Author Login | Popular Articles | RSS Feeds | Sitemap

Home | Finance


Fixing Your Credit Score Doesn't Have to Cost You Credit repair

By: Edward Vegliante

Copyright 2006 Edward Vegliante

Credit repair advertisements claim to guarantee a quick fix on your credit report. They promise for a fee (not always disclosed at first) to clean up your credit history so that you can qualify for a new home, car, insurance, a job, or premium credit cards. Before you sign up with one of these companies, you need to know some facts.

The real facts on fixing your credit score

The real truth is that no one can legally remove information on a credit report. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) allows you, the consumer, to request an investigation of information in your file that you dispute as inaccurate or incomplete. There is no charge to you. There are other steps that you can do yourself, without paying a credit repair company, such as:

*You are allowed a free credit report if a company denies you credit, insurance, or employment (if this is a part of your employment application) provided you request a report within 60 days of this denial. The notice will give you the name of the consumer reporting agency that provided this report. You can dispute information that this denial is based upon. Under FCRA, both the consumer reporting agency and the information provider are responsible for correcting inaccurate or any incomplete information in that report.

*Put in writing what information you believe to be inaccurate. Include copies of any documentation that supports your claim. Be sure to send this letter to the credit reporting agency, and send it certified mail so that you can prove it was mailed and signed for at their end.

*You will get a response within 30 days. During their investigation, they must forward all your documents to the merchant or vendor that provided the negative credit information and report back to the credit agency. If they find that the information is inaccurate, they must notify all three reporting agencies of their findings: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

*When the investigation is concluded, you must receive a copy of the results in writing and a copy of the dispute if it is changed. It the disputed item is changed, the credit reporting agency cannot put the disputed information back into your file unless it is verified as accurate by the merchant or vendor.

*The credit reporting agency must send notices of a correction to anyone who received your credit report in the past six months. You can also have a corrected copy sent to employers that did not hire you based on your credit report.

Removing a bad credit rating

When you have a bad credit rating based on negative information that is accurate, you can only wait for it to be removed over time. By law, a credit reporting agency can only report negative information for seven years and bankruptcy for ten years. For unpaid judgments, the reporting period goes back seven years or until the statute of limitations runs out. Criminal convictions and applications for over $150,000 of life insurance have no time limits. By starting to pay your bills on time and contacting the creditors that you cannot pay, you can start to change your credit profile to the positive side, but that will take time also.

If you do decide to use a credit repair company

Start by getting a free copy of your credit report. Then assemble all your credit card bills and write them down. This will give both you and your credit repair company a starting point. By law, credit repair companies must give you a brochure, "Consumer Credit File Rights Under State and Federal Law" when you sign a contract for their services. This contract must clearly specify your rights, obligations and fees. The contract must also clearly detail the descriptions of the services they will perform for you, how long it will take to see the results, and any guarantees they offer you. Members of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling are non-profit organizations providing free and low cost services to consumers with a wide range of plans, covering most types of credit used, including home mortgages.

Credit repair companies can help if you're drowning in debt. Before you sign a contract, check out these low cost and free options you can do yourself.

Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com

About the Author:
Ed Vegliante runs http://www.credit-card-surplus.com , a directory of online credit card offers.

| Print | Ezine Ready | |

Recent Finance Articles

  • The Benefits of a Good Stock Market Education By: Ben Symons - For some, the stock market has become a great source of fun and challenge, wherein you only have to identify the risks and relate the current political and economic situation of the country to the bulls and the bears in the stock market. For others, it is a good source of income, and a good way to earn money without doing anything.
  • What it Takes to be a Stock Market Investor By: Ben Symons - There are a few things you have to learn before you become a stock market investor. First is the idea of buying low and selling high. But even though that phrase is quite simple to say and memorize, it is not that easy to put into practice. One of the questions that you would probably ask is, how do you identify which stocks could be bought low and sold high?
  • Answering Your Money Management Questions By: MIKE SELVON - If you ask many Americans, and indeed people from all over the globe, they would probably mention financial troubles as one of their biggest stressors. With jobs no longer giving out guaranteed raises, many people are finding themselves in a huge financial mess. Creditors call constantly demanding their cash. Credit scores begin to plummet and your way of life begins to take a turn for the worse. There is hope though.
  • Your Credit Repair Questions Answered By: MIKE SELVON - You would be hard pressed to turn on the television, or visit a news website, without hearing about how you can repair your credit. In today's troubling financial times there are many people who are having trouble maintaining their credit score. They find themselves falling farther behind in payments and before long there is significant damage that can no longer be ignored.
  • Save Money At The Grocery Store By: Matt Chang - The times are a getting tougher and tougher. So one of the things that people are starting to really take a hard look at is how to save money. With the USA and Japan officially in recession, the question is what to do about that. One of the things you can do right away to save money is plan how you buy your groceries.
  • The Dangers of Not Comparing Credit Cards By: Roberto Bell - The world of credit cards is confusing, and often times we end up with a credit card we don’t want. In our credit card blog we have examined why you might want to compare credit cards with basic information. In this article we are going to take you deeper into why a comparison could have you avoiding the dangers of credit cards. Credit cards are not all the same.
  • The Importance Of The Report Credit Bureaus By: MIKE SELVON - When you speak about debts and report credit bureaus, you will find that many people harbor a number of myths in their mind about them. These myths usually heavily interfere with credit repair options that people choose for themselves, when they find their scoring has fallen below the desirable level.
  • Useful Money Management Tips During Tough Financial Challenges By: MIKE SELVON - It is a fact that personal money management can be a real challenge when you are tight on cash and the end of the month seems to always come long after your pockets are empty. Here are some essential money management tips that could help you struggle less through these challenging times and succeed in your endeavors to master your personal financial affairs.
  • Don't Take a Gamble during a Recession: Stick to Invoice Factoring By: Kris - Tough times are right here and credit crunch is a reality in this turbulent market situations. The finance needs will be higher and funds in hands lesser. Among some of the few options of reliable finance available you can use invoice factoring to the maximum benefit in these times of recession. It can prove to be better and safer than any other finance options.
  • Factoring Services Stand Solid In The Face Of Recession By: Kris - Recession is one area of disaster where every industry, be it big or small, flays fears all around. There is talk of fear everywhere, about the impending credit crunch that would affect one and all. In such tough times, your business and families too would be affected. There may be sales, though at a slower rate, with strict terms and slow paying customers.

Search Ebay

Still can't find what you are looking for? Search for it!


Submit Your link to the Open Link Directory Project

Copyright 2005-2008 MJE Sales, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Proud member of the ArticleCkr Search Network Search Network!
ArticleSnatch.com is free for both publishers and authors to use and is supported entirely from advertising revenue.
Use of our service is protected by our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.