Tim Bock asked:




Many times people are unaware of exactly what’s in their credit report, let along if there’s a collection account in there. There are usually 1 or 2 reasons why a collection account may exist.

- The account went to collections
- Mistaken identity

Fortunately it’s not the end of the world. There are steps that can be taken to get the collection off of your credit for good.

Get a copy of your credit report

There are 3 main credit bureaus where you can obtain a copy of your credit report. These are as follows:

- Equifax
- Transunion
- Experian

Dispute the findings

Each credit bureau operates separately. Therefore having the account deleted from one does not automatically mean it will disappear from all 3. Lenders do look at all three credit reports, so it’s extremely important to follow up with all of them. Not doing so will affect your ability in getting a loan.

Do it in writing

It’s important to mail your dispute in. Do not try to do it over the phone. Writing gives you documentation in case you need it. After they received the dispute, they will investigate the matter. If the investigation is not resolved within the allotted amount of time, the item will automatically be deleted from your credit report.

Fair credit reporting act

Become familiar with this law, before you contact the credit bureaus. It could save you a lot of time and trouble. It’s important to get the facts, so you have all the tools at your disposal when going up against the credit bureaus.

Tamara

Robert Humphrey asked:




1. Introduction: The FACT Act

As of December 1st, 2004, a new federal law became effective called the FACT Act. This acronym stands for Fair & Accurate Credit Transaction Act. The main thing to understand is it means more change. The changes are for individual consumers, businesses, and the three (3) major credit bureaus. We will focus on the consumer and credit bureau changes for the purposes of this publication. If you need more information for the protection of your business, please consult with your legal counsel.

Here are some of the more notable changes:

Changes in credit information management for businesses, including criminal penalties Changes in credit dispute procedures & corrections, including cross-bureau corrections for consumers Changes in availability of personal credit information for your review (read they’re finally going digital) for consumers The objectives for this article are focused on educating the consumer to understand their options under the new law and include: Educate you on how Identity Theft is changing personal credit issues Educate you about your consumer rights & procedures for correcting erroneous credit information Educate you on how to stay on top of things for your financial security, so you can be more proactive in protecting you and your family


2. Before: Problems No One Wanted (& No One Seemed To Want To Address)

If you have ever tried to get erroneous credit information removed from one of your credit bureau reports, you know just how hard it has been to accomplish. One of the other credit bureau problems many of us have been through was trying to get one of the bureaus to correct a problem, and then get the subject credit bureau to communicate with the other two major credit bureaus. This was nearly impossible if you had to go through it yourself (and I had). One of the worst parts was that there seemed to be very little a consumer could do to challenge the three (3) major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion). The coup de gras was that if you didn’t have, or couldn’t acquire, the documentation the credit bureaus requested, you had very little chance to get the error or problem corrected. One of the other issues that has seemed to plague consumers who wanted to monitor their credit information has been cost. If you wanted to get your current credit reports, you had to pay money out of your own pocket just to monitor your information. Although many states had state laws to allow consumers one (1) free credit report per year, many consumers weren’t aware of this. The net effect was that most consumers rarely learned they had a problem until they had their credit bureaus pulled for a consumer transaction or application for credit. At that point if there was an unknown surprise, it was not uncommon for the consumer to receive a decline for the credit transaction.

Another major problem was that although you would think there would be strong laws in the past to protect consumer credit, the consumer protection laws on the books were not really effective. Many had concluded that a stronger deterrent to businesses mismanaging consumer credit information was needed as identity theft was increasing. So as identity theft began to explode in frequency and severity, there was a strong current of opinion to put some teeth into protecting consumers more. As soon as mismanaged credit information was tied to some cases of attempted identity theft & fraud as well as [criminally] successful cases, Congress finally acted. The result of their action was the new federal law called the FACT Act.

3. Massive Increases in ID Theft and Fraud Push Us over the Edge

You’ve all seen the incredible news on the television or in the newspapers about major financial institutions losing data archives in transit from their headquarters to their offsite storage location. This has happened so many times that the headlines don’t even startle anymore. Is that scary or what? We’re losing millions of records, or rather millions of may be lost or stolen, it seems like every month at least. Do you know what the really scary part is? In California, they have a law that says that if your credit records have the possibility of having been compromised, you must be informed. What if the loss or theft occurs in another state where the same laws don’t exist? That’s right. The credit bureaus may or may not notify based on the other state’s laws. So if you’re thinking that we may not be notified every time credit information might have been compromised, you would probably be right.

So how do these mass credit information compromises occur? Well, it can happen in many ways. Sometimes it happens because of an inside theft ring, at a credit card company for instance. Other times it’s just mismanagement or poor handling of client’s information, the loss of data backups for instance. One of the classic scams has been theft of credit information at a business establishment you had patronized.One of the scariest ideas that must be considered is that there are new scams being produced all of the time. Some intelligent, bright criminals are always working on new types of scams. It sounds crazy, but you may never be able to keep up with all of the scams. It is for this reason that you must become proactive in monitoring your credit information, at least until there are some step-changes in the way the current credit system is managed and maintained.

Consumer Changes

•• Go to http://www.annualcreditreport.com/

•• Rolled out in western states 1st

•• Was across whole country by September 1st, 2005

•• One free report from each bureau/yr

•• Online credit information dispute resolution system

•• Automatic required supply of revised credit data to other credit bureaus

•• Protection thru severe penalties for credit data users

•• Can also use 877-322-8228

Further Info:FACT ACT Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act of 2003 FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 16 CFR Part 682FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT Ellen Finn or Susan McDonald, Attorneys, (202) 326-3224, Division of Financial Practices, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580.

Caroline

Hector Milla asked:




There are three credit reporting bureaus which although do similar business, may come up with varying reports. Different individuals and professionals work in the firms and thus it’s expected that their conclusions even on similar things is different. With this in mind, a consumer would therefore be better off if he considered the three reports before making any conclusions on his credit condition. Actually a review of the three reports should be done before conducting a final analysis.

A typical 3-1 credit report will contain consumer’s basic information i.e. name, address, date of birth and employer. It also has a consumer statement and accounts histories while the public records section is a log of events such as bankruptcy and judgment filings. There is also a section with a list of creditors and their contacts.

There are two types of 3-1 credit reports; the first comes with a single score and has an advantage in that one gets all the three reports from the three firms but the shortcoming is that the consumer ends up getting one score from one bureau. This means that if the bureau has a bias in its conclusion then the consumer will be affected and will actually end up getting the wrong idea as regards to his/her credit position. This may lead to loss of investment opportunities because most lenders will need to look at the three reports each with their scores before approving a loan.

The second type of a 3-1 credit report is very similar to the first one but in this case each report has its own scores. This means that the consumer may end up having three different scores for his/her report. Thus he/she will be in a better position to understand his credit situation. Lenders also feel more secure when dealing with a client with scores from different agencies because it means that the likelihood of a biased report are very minimal. This kind of report can also be useful to the consumer as a personal regulating tool to ensure that his credit path stays on track by regularly checking the scores and analyzing his performance.

Clinton

Rachel Altman asked:




I believe that once you’ve paid a debt, it should be removed from your credit reports. However, the credit bureaus disagree. In fact, by law they are able to report it for up to 7 years from the date it was paid. But, here’s the good news: Also by law, you are permitted to dispute any account on your credit report that you choose.

Once you dispute an account on your credit report, the credit bureau contacts the creditor to verify the item. The creditor has 30 days to verify the account. More often than not, if the account is paid, the creditor will not bother verifying it and if the account is old, lots of times they don’t keep the records and are unable to verify it. If that happens, it must be removed from your credit reports immediately.

If the investigation results come back as “verified”, you have the right to request the credit bureau’s and collector’s method of verification. You should immediately send them a letter requesting verification. There is no limit to how many times you can dispute the account with the credit bureaus. Usually, if they are going to remove the account, they will do it with in the first couple disputes, but I’ve seen accounts be removed after up to 15 disputes. Sometimes you just have to keep on them.

You can also contact the creditor directly and ask them to remove the account. This should always be done BEFORE you pay the account. Offer to pay the account if they will promise to delete it from your credit report. Get the agreement in writing; especially if you’re dealing with a collection agency.

If you’ve already paid the account, you won’t have much negotiating power. But, it won’t hurt to ask the debt collector to properly validate the debt. Writing a debt validation letter is a great way to put pressure on the debt collector to remove an account from your credit report. Just because you’ve paid an account does not mean that you agree that the account is yours. And many times, if you have paid the debt, the debt collector will remove it from your report. All they wanted was their money. They really have no reason to leave it on your credit report and risk being sued.

Holly

Rachel Altman asked:




A bankruptcy can have a devastating effect on your credit score. A bankruptcy listing on your credit reports to many lenders is the only thing they need to see to determine you are completely unworthy of credit.

Many people will tell you that it is impossible to remove a bankruptcy from your credit reports. The truth is that you can dispute a bankruptcy the same as you can any other type of derogatory account on your credit report.

Note that whether the account is “really” yours or not has no bearing on the credit bureaus responsibility to verify it. If it cannot be verified, it must be deleted. Period. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the burden of proof is on the credit bureau.

Please let it be clear that it’s never ever wise to be dishonest when communicating with credit reporting agencies, plus it is totally unnecessary. There are many ways to dispute the bankruptcy without lying.

Did you know that the credit bureaus don’t even investigate public records? The courts will only verify such records in person. The credit bureaus will claim that they have a system to verify such records, but when it comes down to it, they don’t. They also know that if a consumer were to seek litigation and financial damages in a court of law, they would be in big trouble.

I had my bankruptcy removed from 2 out of 3 of my credit reports. The one that would not remove the bankruptcy claimed that they verified it electronically and that it’s public record. It is indeed public record; they were right about that part. But, I asked them who they verified it with and they said they verified with my local courthouse. That’s impossible since the local courthouse confirmed that they only verify public records in person – not electronically, not through the mail, and not over the phone.

This particular credit bureau is much harder to work with than the others. They are very adamant about keeping items on your credit report whether they are accurate or not. This credit bureau has also been sued the most. And as long as they refuse to properly investigate accounts according to federal law, they will continue to get sued the most.

Vincent

Tamara Rasheed asked:




First, let’s begin with some simple rules to help you dispute your negative and erroneous credit report information.

1) You should dispute everything negative on your credit reports. Everything negative on your credit reports should have the chance to be deleted.

2) The older your negative account is, the easier it is for it to be deleted. Negative accounts that are 2 years old or older are the easiest to have deleted because they are less likely to be traced back as yours (even if you know it is yours) after being switched from collection agency to collection agency.

3) If there is a possibility that an account does not belong to you, or if it includes data with errors, the credit bureaus will automatically delete it from your credit reports.

Let’s take a minute to talk about pay-off letters and their uses:

1) If you have paid-off accounts still showing on your credit reports, you can have those accounts deleted by including pay-off letters with your dispute letter when you mail them. When you negotiated the settlement or payment plan with that company, you should have received a letter stating the terms of the settlement or payment plan negotiation before making your payment by mail, and a pay-off letter after your settlement or payments were complete.

2) If you did not receive a pay-off letter after completing your payments, you can call that company and request a pay-off letter after the fact. Be sure that the pay-off letter states that your negative item will be removed from your credit report after you have paid it off based on your negotiated terms with that collection agency. Also, be sure that you have proof that you paid off that debt such as a copy of your check or your money order receipt.

3) If you do not have pay-off letters for some of your negative accounts, or if you do not have pay-off letters for any of your negative accounts, you can dispute all of your negative accounts as “This account is not mine”. The credit bureaus will dispute those negative items with the collection agency and many of them will be deleted.

When the credit bureau responds and you have items that have not been deleted, then you can work out payment arrangements or settlements with those collection agencies – as reasonable for your budget. Most accounts can be settled at a reduced amount of 50 – 75% of what was originally owed! Don’t forget to get a letter from the collection agency stating the terms of your negotiation before making any payments. Make your payments by mail once you receive that letter. You should also receive a pay-off letter when your settlement or payment plan is complete.

Credit Dispute Letters That Provide The Best Results:

“This is not my account” and “Paid as agreed” dispute letters are the best dispute letters to start with. You want to dispute accounts as not yours to give the credit bureaus a clean place to begin when investigating your accounts. Once they come back as verified, you can begin the second phase of your disputes.

“Paid as agreed” letters will provide you with a second investigation process where the credit bureaus will verify that you paid your account and it needs to be deleted. Your pay-off letters are handy here.

Each credit bureau should be sent 1 letter. For example, you’re mailing three “This is not my account” letters, one for each credit bureau.

Do not dispute accounts that do not appear on that particular credit report. For example, if you have 5 negative accounts that show up on your Equifax credit report, but only 3 of those appear on your Experian credit report, do not add the 2 that do not show up on the Experian dispute letter. Only dispute what you see!

Be sure to keep a log of your correspondence with the credit bureaus also.

Bonnie

Jared Wright asked:




Credit report companies offer their services to people who need to get their credit score and other information about their financial status. A credit report is required when you apply for a loan such as a home mortgage, and may also be required when you want to apply for a credit card. There are credit reports for individuals, and there are also some reports which are made to evaluate the statuses of companies.

Credit report companies are also known as credit bureaus. There are three major credit report companies, which are the Equifax Credit Bureau, the TransUnion Credit Bureau, and the Experian Credit Bureau. These companies collect different information from creditors, which are then used to generate reports that are sold to their clients.

A credit report is a valuable document in the sense that it includes information which may grant or deny loan approval, employment, licensing, insurance and other business needs. Individuals and businesses alike are dependent on their credit scores and report to help in evaluating their current financial standing.

Some information which is available from credit companies includes the following:

• Identification. Credit report companies have consumer details such as name, employer, address, name of spouse and the company or employer of the spouse.

• Credit history. This includes accounts which are active, including the account numbers, the date when the accounts where opened, the payments and other activities made for it, balances, amounts that were paid in the past, and how often payment was late. These are all bases for a low credit score, meriting a lender ground for denying you of a loan.

• Derogatory items. These include risks which may affect the lender or the company which will deal with the other party. Judgments, suits, bankruptcies and tax liens may prevent you from getting approved for a loan.

• Inquiries. Companies or individuals may have asked for your information, such as banks and financial institutions which have required your bank details. You will be given information about the inquiries which happened in the last 18 months only.

Credit report companies update your information regularly so that their database is updated and is relevant. Lenders can access your information to help them decide whether or not you can be trusted with a loan or a new credit card. You can also access your own credit score by logging in to the website of the three credit bureaus mentioned above so you can monitor your finances as closely as you need.

Earl

Tony Banks asked:




The truth of the matter is that repairing your credit can take some time but its surely not impossible, it takes time for a few reasons. If you discover that there are errors on your credit report or you want to challenge certain entries, the dialog via mail that you have with the credit bureaus will take at least a couple of weeks before you know the final outcome.

Especially if the credit bureau has to contact a third party creditor for information. The good thing about this is that they have a specific amount of time to do this by law. Once that time frame is up, they have to delete the item in question from your credit report. It is important that you understand the credit laws so that you know when they are in violation.

Once you begin the process, you can expect to start seeing results within a couple of weeks. You want to pull an updated version of your report often during the process to make sure all necessary corrections are being made.

Each of the credit bureaus will also send you a letter letting you know of any chances, additions or deleted items from your credit file. Also keep in mind that you have 3 credit reports from the 3 main credit bureaus. (Equifax, Transunion & Experian)

Each bureau operates independently of the other and their corresponding times will be different when dealing with each one. Keep in mind that each of your reports from the three bureaus can possibly have different information, it’s a good idea to work on all three at the same time.

Steve

Justin Fox asked:




Credit Report No Credit Card – You want your Credit Report now but have No Credit Card! frustrating! what to do, well you be happy to find out there are a few places where you can get your report without the need for a Credit Card, but you need to know a few things first.

The first place you should visit is annualcreditreport.com they require no Credit Card details so you can just put in your personal details and get your report. It’s also for free as the government now makes it law that you and every US citizen is entitled to get one free credit report per year, but you should know that this while being useful is not where you should leave it, you need all three credit report from the 3 main credit report bureaus, as each report will be different – so how will you know that the lenders will use to make up there decision of providing credit to you or not? You need to get all three and then look at the middle score – getting you credit score will enable you to know what the lenders use to make their decision.

So you might want to shop around to see what the best place is to get all your 3 Reports and Credit Score, be warned that while some websites will advertise that you can get a Credit Report No Credit Card they will try and sell you other services, this is not a bad thing as these services you might find very useful, here is a few of the services:

Get your Credit Score Identity Theft Protection Credit Monitoring Services Credit Score Change Alerts All your Credit Score and Reports from the Three Main Credit Bureaus Credit Score Competitor Comparison Now, to get some of these services you will need to use a Credit Card so Credit Report No Credit Card will not be applicable for you, but i strongly suggest you use these services as you then have a full picture of where you financial site and can start going about fixing any negative information. Be wary of the Scammers out there who promise to remove all negative information off your Credit Report to Fix you Credit Score, anyone who can guarantee this is wrong – don’t give you money over to then, what they do is contact the credit report bureaus and get them to investigate some bad credit information – by law they have to remove the info while it’s being investigated – but as soon as the investigation is finished it will land back on your credit report – by then they will have made a run and you won’t be able to get in contact with them to get your money back. Credit Report No Credit Card, there is such a thing but just be aware of what’s involved and the other services that are out there.

Get your Free Credit Report today and other useful information at [http://www.credit-reporter.net]

Wayne

Freddie Stewart asked:




Whether or not lending or financial institution will give you a loan or credit depends on your credit score. Your credit score is based on how you pay off your previous and existing loans. It gives lender a pretty good picture of how good you are at managing and paying off your debts.

While you are alive and functioning in society, your credit score changes. Your decisions regarding your debt will lower or raise your credit score. Making good financial decisions may help raise your credit score.

Here are some steps you can take towards improving your credit score:

Find out your credit report The 3 credit bureaus, Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian have their own reports regarding your creditworthiness. They may have different reports because they may not have the same kind of information as creditors don’t need to report to each and every one of them. If you have been denied credit or employment because of your credit score, you are entitled to ask for a copy of that report from the credit bureau because the company you applied to is required by law to submit the name of credit bureau they got the report from. Study your reports from all 3 bureaus carefully The job of a credit bureau is to report on information supplied by you creditors. Since they don’t verify the information they receive there may be some mistakes in the information given. It may sound unfair but keeping your credit report a true reflection of your creditworthiness is your job. Be meticulous in making sure all information such as dates and figures are correct. Make a list of items you want to dispute and be ready to defend your claims. Dispute and Document, the Double-D strategy Be very thorough in documenting all mistakes you find in your credit reports. Identify which points of the reports are wrong and tell them why. A good stategy is to give the credit bureaus photocopies of their reports and encircling the mistakes. Don’t forget to supply the correct entries to the mistakes. Keep all documents and forms you send to the credit bureaus and keep note of the dates. The credit bureaus must look into and investigate all credit disputes within 30 days. If a dispute is not verified by a creditor, it must be automatically removed from the report. You can also go to the creditors themselves and try to resolve any mistakes directly. If any changes are made to your credit report, the responsible credit bureau will send you a free copy of the revised report. Negative entries that have been removed cannot be put back in the report unless the creditors can verify accuracy and completeness of the entry. They should also send you written notice that they are going to do so. Solve and Dissolve debt Find ways to finally get rid of your debts. Resolve all unpaid debts by negotiating for longer payment schemes and lower interest rates. Avoid getting a delinquent or bad credit standing. When you’ve paid off your credit debt, consider getting rid of your cards. Stabilize your credit file Make sure your credit records are updated and complete. Sometimes, creditors don’t report to credit bureaus so it’s up to you to make sure they do.

Try to re-establish good credit especially if you’ve had bad credit previously. You’ll improve your credit score faster if you keep your credit active and in good standing.

The best way to show creditors that you’re a good credit risk is if you have enough money in the bank to show that you save and that you’re able to pay them off.

Juanita