Repairing my own credit report.?

Question

I have decided to start repairing my credit on my own. I have a few paid collections on my credit report. Do I contact the collection agency who reported the bill or exquifax to have these items removed from my credit report since they have been paid off 4 years ago? I am new to this so any info you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

I am choosing not to open more credit cards etc. because I already have 1 major and 1 dept. store credit card that is in very good standing. Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

Answer 1

Start off with the creditor. If that doesn't work, dispute with the credit bureau(s) which are listing the debt. Listed below is a link which helps people who are interested in repairing their own credit, has sample letters to send to creditors, and a list of the fines and the laws they are breaking if they don't follow the rules. (It's also free with no strings attached.) Good luck!

Answer 2

You will not be able to remove these paid items. They will remain on your credit for another 3 years. However, they likely are not seriously hurting your scores now, so I wouldn't worry too much about them. DO NOT request from the bureaus they verify these debts are accurate, as it will just put a current date on them and make them appear like they were just paid!

If you have collections, know that ALL collections are negotiable. Don't pay the full amount because you don't have to. But get the terms of settlement (dollar amount) in writing before paying the collection company a dime.

Contact the credit bureaus first and dispute all the bad, CURRENT, information. It is their responsibility to check to see if the info is accurate. If they can not verify it, they must remove it.

After you get the first response back from the bureau, then you know what you are working with and what you need to pay off/correct.

Also, see www.ftc.gov and read through their debt collection and debt reporting information for consumers. This is very helpful to getting things repaired. I do NOT recommend going through a debt counseling agency - doing it yourself is the best way to get things done right. It will be time consuming, but worth it.

Good luck.

Answer 3

They stay for seven years and you want to take it up with the three reporting agencies first. If they get a wrong in the answer and you can prove it, then you take it up with the reporter. I helped a friend who got in trouble in a divorce situation clear his up some.

You might want to check because I really think it is seven years from the date of the first missed payment that lead to the delinquency and they usually count it from when it first gets reported to them which is not right by a few months. You could also protest it on the grounds that the debt is settled if it is not on the report that way and it might not be with collections agency involvement. Most of these guys are fly-by-night idiots that aren't around that long and do everything on the cheap so they don't always bother to report it back when it is settled.

Be ready for stall tactics from the reporting agencies. You want to send a ton of personal info on the first contact (things like every address ten years back), and include a photocopy of your drivers license and social security card. You also want to send it in a way that you get a signature back like certified US mail. They will try to question who you are if you are even questioning the dates because they are on pretty tight schedules to answer you and if they miss them they are obligated to remove it until they can which takes a lot of human effort (read costs money). It kills about a month to ask you for more info and that gives them extra time, so make it hard because that takes time too.

Also don't take it personally even though it feels that way. Almost everyone has errors, and there are some great stats on the net that you can use when they act like they never screw up. I had two accounts on one of my reports that I couldn't even identify.

Be careful you don't outright lie to them, as that would be fraud. But you can question every detail that you honestly don't agree with. Don't do detailed explanations of the reason, just say that the debt was settled if they don't have it that way or that you agree the debt was there but the removal date is wrong because they are only showing from when it went to collections. Let them figure out that it was only four years ago if they can.

A lot of time the collection agency that gets involved won't bother with old paid accounts because there is no money in it for them so they don't bother to take the time to look it up and write the letter so even if you are questioning a few months (and it is probably wrong by a few months) it might go away. Four years you have a decent shot the collections guys aren't even still in business.

Answer 4

start out by signing up with www.truecredit.com

Its about $14.00 a month membership and you get unlimited access to all three credit reporting agencies. Plus you can view your score everyday with live updates and they provide all the contacts for disouting, sample disout letters and even online disputing. This site helped me out alot and saved me form having to buy my score every week from rip off sites like myfico.com, which charges you to look at your score per agency for that day you paid only. Even though you get to view your score and report for a month you wont get day to day live reports on your credit. Your credit report can change within 24 hours so what good is it to have a score from 15 days ago if it already changed?

And as a word of encouragement, you can get paid collections of your report. I have had a judgement get deleted which shocked me. The judgement was paid and not due to come off until Aug 2012. I went and disoputed it anyway and by a streak of luck I was sent a letter from the credit agency that it had been deleted!

I think the key here is make sure the account is paid before disputing it!

Dont waste your time disouting unpaid debt unless its not yours!

Just my opinion

Answer 5

I think you should start building a good credit history that will over shadow the negative history. You should open a bank account and get a credit card from the bank. They'll likely only give you a limit amount of credit, that's OK. Charge on the credit card and pay it on time every month. Take out an installment loan for a bed or anything. Make your monthly installment on time every month, but pay it off three months early, not much sooner. This will give you a good mark on your credit report. Eventually, you'll be able to get more credit cards, but always pay on time! Once you open a credit card, try not to close it. Lenders like to see that other companies see you as a good risk. Put the credit cards away so that no one can take them and use them without your knowledge. Be real responsible with your charging, but do charge so that you can begin to show a good patten of paying for your loans on time. It won't take a long time before you start to establish good credit. Oh yeah, don't take out credit with stores, even if they will give a discount on merchandise. Having credit cards with department stores will actually lower your credit score, I just learned this myself. I also just learned that writing to the credit reporting agencies doesn't do much good anymore. Apparently it use to, but not now, according to my finacial advisor. The financial advisor said to stay away from any website that has the words "free credit report" in it. Some are owned by the credit reporting agency Equifax; they're just trying to get money out of you. Work on building a good credit history. Trying to get negative stuff off can be a real hassle, and usually it won't do any good and it won't matter once you show that you can be responsible with credit. You can get an annual credit report for free. Go to "annualcreditreport.org" (if "org" doesnt' work, then it's "com.") If you go to Equifax and get a credit report, you can go to Transunion in three more months, then Esperian three months later. That way you can monitor your credit all year by only using one agency at a time. If you ask for all three at once, you'll have to wait a year to get another one. Good luck, you can do it!

Answer 6

Schris,

That is what I did when my credit was horrendous, and I was ready to buy a house. I did it on my own.

First, I started by reading the Fair Credit Laws on the FTC website (www.ftc.gov).

Use their exemptions to your advantage.

Also, I owed American Express about $3,000. I knew from experience that they only keep signed receipts for 6 months. I requested copies of the receipts for dispute purposes. When they could not provide them, they removed the debt from 2 of my credit reports.

Get a card from Orchard Bank. They report to the Big 3 monthly. Don't abuse it. This will work in your favor.

Most of my bad debts were from college. They are all gone now, and my credit is stellar.

Answer 7

You should contact the credit reporting agency. If they do not respond, then you should contact the creditor. Most of the time the credit agencys will remove the item from your report (unless it's a positive item)

Answer 8

There are three main reporting agencies and you have to work with each one. Their sites have the forms you need.

However, be aware that they report ALL credit related actions - good and bad - for 7 years. You can't remove something unless is it wrong or it is 7 years old.

Answer 9

all 3 credit reporting agencies allow for online disputes, so it's easy to begin disputed outdate or to have them update inforamtion for your profile.