Is there anything you can do to
speed your return to creditworthiness?
Since opering in 1993,
we have assisted several individuals with very, very poor
credit histories improve their credit scores to acceptable levels,
by simply encouraging them to pay their bills on time, minimize
unsecured debt and remove or dispute inaccurate information from
their credit reports. Interestingly enough, we have discovered
that individuals who use professional counselors to negotiate
settlements on their bills are more likely to have credit problems
those individuals who decided to "tough it out" and pay their
obligations off 100%.
Through discipline and hard work it is possible to improve even the
worst credit score by just paying your bills on time and paying off
high rate credit card debt. While some negative items will
stay on your credit report for seven years, your more recent payment
history factors more heavily into current credit score than a
negative mark that occurred 4 or 5 years ago.
It is best to avoid most of the credit repair
counselors out there. The large majority of these outfits are
opportunists seeking to fleece individuals desperate to restore
their credit. Take time out to learn the credit reporting
process for yourself, then review your own credit report and set up
a game plan to improve the credit score where possible. We at
SAFCU are ready to help you if you're willing to help yourself.
We're available to help draft dispute letters to remove false
information from your credit report.
Also, non profit credit counseling agencies are a
wonderful resource, however, their short cut approach eliminating
debts through use of settlements is very harmful to your credit
report. Think about it, if you loaned someone $10 and
they paid you back only $4, would you loan them anymore money ?
Of course not, most lending institutions think the same way.
Individuals that do not pay back 100% of what they borrowed
are credit risks and are usually denied credit..
We have a library of template letters that can be
used to dispute incorrect credit report information. Mistakes
happen quite frequently in credit reporting, probably because there
is so much information to keep track of. According to the
Public Interest Research Group Study; of the credit reports
surveyed, 29% contained serious errors that could result in the
denial of credit, 70% contained mistakes or errors of some kind, 41%
contained incorrect personal demographic identifying information,
20% were missing major credit cards, loans, mortgages, or other
accounts that are critical to demonstrating consumer credit
worthiness.
The credit bureaus first defend
their profits by erecting walls of stall tactics, including requests
for more information, further clarification, and additional
identification. The vast majority of consumers give up before they
even receive copies of their credit reports. If a consumer manages
to get a credit report, decipher the codified information, write a
coherent dispute, and mail it, the bureaus may still find some
reason to disregard the challenge. The entire dispute system is
designed to frustrate and discourage the consumer.
Many consumers have the idea that
the credit bureaus must complete their investigation within thirty
days or be forced to remove all disputed information. They threaten
to sue the credit bureaus if they don’t conclude their investigation
in time. In practice, such thinking is delusional. Nobody forces the
credit bureaus to do anything.
However, if you manage to submit a
valid dispute letter, and the credit bureau investigates your
dispute, the chances of success are good –whether or not the
negative listings are accurate! Accuracy actually has little
to do with the deletion of negative items.
If a credit bureau cannot verify an
item before completing its investigation, that item will be removed.
Many creditor grantors are simply reluctant to take the time to
verify the data. While the credit bureaus are in the business of
reporting credit histories, creditor grantors are not.
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