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Credit Score Improvement

This page primarily deals with credit repair and disputing inaccurate, out of date or other discrepancies on your credit report. While this is an important part of keeping a clean credit profile and can provide a quick boost to your score, it should also be noted that credit repair cannot complete remove accurate items from your credit report.

A few long term tips for building a positive credit profile are as follows. These can also be used in the short run and following a bankruptcy or foreclosure in order to quickly recover.

  • Pay Bills On Time
  • Pay Off Debt
  • Keep Balances Low on Credit Cards
  • Keep Lines of Credit Open
  • Have Various Types of Credit (Auto, Home, Card, etc.)
  • Limit Credit Inquires

The last and often the most critical part of credit score improvement is ensuring the accuracy and timeliness of the credit report. Discussed below is the major legal precedence that helps consumers in doing this as well as the basic steps for do-it-yourself (DIY) credit repair.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) enacted in 1970 aimed at creating equality, precision and most importantly privacy of personal information. The concept was to curb the information reported to the credit bureaus by lenders, creditors and others. The FCRA affords the individual the ability to dispute items on his or her credit report. This is done on the basis of "completeness and accuracy" and includes all items that are inaccurate, untimely, misleading, biased, incomplete or unverifiable. If the credit bureaus cannot verify that the information is indeed correct, by law, those items must be removed. These unverifiable items on the credit report must be deleted within 30 days. This has been deemed as the investigation period or the "reasonable period of time" as designated by the law.

The consumer does not need to hire an attorney, law firm or a third party company to help them with the dispute process. However, if financially allowable it is highly recommended. The reason for this is the same reason it is recommended that a defendant seek legal counsel as opposed to representing themselves in a criminal or civil case. The truth is that the law is often convoluted and confusing to the everyday citizen. This is very much the case when it comes to credit reporting and related consumer laws that govern the practice.

Additionally contrary to popular belief, the three major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian and Transunion) have no vested interest in helping the consumer. An individual with poor credit must apply to lenders, landlords, utility companies and insurance firms 5 to 7 times more often than people with good credit. Since the credit bureaus make money by selling credit reports, they actually make more money from those who have poor credit.

Another common misconception is the credit bureaus are part of the government. While they are regulated by government agencies, they have no direct connection with the United States government. The primary motivation of the credit bureaus when it comes to working directly with consumers is selling them services such as credit report watching and similar services. While there is nothing wrong with these services, they may not necessarily help the consumer clean up their credit report.

Credit Repair Basic Steps

  1. Obtain credit reports.
  2. Highlight items to dispute.
  3. Dispute items with credit bureaus.
  4. Repeat cycle as needed.

The process is simple but the red tape can be frustrating and complicated. After drafting and submitting dispute letters to the credit bureaus, a 30 day period is afforded to allow the credit bureaus to verify the accuracy of the items highlighted. Sometimes it requires going through this process a few times for a total time of 60-90 days in order to get everything removed from the credit report. The reason for this is due to out of date information and inaccurate logs and data.

Hiring a Third Party Company

The benefit of hiring a third party to help with the credit repair process is similar to the joys of hiring a company to do any complex or undesirable task. It can be viewed akin to hiring a contractor, plumber, electrician, landscaper or other service. The enhancement of course of working with an accredited individual or organization is the specialization, know-how and inside track to getting the job completed correctly.

Hiring a law firm or accredited credit repair company to help you through this process can be a major timesaver. Our firm helps you obtain your credit report, decipher the items and sort out the correct from the incorrect, draft up dispute letters and send them for you. This process can be repeated as many times as needed, or just once. The list of items that can be removed include the following items...

  • Bankruptcies
  • Tax Liens
  • Judgments
  • Charge Offs
  • Repossessions
  • Student Loans
  • Foreclosures
  • Civil Liens
  • Medical Bills
  • Slow Pays
  • Inquiries
  • Old Information
  • Late Payments

For more information call our toll free hotline @ 888-586-7099