Credit Repair Facts for Improving Your Credit Score
There’s a great deal of misinformation out there about people’s credit. In order to dispel a bit of it, we asked Clinton Twp-based Macomb bankruptcy attorney Daniela Dimovski to put some information together that you’d find helpful.
No one can legally remove accurate and timely negative information from a credit report. The law does allow you to request a free-of-charge investigation of the facts and information in your credit file, which you dispute as inaccurate or incomplete.
Credit Repair Facts
When requesting lenders for a loan it is your credit score that is the biggest determining factor when assessing you as a risk for any type of loan. Your credit score affects the outcome of your request for a home or auto loan, then the refinancing of your mortgage, and the management of your debt for years to come. If you qualify for a loan, your credit score also determines the rate at which you will be offered.
A healthy credit score can save you a lot of money every month and could potentially reduce your interest rates. A key factor in determining your ongoing credit health is monitoring your payments to be able to manage your loans and other credit accounts.
Bad credit prevents people from getting mortgages, car loans, and credit cards. Fears about repairing one’s bad credit prove largely unfounded. By taking an aggressive approach, people emerging from bankruptcy can even find their credit repaired to reasonable levels within a couple of years.
The Federal Fair Credit Report Act (FCRA) was developed to promote the accuracy, fairness, and privacy of information in the files of every “consumer reporting agency” (CRA). Repairing your credit report after bankruptcy involves several steps. The most important step is to obtain a copy of your credit report, which you can do yourself. After you have reviewed your credit report the following steps can help you rebuild your credit.
You can dispute inaccurate information with the Credit Reporting Agency
If you tell a CRA that your file contains inaccurate information, the CRA must investigate the items (usually 30 days) by presenting, to its information source all relevant evidence you submit. The source must review your evidence and report its findings to the CRA. The CRA must then give you a written report of the investigation and also a copy of your report if there have been any changes as a result.
Inaccurate information must be corrected or deleted
A CRA must remove or correct inaccurate or unverified information from its files, usually within 30 days after you dispute it. The CRA is not required to remove accurate data from your file unless it is outdated or cannot be verified. If your dispute results in any changes to your report, the CRA cannot reinsert a disputed item into your file unless the information source verifies its accuracy and completeness.
You can dispute inaccurate items with the source of the information
If you tell anyone that you dispute an item, they may not report the information to a CRA without including a notice of your dispute.