Fixing Your Credit Score What are our rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act?
1. To review and contest the information.
2. To correct incorrect information.
3. To have paid accounts over 7 years old removed.
4. To have unverifiable information removed.
5. To post a permanent dispute on record in your report.
Are there 3-4 national reporting companies (repositories)?
Yes there are. They don’t talk to each other or to you to share information unless you get a “file number.” The creditors are their customers and the creditors are not required to respond to you, but you should still ask for correction letters to speed things up for the reporting agencies.
How do you suggest people contact the repositories?
If you have some time, return receipt certified is the best. Write down this phrase: “Pursuant to the fair credit reporting act I am notifying you…” Then explain the error in detail. Include the creditor’s name, account number, copy of credit report, copy of your proof (if any) and state what is not correct. The repositories have five days to contact the creditors and 30 days to respond to you. It may still be 90 days before the corrections take place!
Two “hot” tips for correcting your correct credit information.
1. If the creditor is no longer in business and cannot be reached, you can request their data be deleted as “unverifiable.”
2. If you’ve had a longstanding account, ask the creditor to “re-age” the account, aka “a one time goodwill adjustment” to remove correct data. Some companies actually have a policy of “correcting correct data” because it involves home ownership. You have to inform them and ask them to help you with your dream of homeownership.
What can you do to speed up the correction process?
1. Get a copy of your credit report. It has the contact information for all the creditors and is easy to read. You can then refer to the accounts that are inaccurate.
2. Get the correction letters from the creditors with the creditor’s letterhead,
contact person’s name and phone number, and the account number. This will save the repository time when confirming your correction request.
3. Ask that your corrections be handled by the repository’s “mortgage department.”
4. Apply online at the repository’s internet site but be prepared to purchase their credit report. Otherwise, they won’t give you their magic “file number” which enables you to speak to a live person.
5. Our Rapid Rescore service enables us to pay our data collecting service to take your correction letter and request immediate correction and rescoring. This is costly, as they charge $30 per person, per account, per repository. But it’s permanent and can take as little as two weeks. We will coach you on which accounts to target to minimize your expense.
Why don’t you recommend credit fixing companies?
1. They may negotiate a lower payment, but the creditor is under no obligation to report your credit as paid as agreed! It may still trash your credit.
2. They may keep your first month’s payment as a commission, and they don’t receive their full payment unless you complete the plan.
3. They can’t do anything you couldn’t do yourself! They may pester a creditor and get a temporary removal of a bad credit item, but that may re-appear when the creditor does their next update to the repository.
Here is how you contact the three credit repositories.
Equifax
PO Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374
(800) 685-1111
www.equifax.com
Transunion
PO Box 34012
Fullerton, CA 92834
(800) 916-8800
www.transunion.com
Experian
PO Box 2002
Allen, TX 75013
(888) 397-3742
www.experian.com
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