Bankruptcy

How to fix a false statement on your credit report

By Attorney Goldstein

In order to determine if you should be granted the use and privilege of a credit card, mortgage, car loan or other source of funding, most creditors rely heavily on your credit report.  These credit reports are generated by information provided by your current creditors, that is those who you owe money for goods and services.  The score itself is derived by looking at several factors including you new debt, the type of credit used, the total amounts owed, your payment history and how long you have owed a certain debt.   

It?s estimated that 3 out of 4 credit reports contain some sort of inaccurate information.  If one of your creditors reports something negative, such as a missed payment, or an improper amount of debt owed, your credit score can decline.  So what do you do if someone has misrepresented a fact to the major credit boroughs?

The first step that you must take is become informed.  More specifically, you must know that there is a misrepresentation on your credit report and in order to do that, you need to get a copy of your credit report and review it.  The Federal Trade Commission, (?FTC?) is the government agency that regulates and monitors credit scoring, credit collections and all debt issues.  Several years ago, the FTC and other political figures pushed for a law that allows consumers to get a free credit report annually without needing to pay.  In order to obtain a free credit report you can go to www.annualcreditreport.com or call 877-322-8228. 

            Once you have confirmed that your credit report contains inaccurate information, The Fair Credit Reporting Act provides a means for correcting these mistakes by allowing you to challenge any information you believe to be incorrect. If you challenge something and the information isn?t verified within a certain period of time, the Act even requires that it be automatically removed. You can complete this process of challenging the information on your own or you can hire a professional to assist you; it is a very time consuming process oftentimes, so you must decide how much time you are able and willing to devote to the process when deciding whether or not to seek out help.

As you move forward in an effort to repair your credit, it is also helpful to be aware that there are protections available to you from debt collectors as outlined in the FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Protection Act) that protects you from excessive and inappropriate collection methods. You can set what times collection calls can come and where, especially if you do so in writing. Generally they?re allowed to call any number they have between 8AM and 9PM. However, if you make them aware of a certain time or place that calls would be inappropriate; they are not allowed to call.

Full post as published by Bankruptcy Articles & Blog on March 20, 2010 (boomark / email).