Wow, now I know how David Chase must have felt....how do I end this?  Does Tony need to bite the big one?;-)  Anyway, if you haven't been tuning in this is the forth in a series about how to repair credit.  I'm writing it with the public as my intended reader, but am also keeping in mind real estate agents and loan officers who might be able to benefit from the fact that by helping these people, you can build a loyal client base that is trained to refer you business!

If you haven't read the previous posts in this series, here are the links to them.  Credit Repair 1, Credit Repair 2 and Credit repair 3.  In these posts we have covered:

1) Finding a loan officer to help you with your project

2) The importance of using a tri-merged credit report with public records checked.

3) Going over the credit report to identify duplicate trade lines and inaccurate information.

4) Down loading copies of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Fair Debt Collections Act.

So, now that you've downloaded the two federal laws that cover the credit reporting and collection industries and have read over them, you are now almost ready to start disputing the inaccurate information.  First however there is one other thing that you need to do.  And that is:

Call each of the creditors that are reporting a trade line out on you that contains inaccurate information.  The reason that you are going to do this is because almost all of the reporting of these trade lines is done automatically.  What the creditor has done is that they have simply moved on to the next account that they are attempting to collect on.  Be it on purpose or not, them leaving the negative information on your report is something that they shouldn't be doing.  Once it's pointed out to them, most of the creditors will cooperate and remove the trade line from your report when they do their next "tape transfer".

The bummers about having them do it internally are that 1) you are relying upon them to actually do it. And (2) depending upon the time of the month that you call them and when they download their tapes, it might be almost 2 months before they get around to it.  So, what we are going to do is to ask them to fax or mail us a copy of a letter on letterhead acknowledging that they are going to correct this information.

Again, most creditors will cooperate with you, but some will tell you that they do not send anything like this out.  The fact of the matter is they are not legally obligated to do so.  What I suggest you do at this point if you come across a creditor that is not cooperating is to remain pleasant, but to ask to speak with their supervisor.  If the supervisor tells you no, then I would keep attempting to climb up the latter by asking to speak with their supervisor.  So forth and so on up the ladder!

If all else fails, call back in and ask who their legal counsel is and what their contact information is.  When they ask you why you need this information, a well timed treat (said in the least offensive manner possible) is in order.

I call this the "Squeaky Wheel" technique!  Hopefully, if you make enough noise, somebody will attempt to shut you up!  It's better if you get the letter from them, but even if you don't, it's now time to move on to actually disputing the trade line.....which we'll cover in the installment of.....Credit Repair, The Series! (cue to the music)

Bob Mitchell

Valuelist Real Estate Services, Inc.