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ERASING NEGATIVE REMARKS FROM YOUR CREDIT RATING - Part IThis subject is one that has received much attention over the past two years. "Credit Repair" or "Credit Cleaning" is not much more than the practice of removing derogatory remarks or "derogs" from one's credit profile. This is done using the provisions of the federal "Fair Credit Reporting Act" to force credit reporting agencies to delete incorrect information, or information that the consumer claims is incorrect and cannot be verified. The process of credit repair has been shrouded in secrecy, with lawyers and consultants charging hundreds and even thousands of dollars to clean a credit report. Recently, a company even started a multi-level marketing company that sold credit cleaning services via personal networking. The fact is that most anyone can clean-up obvious errors from their credit report using a few easy to follow steps, which we will cover here. For the purpose of this article, we will explain how to remove the following derogs (derogatory items) from your credit profile. They are:
While the process of credit repair is not difficult, it can be time consuming and tedious. The entire process can take months. And depending on the severity of your financial problems, you may not be 100 percent successful. Still, the rewards are well worth the effort. The first step in beginning credit repair is to obtain a copy of your credit profile. You should order a report from each of the three major companies, as they probably all maintain your credit records. After all, if you don't know what's broke you can't fix it. You can obtain a free one without your FICO score at www.annualcreditreport.com. If you want your FICO scores, then you can get your credit report at www.myFICO.com for a small fee. Using the instructions provided with each individual report, review the information and highlight or outline the information you want to have removed. There are four types of information that you will want to remove or correct on the credit report, they are:
PERSONAL INFORMATION is perhaps the easiest item to change on your credit profile. You can have your address information corrected, and you can have your employment information changed or removed. CREDITOR INQUIRIES also are quite easy to remove. All you need to do is state that a certain creditor was not authorized to access your personal information. While they may claim that your authorization for such access is not required, they may still remove this information. If they refuse to remove the information, you can allege that the information was used to harass you during the collection process and was therefore used inconsistently with the right to its access. CREDITOR REPORTS are perhaps the most difficult item to remove from a credit profile. Because creditor's reports are the life blood of the system, credit reporting agencies will exert the most resistance when being asked to remove these items when they are derogatory. |
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