report. It will be hard to be approved for credit with decent terms as long as this mark is on your credit.

Don't just wait seven years. For more online credit repair tips or for a free credit repair letters to send to the bureaus visit us.

Remove Charge Off

Matt Douglas (www.youcancreditrepair.com) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 07:00:57 -0600

You can remove a charge off by disputing it. This has to be done directly with the credit bureaus.

A dispute is the consumers' method to challenge the accuracy or validity of a negative mark. There are two methods to dispute a charge off.

1. Write a dispute letter

You can do this yourself. In the letter you must give a reason as to why the charge off is inaccurate such as; not my account, item is out of date, account is closed.

Upon receipt of your valid credit repair letter the bureaus will hold and investigation into the listing. They will contact the lender and verify that the account did exist and the amount's and dates are correct.

Free Credit Repair Letter

2. Hire a professional credit repair company

If you choose this method you will only have to tell the service which items you want to dispute and they will handle the rest. I suggest a service if you have multiple negative marks.

Most firms have credit attorneys on their payroll. This can make all the difference when it comes to a negative mark being removed from your credit.

Credit lawyers will have an expert understanding of credit laws. They can often use these laws and other case precedents to help remove a negative listing from your credit.

In addition credit repair firms are able to use advanced dispute techniques to remove stubborn negative marks. These techniques include; debt validation, escalated dispute information requests and creditor direct intervention.

Charge offs will occur to an unsecured credit card after 6 months of delinquency. This mark will be reported on your credit report for 7 years unless you take steps to remove it.

The lender will "charge off" your account. This means they will have a tax write off. Your account will then be sold to a collection agency and they will be able to create a negative mark on your credit if they are unable to collect payment.

If the agency is unable to collect they will make a negative mark on your credit report and then sell your debt to another collection agency. The process will then repeat, as you can see one delinquent account can become multiple negative marks on your credit. The number of times your debt is sold depends upon the size of the debt.

In sum, a charge off on your credit report will negatively impact your score. However you do not have to live with it for 7 years. You can dispute it and have it removed.

For more credit repair tips or to read an article about credit repair services visit us.

Midland Credit Management - Remove Bad Credit

Matt Douglas (www.youcancreditrepair.com) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:34:10 -0600

To remove a negative mark on your credit from Midland Credit Management you should dispute the listing. You can dispute a listing by creating a dispute letter or hiring a credit repair firm.

If you have little damage to your credit report then I suggest you repair your credit yourself. However if you have multiple negative marks on your report then it would be wise to hire a company.

When the bureaus receive your dispute letter and deem it valid they will investigate the disputed listing. They will contact Midland Credit and verify the account is yours, the dates on the account, and the amount of the debt.

If the account can not be verified then the mark must be removed from your credit report. It is common for business to not verify accounts because it costs them time and money.

However if the account is verified a credit repair service can really help you. A service will be able to use advanced dispute techniques such as; debt validation, escalated dispute information requests and creditor direct interventions.

On the rare chance it is needed, a service will be able to go to court and fight for you. It has been learned that many marks on your credit are removed once an investigation takes place.

Who is Midland Credit Management?

They are a collection agency. They purchase debt from collection agencies and lenders.

They have offices in San Francisco, Phoenix and Minnesota. They are a subsidiary of Encore Capital Group which is traded on NASDAQ.

Midland Credit has a reputation for pursuing judgments. This means they will file a civil case to find you legally responsible to pay back a debt.

If this happens it will ruin your credit score, in addition your wages can be garnished. Thus you should act immediately if you get a mark from Midland Credit.

Be aware that just paying them will not remove the mark from your credit. It will change the status of the mark but will do very little to help your credit score, it is still a negative mark.

In sum, if you have a mark from Midland Credit you should act today. Do not ignore this mark as it can become worse.

For a free credit repair letter used to dispute bad credit with the bureaus or a review of the popular credit repair service lexington law visit us.

Credit Rating Repair

Matt Douglas (www.youcancreditrepair.com) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:10:11 -0600

When you are repairing your credit report it is important to create positive credit as well as remove negative credit. The simplest way to build positive credit is to pay all your monthly bills on time.

This will help you to create a positive payment history. A good payment history is almost as important as removing bad credit items from your report.

Another tip is to remove negative marks from your credit report. This is done by disputing inaccurate or invalid marks.

There are estimates that 1 in every 4 people have an inaccurate bad credit item on their credit report that is forcing them to pay higher interest rates. You are responsible to remove these inaccurate marks.

A divorce is a common source of inaccurate marks on an individual's credit report. When a divorcee is occurring the judge will divide the debts between the two parties.

It is common for one party to neglect to pay their court ordered debt. However this results in damage to both parties credit report.

This will happen even if the other party is unaware of the delinquency until it is too late. This party is not responsible for the delinquency but yet their credit is still damaged. This mark is inaccurate and should be removed when disputed.

Another source of inaccurate negative marks is due to lender mistakes. Lenders have humans working there, however their mistake will cost you real money.

It is not uncommon for monthly payment amounts to change on any credit line be it; student loans, credit cards, or whatever. However if you are not notified and continue to make your regular monthly payments your credit will be damaged.

This is because they are not paying the new amount due. They were never notified and continued to make regular on time payments, so it is not their fault but they will pay for the lender's mistake.

This is an example of a negative mark that should be disputed and removed. There are plenty of other examples of when borrowers have negative marks reported on their credit when they are not at fault.

However the Fair Credit Reporting Act that was passed by congress is in place to protect you from these circumstances. This law forces the credit bureaus to investigate a disputed listing.

The hard part of this is to get the bureaus to conduct the investigation. It is common for bureaus to respond to dispute letters by asking for more information about the dispute.

I suggest you be patient if you dispute these marks yourself. The other option is to hire a professional credit repair service. However you decide to do this, you can have negative marks removed from your credit report.

For more online credit repair tips or for another article about how you can remove judgments from your credit history visit us.

Ways to Improve Credit Score

Matt Douglas (www.youcancreditrepair.com) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:54:28 -0600

If you are currently repairing your credit report you understand how important your score is. How this number directly impacts your quality of life.

You will be judged by employers and lenders on this number. It can prevent you from being approved for credit and worse yet being hired for a job.

Many lenders will look at nothing else but your credit score when you apply for new credit. They rarely care as to the reason why a negative mark is on your credit.

There are two parts to credit repair that you should focus on.

1. Removing derogatory items from your report.

Derogatory items will cause the most damage to your score. However these marks can be removed and removed before waiting the full 7 years.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act gave consumers the power to dispute any mark on your credit report. When a dispute is filled you are saying to the bureaus that the negative mark is invalid or incorrect.

To file a dispute a dispute letter must be sent to each credit bureau. In this letter you must include why the listing is inaccurate. Common reasons are; not my account, item is out of date, account paid in full. Upon receipt of your letter the bureaus will investigate the disputed listing.

If the mark can not be verified then the credit bureau must remove it from your report. It has been found that once a listing is investigated it is often removed, regardless of its accuracy.

2. Build positive credit

This is a more difficult task with a low credit score. This is because it is difficult to be approved for new lines of credit.

However it is necessary to open a new line of credit. The best is an unsecured credit card even with the insanely high interest rate.

With this card you should try to keep the balance at around 10% of the credit limit. This will help your score because it shows you have available credit that is not being used; the bureaus call this your ratio of credit to debt.

Also by making your on time monthly payments it will create a positive payment history. If you can not build a positive payment history it will be next to impossible to improve your credit rating.

In sum, you can repair your credit without waiting the full seven years. However it may be in your interest to remove some derogatory items before you apply for a new line of credit. Understand that both these parts are vital to getting you to a 700 credit score.

For a free credit repair letter to dispute bad credit items on your report or to read a review of lexington law a suggested credit repair service visit us.

To read another article about how you can remove civil judgments.

Tips to Improve Your Credit Rating

Matt Douglas (www.youcancreditrepair.com) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:14:46 -0600

There are five pieces of information the credit bureaus use when calculating your score. Here is the list and the approximate value they carry into the bureaus scoring model.

1. Payment History (45%)

This is where the bureaus will weight negative credit items from your report. It will help to improve your score if you can clean your credit from negative items.

However even if you have bad credit listed here, if the account is more than 4 years old it will not be weighted as heavily. In addition having positive payment history here will reduce the impact bad credit items have.

2. Available Credit to Debt (30%)

This is how much credit do you have that is available. Are all your credit cards maxed out?

The bureaus like to see available credit. This shows them that you are a responsible user of credit.

3. Length of Credit (5%)

How long have you been using credit? If you are a newbie to the world of credit you can still have a good score.

You should not worry about this aspect when it comes to improving your score. Your accounts will age naturally and this will not make or break your score.

4. Credit Experience (5%)

What sort of accounts on your credit do you have. Do you only have an auto loan?

The bureaus like to see diverse accounts. However this is such a small piece of your score that it is not worth opening up new accounts to show this.

With time your accounts will become diverse. You will have an auto loan, credit card, boat loan and etcetera.

5. Pursuit of New Credit (15%)

How often is your credit being checked? Are you frequently having your credit run?

If it looks like your credit is being checked continuously it will lower your credit score. The bureaus expect to see credit inquiries but excessive inquires will damage your score.

There are people that try and make purchases with their credit every month. For those their score is going to be lowered because of that.

These weight values are just estimates and not exact. Each bureau varies their scoring model and they choose to keep this information secret from the public. However by building positive payment history and removing negative accounts from your credit report you can increase your credit score dramatically.

For more tips to improve credit score or to read an article about a how to remove a civil judgment from your credit report or for more online credit repair tips visit us.