Correcting Credit Reports

Repair Your Credit Report – Before and After Bankruptcy

According to a 1998 study by Public Interest Research Group, 29% of the credit reports surveyed 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.  After a bankruptcy filing, your credit report may actually improve, because your debts have been liquidated, or at least reduced.

The US Congress passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) in 1971, and has revised it several times, most recently in 1997. The Act’s requires  credit reporting agencies to remove all obsolete, inaccurate, irrelevant, outdated, misidentifying, incomplete, incorrect, erroneous, and misleading information from their credit reports. Even so, inaccurate credit reports remain a problem.  People are misled in phone calls during which they are asked to change the data. Many people are unaware that the Fair Credit Reporting Act is completely effective unless an individual makes an objection in writing by certified mail. An experienced bankruptcy attorney can help you in this process.

To clean up your credit report and re-establish your credit, there are some actions that you can take on your own.

Get your Credit Report from all three of the National Reporting Agencies

TransUnion - Choose your your Credit Score PLUS for $14.95. or call 800-888-4213.

Experian - Get your Experian credit report and score for $14.95. Or call 888-322-5583 option 2.

Equifax - Choose Score Power for $14.95. Or call 800-997-2493

• Check for any inaccuracy no matter how small
• Send a certified letter setting forth the specific objection to the specific entry.

Don’t take NO for an answer, keep arguing!

Our bankruptcy law firm deals with credit reports and the credit reporting agencies on a daily basis. We would be happy to assist you in your efforts to repair your credit report. Keep in mind that a clean credit report is just one of many steps that an individual will need to take to prevent the events from reoccurring that caused the bankruptcy in the first place.

Here are a few tips to stay out of financial trouble and maintain good credit:

• Stay away from unsecured credit via unsolicited, pre-approved, credit cards.
• Budget properly and do not spend beyond your means.
• Resist the temptation to incur debt just for the purpose of re-establishing credit.
• Stay away from so-called credit repair agencies. Many prey on the financially troubled and do nothing that you can’t do for yourself.
• Exercise your legal right to have your credit reports properly list your outstanding obligations.

If you have any questions about how to repair your credit report, of have general bankruptcy questions, our bankruptcy attorney Richard Croak would be happy to discuss them with you. Please call our law office today, or contact our bankruptcy law firm via the Internet. For your convenience, we have two office locations for in-person consultations.