With over 15 years of credit repair and rebuilding experience, I figured now was a great time to create my Ultimate Guide to Credit Repair. I hope you find this useful in your credit repair journey, and I did my best to consolidate everything I could into one post. Where needed, I will provide links to articles that provide more of a deep dive into specific topics. Some of this was covered in the book I wrote in 2011, but I have updated much of it to reflect changes in attitude and approaches since the book was published.
There is a lot to take in here, and it is okay to jump around. Not every article or subheading will relate to every consumer. This blog post alone has nearly 7000 words.
Rarely will I advocate for the use of a credit repair firm for one simple reason: nearly anything they can do for you, you can do for yourself. Not to mention, cheaper and more efficient to boot. This is not to disparage credit repair firms or consultants. Most have your best interest in mind, but credit repair is a personal journey. One caveat; If you are in a situation that requires legal guidance, work with a consumer finance lawyer.
Before we dive in, please become familiar with the governmental agencies that govern the credit reporting agencies (credit bureaus). In 2022, this is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (also known as the CFPB) and the Federal Trade Commission (the FTC)
Here are the tactics you will learn. The hyperlink will take you to that section:
- 1.1: Obtaining Your Credit Report
- 1.2: Understanding Your Credit Report
- 1.3: Triaging Your Credit Report
- 2.1: How to Handle a Collection Account
- 2.2: How to Use the Goodwill Process
- 2.3: How to Handle a Judgement, Repossession or Tax Lien
Tools Needed For Proper Credit Repair.
I am a big believer in community, and a big believer in working smarter and not harder. Below is my list of tools that I recommend when doing a credit repair. Some of them cost money, while others are great free resources. An Ultimate Guide to Credit Repair would not be complete without a list of applicable tools.
- Create an account with the MyFICO forum. I used to be a moderator here, and this was the single most impactful resource for me while I was rebuilding my credit. Thousands of like-minded folks discussing all things credit, including credit repair (although for legal purpose they only refer to it as Credit Rebuilding) – This forum is entirely free. I used the forum to bounce ideas, ask questions, and come up with tactics.
- If you are in need of accurate FICO scoring, sign up for MyFICO. It is pricey, 30 dollars a month, but it will give you 30 FICO scores monthly, and you can really trend how you stack up for mortgage, home purchases and applications for credit. If you are looking for a free score, Credit Karma is fine but those scores are not lender scores.
- LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a free business resource, but it is a great way to find out who are contacts to reach out to when working on goodwill removals, or just overall dispute processing if the standard process fails.
- Lusha. Lusha is a sale prospecting tool, but I use it as my way into corporations contacts. The entry plan is $39 a month, but it’s value is amazing. I have helped many people obtain contacts that ended up working for a goodwill adjustment.
The Difference Between Credit Repair, Credit Restoration and Credit Building.
Often when assisting others in their credit rebuilds, I determine where in the spectrum they fall in the credit restoration scale:
- Credit Building: Minimal items either way.
- Credit Restoration: Less than 5 negative items, most over 2 years old.
- Credit Repair: More than 5 negatives items, with some being newer.
These buckets are my personal descriptions. Most are interchangeable. I don’t use credit score at ALL when coming up with a repair approach, but for those repairing for the purchase of a home or vehicle, scoring may be at the top of your list.
The Ultimate Guide to Credit Repair: Obtaining Your Credit Report.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, all consumers were entitled to one free credit report annually from the three major credit reporting agencies. But with the passing of the CARES act of 2020, the frequency has been increased to once a week. I cannot tell you how great this is, as I spent hundreds of dollars on fresh credit pulls when I was initially repairing my credit.
The quickest way to get your free report is by going to the website AnnualCreditReport.com. This website is maintained jointly by all three credit bureaus. Just follow step by step instructions on how to get your free report from each company. You will need to provide some sensitive information, so make sure you are logging in from a trusted internet source, as opposed to public WI-FI.
Avoid paying for ANYTHING from this service. All three credit bureaus will try to upsell you on their services, including trying to sell you credit scores.
There are many locations to obtain PARTIAL credit reports, such as Credit Karma, NerdWallet, WalletHub and many credit card providers. I don’t recommend using those reports or scores while undergoing a credit repair.
How To Obtain A Credit Report by Mail or Phone.
In 2022, nearly everyone is used to using a computer to request things. However, if you prefer to do things the old fashioned way, the agencies have also created a toll-free phone number and a mailing address to obtain a credit report.
- Phone: Call (877) 322-8228
- Mail: Fill out the Annual Credit Report Request form and mail it to:
Annual Credit Report Request Service
P.O. Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281
In addition to the Annual Credit Report (weekly through December 2022), You are eligible if:
- You have been denied employment, credit, or insurance. You must request the report within 60 days of the denial. You can generally do this at the Credit Bureaus websites, or by mail.
- You have been a victim of fraud, or believe you have been defrauded.
- You have placed a fraud alert on your credit file.
- You are unemployed, and about to start looking or applying for employment in the next 60 days.
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Understanding Your Credit Report.
Your credit report is an invaluable tool that will give you insight into your financial life. It contains information on what creditors think about the way you handle your accounts, and it’s important to review the entire report when repairing your credit.
Understanding your credit report can be confusing, especially if you’re reading it for the first time. Here is a breakdown of the type of information contained in your report.
Personal Identification Information
Personal information including your name, address, and place of employment is used to identify you when applying for credit or obtaining your credit report. Previous addresses and places of employment will be included, as long as they have been used on prior applications, or are on your LexisNexis report.
It’s not uncommon to have variations or misspellings of your name. Most credit bureaus leave these variations to maintain the link between your identity and the credit information. Having different variations of your name and old addresses won’t hurt your credit score as long as it’s actually your information. Make sure personal information is identifying you and not someone else.
Credit Summary
The credit summary section of your report is a concise collection of information about all the different accounts you have. It records how many are open, what their balances are at present time, as well as whether or not they’re current or delinquent.
- Real estate accounts: Mortgages, Home Equity Lines of Credit.
- Revolving accounts: Credit Cards.
- Installment accounts: Auto Loans, Student Loans, Personal Loans, Secured Loans.
- Other accounts: American Express Charge Cards.
- Collection accounts: Collection Agency accounts reported.
The summary includes the information for each of the five types of accounts:
- Count: Total number of accounts you have in the given category.
- Balance: Total amount you owe on all accounts in the category.
- Payment: Total monthly payments you must make on all accounts in the category.
- Current: Number of accounts in the category that are properly paid.
- Delinquent: Number of accounts in the category for which payments are past due.
- Derogatory: Number of accounts in the category that negatively impact your credit rating.
- Unknown: Number of accounts in the category whose condition was not reported by the credit bureau.
This section also breaks down your open accounts, closed accounts, public records, and inquiries.
- Open and Closed Accounts: A total number of all accounts that are either open or closed.
- Public Records: A count of any public records in your name, and the total amount of money involved for all public records. Public records may include judgements against you in civil actions, state or federal tax liens, and/or bankruptcies.
- Inquiries: An inquiry appears when an organization such as a bank or retail store requests a copy of your credit report. This number reflects how many inquiries were made on your credit report within the last two years.
Account History
The account history section of your credit report has the meat and potatoes. This included every recent account, and how you have managed them. Each account will contain the several pieces of information.
- Creditor name of the institution reporting the information.
- Lender Industry of the creditor.
- Account number that is associated with the account. The account number may be scrambled or shortened for privacy reasons.
- Account Type,
- Responsibility. This is where joint accounts, or some variation, is showing.
- Monthly payment is the minimum amount you are required to pay on the account each month.
- Date opened. The month and year the account was established.
- Date reported is the last date the creditor updated the account information with the credit bureau.
- Balance. The amount owed on the account at the time data was reported. If you pay down credit cards, the balance will not update on your report, until your credit card issuer updates the data supplied to the Credit Reporting Agency.
- Credit limit or loan amount: The total available amount of credit on the account.
- High balance or high credit is the highest amount ever charged on the credit card. For installment loans, high credit is the original loan amount.
- Past due. Amount past due at the time the data was reported.
- Remarks are comments made by the creditor about your account.
- Payment status. Indicates the status of the account, i.e. current, past due, charge-off. Even if your account is current, it might contain information about previous delinquencies.
- Payment history. Indicates your monthly payment status since the time your account was established.
- Collection accounts may appear as part of the account history or in a separate section. Where it appears depends on the company providing your credit report.
A payment history, usually 24 months, will display. The following codes are used by all three credit bureaus:
- OK: Currently on time with no issues.
- NO: This indicates no reported data for the time frame showing.
- 30 – 180 Days: This showcases when there are late payments. Each one will show.
- RF: This relates to foreclosures or repossessions.
- PP: This indicates there is an active payment plan.
- Make sure that the information in this section is accurate. Pay close attention to information related to late payments, collections or past due accounts.
- Not all creditors report data to all credit bureaus. If you don’t see an account listed in your credit report that you believe to be in good standing then reach out and ask them if they report your account information.
- Make sure you recognize all of the creditors and accounts listed.
Creditors report information in different cycles so it’s plausible that the balance listed on your account isn’t directly in line with your statements. However, as long as you have confirmed an account is yours and accurate, that is what you are looking for.
Public records include information like bankruptcies, judgments, tax liens, state and country court records, and overdue child support.
Inquiry Information
Inquiry information lists details about each inquiry that has been made into your credit history. Details will include the name of the requester and the date when the inquiry was made.
And Now, The Long Arm of the LAWS.
The two major legal governing acts are the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and one of it’s amendments, the Fair and Accurate Transactions Act (FACTA).
The Nuts and Bolts of the FCRA.
The FCRA was enacted by Congress in 1971. The two major points of the FCRA are:
- Consumers have the ability to obtain a report of their financial history without penalty.
- The credit bureaus have to adhere to guidelines on how and what they report, and how it maintains the information on a credit report.
In addition to setting aside some regulations for the agencies to follow, it also allows them certain rights. For example, credit bureaus have the right to sell your report to those who have legitimate business reasons. Additionally, they are not held responsible simply for reporting incorrect information, so long as the agency follows the rules set forth in the FCRA! Lastly, they are NOT required by law to tell you if negative information is being reported about you.
What About FACTA?
In 2003, much needed additions were made in the form for the FACT Act. FACTA was enacted to make sure the lenders base their decisions on accurate credit files, to improve the quality of the information contained within, and gave consumers access to their credit report once a year for free.
Credit Reporting Time Frame for Negative Items.
It is very important to become familiar with how long negative items can report. Not only will it keep you motivated to know when an item could fall off organically, it also informs your decisions. How you approach a collection item that is three years old will be different than how you approach one that is more recent or six years old.
Late Payments or Delinquencies (30 – 180 days): These remain for seven years from the date of the initial missed payment.
Collection accounts: These accounts show for seven years from the date of the initial missed payment that led to the collection.. When a collection account is paid in full, it will usually be marked “paid collection” on a credit report. It is not required to be removed once paid.
Charged-off accounts: These remain for seven years from the date of the initial missed payment that led to the charge off. Charged off accounts are usually old credit card debt.
Closed accounts: Closed accounts are accounts that are no longer available for further use and they may or may not have a zero balance. Closed accounts with delinquencies remain seven years from the date they are reported closed, whether closed by the creditor or by the consumer. Closed accounts that are positive report for 10 years.
Lost credit card: If there are no delinquencies, credit cards that are reported lost will continue to be listed for two years from the date the card is reported lost. Delinquent payments that occurred before the card was lost are reported for seven years.
Bankruptcy: Chapters 7, 11, and 12 bankruptcy remain for 10 years from the filing date. Chapter 13 bankruptcy remains seven years from the filing date.
Child support judgments: These remain for seven years from the date the judgment is filed.
Civil judgments: Remain for seven years from the date the judgment is filed.
City, county, state, and federal tax liens: Unpaid tax liens will remain for 15 years from the filing date. Paid tax liens remain seven years from the paid date of the lien.
Hard Inquiries: Most inquiries listed on your credit report will remain for two years.
New Guidelines on Negative Reporting (Not the Law)
During the last half of the previous decade, the credit reporting agencies starting allowing consumers the ability to ask for removal of items at roughly six years. This is a small but favorable change. This process is handled through a standard direct dispute, but you should make this dispute through the US Mail as compared to the online dispute process.
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The Ultimate Guide to Credit Repair: Successfully Triage Your Credit Report.
Now that you have a firm understanding of how long something can report, it is beneficial to triage your credit report. The easiest way to do this is quite simply print a copy and mark up the accounts with the date they will fall off. Credit reporting agencies list the date they feel it will fall off, but this isn’t always accurate and is important for you to understand if they have made a mistake on that listing, because if they have, it will aid you in the removal.
Disputing and Removing Negative Information.
Now that you have become familiar with your credit report, you have may have already noticed information that is either incorrect, outdated, or doesn’t belong to you. The first step in successful credit repair is to work to eliminate the incorrect information.
The credit reporting agencies must make a concerted effort to contact the creditor and respond to you in roughly 30 days to provide you with one of two results. If the creditor has verified the information, the FCRA does not require the agency to make any changes. If the agency is not able to verify the information, or the original creditor does not respond in a timely fashion, they must remove the information according to your request, and provide you with an updated credit report.
Locating Incomplete or Inaccurate Information.
The first accounts to look for are revolving accounts that have been reported late sometime within the last several years. Were these payments actually late? Look back at previous statements and cancelled checks. If these are reporting inaccurately, place a mark next to it on the report.
The next step is to look for any collections or charge offs on your credit file. These are trickier to deal with in general. First, check to see if these accounts belong to you. Collection Agencies are not known for their ethical behavior. Many times, they will place collections accounts into the wrong consumers file. If you see any that do not belong to you, place a mark next to it. If you are unsure if this account belongs to you, wait.
Below are examples of the types of items that should be disputed:
- Accounts belonging to someone else
- Late payments when you know you have paid on time
- Balances that are higher than they should be
- Debts incurred by a spouse prior to marriage
- Duplicate accounts
- Public record showing as unpaid, that was actually paid, dismissed or discharged
Inaccurate information is defined in section 611 of the FCRA. The more detailed you can be in your dispute, the more likely you will get a timely and accurate assessment of your dispute.
Locating Outdated Information.
FCRA section 605 relates to the time an item can report, but in the repair sense, you should be most concerned with how long an adverse item can report. The law states that an item cannot report longer than 7 years past the date of first delinquency (in the case of a charge off or collection account) or 7 years from the time of the late payment in regards to revolving accounts or installment accounts. One of the most common errors found on a credit report is old, negative information from years past the 7 year cut off date.
Below are examples of the types of information that should be disputed if outdated:
- Accounts that have been placed into collections
- Accounts that have been charged off
- Bankruptcy
- Paid tax liens
- Paid judgments
- Overdue child support
Take a look at your report. Do any of the above items exist? Place marks next to all that are outdated.
Disputing the Information Online.
Whenever you purchase, or request your annual reports online, there is usually a link to each of the agencies websites for disputing. Each agency is slightly different, but the gist of the process is exactly the same for each. For each entry in your report, you will have the option to dispute. When you select dispute, it will provide you with a multiple choices you can select for the dispute. Below are examples of dispute options.
- The item is not mine
- The account status is incorrect
- The item is too old to be included on my report
There are many more options, but you need to select the most accurate dispute criteria as how it pertains to what is inaccurate. There will usually be a small text box to enter more information. Be concise and to the point, they often will give you 200 words or less to state your case.
After you submit the disputes, the credit agency will have 30 days to investigate and respond to you. The response is usually done by email, and they will send you a link to and updated report if they made any corrections.
Disputing the Information by Letter.
Another way you can dispute information is by drafting a letter and addressing it to the credit reporting agencies. There are multiple ways to draft dispute letters but there is one rule of thumb; make sure you keep it short and simple. You also want to include all disputes in one correspondence. The more letters you send, the longer it could take for them to investigate your claims.
Once you have drafted the letter, it is time to send it! The agencies will often change their official postal address, so it is good to check their official website for the most current address. Mailing addresses and website contacts are listing in Appendix ()
After sending your dispute, you need to allow the agency time to do their investigation. They will usually send you a letter indicating they are starting their dispute. If you do not receive this letter, you may have to send your letter again. Once your dispute is initiated, the agency should send you its completed investigation and response within 45 days.
Once the Credit Reporting Agency Responds.
The credit reporting agency should respond in a timely fashion. Once they complete their investigation, they will supply you with an updated report. On the first or second page there should be an explanation on what has occurred. There are three possible outcomes to an investigation.
- Verified – No Change. This means the creditor supplied compelling enough information for the agency to report it as verified.
- Deleted. This means the account was removed as if it never occurred.
- Updated. There as some piece of information on the listing that was changed
Additional Steps if It Didn’t Work Out.
Disputing information isn’t a perfect science. Sometimes, even if you feel it is just, the agency will not see it your way. This time, you want to draft a second letter and address it to their attorney or legal department. Make it simple and to the point. Indicate you feel they were incorrect to keep these items on the report, and demand to see the proof. They are required by law to send this to you. Be persistent, you may have to send multiple letters to get the errors corrected.
If this doesn’t work, the only steps left are to report this to the CFPB or file a lawsuit against the agency in question. Be warned; suing a credit reporting agency is a difficult task and should only be used as a last resort to remove legitimately bad information from your credit file.
Ultimate Guide to Credit Repair – Related Articles:
- Formal Disputes on Credit Reports
- Disputing Negative Items Four Ways
- Best Consumer Credit Resources for 2021
- How to File a CFPB Complaint
The Ultimate Guide to Credit Repair: Handling Collection Accounts.
A collection agency is a 3rd party company that is a hired gun for a creditor. When a consumer defaults on an account, the creditor will usually attempt to collect the debt for a few months. After it determines that it will not be a quick or simple process to collect, they will turn over the account to a collection agency.
Collection agencies work in two fashions. The first is to collect on a debt that has been assigned to them. In this case, the collection company does not own the debt, but they are working on behest of the original creditor to collect. The second instance is when a collection agency purchases the debt from an original creditor and becomes the owner of the account. Ultimately, the agency does not make money unless they collect on a debt. This is why they can be relentless in their pursuit of you. They will pull out all the stops and try every tactic allowed (legal or otherwise) to intimidate you in to paying the debt.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Under the FDCPA, all consumers are afforded the right to have their debt verified for accuracy. Most credit repair tactics use this as the secret weapon, and although it often will work, it isn’t always the best way to approach all collections accounts. I will recommend when the correct time to use a debt validation letter is.
The FDCPA requires you put your request in writing within 30 days of receiving your first collection letter relating to the debt. The agency is required to respond in writing with evidence that this account does in fact belong to you. In the meantime, they must cease all collection attempts. If they cannot provide you with this information, they are required by law to remove the account from your credit file.
Steps to Handling a Collection Account.
The very first thing that needs to be done is identify what kind of collections account you have. Medical debt removal has seen a major shift over the past year, and is now much easier to remove. For all other collection accounts, you will need to locate the date of last delinquency. This information can be located on your credit report. You need to prioritize accounts differently depending on what you are trying to accomplish. Below are is the order in which I recommend you approach collection accounts. If you are in a hurry (purchasing a home) you may want to do these in reverse.
Accounts That Fall Outside the Statute of Limitations or Accounts That Can Be Paid In Full.
In all states, laws were enacted in order to keep companies from collecting debt that is sitting in the attic with the moth balls. Every state is different, so you will want to look up you states statute in relation to collections in Appendix (). With that said, the statute of limitation may have expired on a debt but the debt can still legally report for several years. These accounts are the easiest to remove because under the law they cannot sue you for the debt, therefore you hold the upper hand in negotiating.
Similarly, accounts that you feel you can pay in full often hold some leverage for the consumer. Collection agencies will usually settle for less than the full amount, so often they will work with those who are willing to pay the whole amount.
Word of caution; you have to be very meticulous in the way you handle these accounts. If you start veering off course, you can open yourself up for a lawsuit if the debt isn’t outside of the statute of limitations. If it is a debt you cannot afford to pay in full, hold off working on those accounts until you take care of the accounts you can handle.
Original Creditor or Collection Agency?
Once you have identified an account you want to tackle, the first step is to determine who actually owns the account. You want to avoid dealing with the collection agency at all costs. On your credit report, often times both the original creditor and collection agency will be reporting the account. Is the original creditor showing a $0 balance? This is usually a sure-fire way to tell if the debt has been sold.
If the original creditor is still showing a balance, you may be in luck. Contact the original creditor and try to work out a settlement. Usually, they will only discuss this if you offer to pay off the debt in full. If paying in full is the route you choose, make sure it is under the expressed stipulation that the creditor will pull the collection account back from the collection agency. Once they have given you this approval, you will need to send a Debt Validation letter to the collection agency. Since you have paid the debt, they will not be able to validate it and be required by law to remove the collection account from credit file. Below is an example of a debt validation letter
Occasionally, the original creditor will refuse to deal with you. In this situation, you will be forced to deal with a collection agency. You will also have to handle it with the collection agency if they have bought the debt outright.
Settling with a Collection Agency.
Once it has been determined that the account belongs to the collection agency, you need to figure out the best way to handle the settlement negotiation. Debt will not go away on its own.
The first step would be to send a debt validation letter to the collection company. There is a real good chance that if you have come this far with the account, this account will validate correctly and not be removed from your credit report prior to settlement.
An effective way to have an account removed from your credit file is to negotiate though settlement negotiations. The older the debt, the more likely the collection company will settle for less than the full amount. Remember, collection companies are in the game of making money. If you can offer them something of value, you can negotiate something of value for yourself.
First, offer the collection company what is known as a pay for delete. You can offer whatever amount you like, but companies are wise to this game and usually will not do a full delete unless you pony up the full amount. They understand why you are asking for the delete, and they will use this against you. Often you will be rejected for this kind of offer. Keep at it.
Occasionally, companies are unwilling to work with you on the pay for delete. If this is the case, you should negotiate a settlement that fits your budget. This won’t get the item removed from you credit file, but it will set the stage for a good will adjustment down the line.
Helpful Hints on Negotiating with a Collection Agency:
- Contact the agency at the end of the month. Collection companies are often publicly traded businesses, and like their finances to be in order by the end of the month. You can even offer to expedite payment so it is received before the month expires. You can use that date to your advantage to offer a lower settlement
- Offer a larger lump-sum. The collection company wants as much money as they can get, and as fast as they can get it. They will much rather settle for $300 up front, than $500 stretched out over 24 months.
- Tell a tale. Whatever you decide to offer them, make it seem like it is the best you can do. If they think you
- Submit your offer in writing. Collection companies like to use bully tactics over the phone, but they know what you want. You want the information deleted. Send them a serious written offer and this can open the backdoor in negotiations.
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The Ultimate Guide to Credit Repair: Goodwill Letters
One of the least used credit repair tactics is also one of the most effective. Good will letters have helped many a consumer remove negative information that otherwise would have taken years to no longer be reported. Not all good will letters are the same, it will require a certain amount of creativity and patience but the rewards will be worth it in the end.
Goodwill Letters.
One of the quickest ways to see your FICO score drop is to be late on a payment. 30 day late payments will affect your score for roughly 2 years. Conversely, 120 day late payments will affect your score for the entire 7 years that it will report for. One of the ways you can have these removed is through what is known as a good will adjustment. Some companies are more receptive to this than others.
First, try to call the creditor and see if they will make this adjustment over the phone. Unlike collection companies, these creditors usually want to keep their customer service reputation stellar because they rely on it for further business. If you do not have success with the first level phone support, politely ask for a supervisor and see if you can plead your case to them. The supervisor may inform you of company policy against making these sorts of changes, but they do them all the time! Be convincing and concise with the reason you were late, and try to stress the positive parts of your relationship with them.
If the phone approach proves to be challenging, the next step is to draft a letter and send it through the mail. Since you are not the phone, the company has more time to mull over whether or not to make the adjustment for you. The letter might end up in the hand of someone with more authority to make these kinds of changes. The following is an example of a good will letter for a late payment.
Good will letters aren’t exclusive to just late payments. You can be creative and write a good will letter for basically any negative information on your file. Please consider that the Fair Credit Reporting Act does not demand that all accounts be reported, only that any account that is reported be reported accurately. Therefore, a company does have legal discretion and permission to remove any account or bit of information it chooses from the credit report.
Additional steps:
If you first you don’t succeed, keep trying! If you no longer owe money to the creditor, they will likely tire from wasting time opening and responding to your letters. They have no incentive to keep reporting information if they are no longer waiting for payment. It is often easier for them to stop reporting all together than to deal with you once a month letters.
Often you will not get any response from the creditor, but next time you pull your account the trade line will be removed.
Another tactic is to search the web for names of CEOs or important people within the company and address letters and emails to those people.
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The Ultimate Guide to Credit Repair: How to Handle Negative Secured Accounts Like Repossession.
Most consumers have grown accustomed to the better things in life: homes, cars, and formal education. But if you cannot keep up your end of the bargain, you may lose the right to retain some of these belongings. At some point in your life, you may be faced with such challenges.
Repossession.
Removing a repossession can be extremely difficult. I don’t have a secret weapon here, but I have be able to remove repossessions (and have failed as well)
Go ahead and click on this link, it will take you to an article I wrote about how I removed my personal repossession.
Tax Liens.
Good news! Tax issues will not show up on your credit report until you are in delinquent status. The bad news? Once on your credit report, tax liens are difficult to remove and will score negative for a long time to come. This is the approach I developed to remove tax liens, and while it hasn’t been a slam dunk every time, it has worked more times than it hasn’t.
Steps to Take to Remove a Tax Lien:
- Order your LexisNexis reports. There are 4 different consumer reports that Lexis Nexis maintains. A couple of them have public records, liens and judgments on them. This is essential to know, because the credit bureaus use these reports to confirm public records, such as liens and judgments. That is correct. The credit bureaus do not confirm directly with states and use reports such as these to confirm. While not ALL public records are confirmed through LexisNexis reports, most are. So you would be advised to first pull these reports. You have to do it my mail, and information is at LexisNexis.com – These reports take about 3 weeks to obtain. Once you receive the reports you can proceed to attempt to remove state tax lien.
- Once the reports arrive, you need to locate the public information related to the corresponding data on your credit report as reported in your LexisNexis report. At this point, you need to do a formal dispute with LexisNexis. This has to be done by mail, or by phone. This cannot be done electronically. It would help if there was something wrong with the listing, perhaps an address issue. I used a notarized affidavit indicating I did not live at the address listed for this specific listing in the LexisNexis report. I am not advising you lie. What you choose to do is your own business. You could just dispute and indicate it is not yours. Keep in mind, they do not fall under the same dispute guidelines as the credit bureaus.
- Once LexisNexis removes the listing in question, you can then successfully dispute the listing on the credit reports. It is highly likely it will be removed, because they use the LexisNexis report to confirm information. If you dispute through the credit bureaus, use the dispute code “Not Mine”. You should have success and remove state tax lien.
You will be stunned to see how much information is on those LexisNexis reports. I would dispute and remove ANYTHING on their you feel is questionable, as the credit bureaus all use LexisNexis reports to verify certain aspects of their reporting.
This isn’t fool proof and it might be hit or miss. In my situation, it worked to remove state tax lien from only two of my three credit reports.
Additional steps:
The second time I used this tactic, LexisNexis did not delete the listing I requested. Once they refused to delete the listing, I sent a second dispute to them via mail, and this time I used to certified mail return receipt. As soon as the green card was signed, I drafted a CFPB dispute to the credit bureaus. On each dispute, I scanned the LexisNexis document, which doesn’t show complete social security numbers. I highlighted the listing, indicated to the bureau that there is no legal way they can confirm this is my listing on just the last 4 of my social security number. I also attached the green card to the dispute, indicating I have informed LexisNexis that this listing is not mine, and that I will be pursuing legal action against the credit bureau if they do not remove this account. Once again, two of the three removed within a week.
The moral of the story is, the less information the credit bureaus can confirm, the better off your chance of disputing it away. Try the first sequence initially, and if it doesn’t work, move on to the second.
Credit repair requires outside-the-box thinking, and potentially unethical activity. It is up to you to decide how far you want to take things. I was able to remove state tax lien from two of my three reports, and I consider that a win.
The Ultimate Guide to Credit Repair – Related Articles:
- How I Removed Santander Repossession from My Credit Report
- Removing a State Tax Lien
- Removing a Judgement from a Credit Report
This article was last updated on August 31, 2022