Friday, May 1, 2009

How To Remove Old Information From Your Credit Report

Removing Outdated Information From Your Credit File

Besides errors or inaccurate information on your credit report, you may also have a lower credit score due to outdated information on your credit report.

A trade-line or item, is supposed to be removed or fall off of your credit report 7 years from the date that it was last reported. However, will often remain, having a negative impact on your credit score if you had a less than perfect payment history with that particular line of credit.

Old or outdated trade-lines are by far the easiest to have removed and all it takes is having the right letter containing accurate info. I always recommend that consumers go with a reliable and proven credit repair program that they can do on their own. You should NEVER pay someone else to remove items from your credit as they cannot do anything for you that you cannot do yourself and nobody cares about your credit more than you do. The only expert that you need is YOU!

The most important part is that the letter contain the statutes of the Fair Credit Reporting Act that pertain to your situation and be worded correctly. You can find templates for this and other letters in do-it -yourself programs designed to guide you through the process.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

How To Have A Negative Item Removed From Your Credit Report

Negative marks on your credit report will hurt you for 7 to 10 years from the last date that they were reported by the creditor. The problem is, nearly 75% of all credit reports contain errors. These errors can have a negative impact on your score and keep you from being approved for credit or cause you to be charged much higher interest than you would have been with a higher credit rating.

By law, the credit bureau must verify any item that you dispute on your credit report within 30 days of your written request. If they cannot verify the accuracy of the tradeline or item, then it must be removed from your credit report. This is your right under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The forst step in doing this is to find a reliable and realistic credit repair program to follow step by step.

You should never pay someone else to repair your credit report. With the right program, you can save hundreds or thousands of dollars and alot of headache by doing it on your own.

Once you have found the right program and recieved a copy of your credit report, you are ready to push the reset button on your credit!

Get Your Credit Report For Free...

Yes, you really can get your credit report for FREE! However, most sites that offer "free" credit reports are doing so with strings attached. If they ask you for credit card info, just exit away from it.

There is no need to pay for credit monitoring or credit scores. You have the right to recieve your credit report for free from the credit reporting bureas once per year upon request. The easiest way to do this is to go to annualcreditreport.com amd fill in the proper information. The site is truly free and you will get a report from all three major credit reporting bureaus. They will offer you other services, but for now, just focus on getting a copy of the credit report so that you can review it for possible errors or identity theft.

Once you have reviewed them you will be on the way to repairing your credit!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

YOUR RIGHTS UNDER THE FAIR DEBT COLLECTION PRACTICES ACT:

- Bill collectors can only call you between the hours of 8 a.m and 9 p.m (your time zone)

BILL COLLECTORS CANNOT:

- Discuss any details of your debt with ANY third party without your permission.

- Call you at your place of employment after they have been told not to do so by ANYONE (this means that even if the janitor tells them that you cannot have personal calls, they HAVE to restrict the number) or if they have reason to believe that calls could hinder your job.

- Call you repeatedly or continuously to harass you if you are not answering the phone.

- Use obscene, profain or abusive language.

- Mail or send anything that is meant to look like legal papers that is not.

- Contact you by postcard, unsolicited fax ot unsolicited email.

- Call any number that will cause you to incur costs or fees without your permission. Examples: cell phones or pagers.

- Misrepresent themselves, conceal their identities or pretend to be an attorney if they are not.

- Misrepresent the balance owed.

- Add fees or penalties not allowed by law in your state.

- Threaten to take actions that they cannot or do not intend to take such as file suit, put you in jail, take your property, expose your debt to others, tell your employer, file criminal charges or harm you in any way.

- Imply that you are committing a crime.

- Ignore or disregard WRITTEN requests to CEASE AND DESIST.

- Ignore or disregard your request to send validation of the debt in WRITING.

- Deposit a post dated check earlier than agreed.

- Continue to collect on the debt before they have provided the validation you requested.

Stay tuned for daily blogs that will give you FREE information about protecting yourself from overzealous collectors, settling your debts and even getting the RIGHT kinds of credit!