Credit Repair: How to Get Back Your Credit

Is your credit in disarray? Are you constantly looking at those ads on TV that promise to help you get back your credit? If so, there are there are a lot of companies that can help you repair and rebuild your credit, but there are many things you can do yourself.

The first and foremost thing you must do is NOT run away from creditors. Don’t wait for them to call you or worse, don’t take their calls or return their messages. Contact them directly as soon as you realize that you are not going to be able to make payments to discuss your options. Most creditors are not as hard on you as you might think. They WANT you to pay them back and will usually work out a repayment plan that realistically fits your budget.

Working with your creditor is the best way to prevent the need for credit repair. Your credit score may drop slightly, but nearly as bad that you would need drastic steps to repair your credit ranking. As long as you show a willingness to pay back a creditor and keep in contact with them, you may never get a blemish on your credit report. It’s when you try to ignore your creditors that they report you to the credit bureaus.

However, it is human nature to avoid conflict. If you have avoided your creditors and are being denied credit you need to take steps to start rebuilding your credit.

If you are unsure about how to proceed with your credit repair, you can get some help from your local credit counseling services. They can help you to work out a plan and a budget. There are also many non-profit groups that offer help. In addition, you can check with your employer, bank, credit union, or credit repair company to investigate options for no-cost or fee-based credit counseling programs.

Before you begin your credit repair, you should know your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. These rights can help you to understand how to proceed.

First of all, you are entitled to a FREE copy of your credit history report if you’ve ever been denied credit, insurance, or employment. But you MUST ask for it within 60 days of that denial. You can also get a free copy if you can prove you are:

• Unemployed and plan to look for a job in 70 days
• On welfare
• A victim of identity theft or fraud
• Obtaining a copy of your credit report is the first step in credit repair.

If you are denied credit, insurance, or employment because of inaccurate or incomplete credit information, then the company has to give you the name and address of the reporting bureau (either Equifax, Trans Union, or Experian). If there is inaccurate or simply wrong information about credit card or other loan repayments on your credit report, then you can dispute it with the credit bureau to get it corrected. This is free to do this, but you will need to prove why the information is false. Getting this inaccurate information off your report will help your credit repair. If you don't want to take the time or just desire to avoid the potential frustration you can contact a professional and reputable credit repair company such as Lexington Law to help you with this process.

Here are some final facts that will help you to better understand how credit works and what you can and can’t change when you engage in credit repair:

• A bankruptcy can stay on your credit report for 10 years
• Lawsuits or judgments against you can be reported for 7 years or until the statute of limitations runs out (whichever is longer).
• There is no time limit on information reported because of an application for a job with a $75,000 or more salary.
• There is no time limit on information reported because of an application for more than $150,000 worth of life insurance
• Applying for a lot of credit at once (e.g. multiple credit cards with multiple credit card issuers) will cause your credit score to go down.

Taking the steps to repair and rebuild your credit is the best way to ensure you can enjoy the benefits and advantages of having a credit card. Remember, your credit card is a privilege not a right. Be responsible when using it.

Credit Repair

Where consumer credit reports are concerned, the major credit bureaus, Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian, always seem to prioritize profits over precision. Sadly, every major consumer study to date has revealed their breathtaking disregard for ensuring accuracy. Unfortunately, those credit bureaus determine the quality of our lives in so many fundamental ways. Even a single credit report line item can significantly influence everything from how much we'll pay for our homes and cars to how insurance companies gauge our risk to whether or not we'll be hired for certain jobs. So it's no wonder that consumers are fighting back. In fact, many are beginning to demand that their credit reports accurately reflect their true fiscal history and intentions.

It's important to remember that the credit bureaus aren't government-sanctioned entities. Such so-called bureaus are really just privately-owned companies whose business is to buy and sell gossip about you and your neighbors.

In fact, no federal statute mandates credit reporting at all. So despite what Sears or some other credit card issuer says about negatives having to remain on credit reports for seven years, it's simply not true. The governing statute in that regard, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, states simply that most derogatory marks can remain no longer than seven years, but it doesn't sanction any minimum reporting period. In that regard, everything that appears in a credit report is optional. Unlike some credit card issuers, the government doesn't care how long something remains on a credit report, so long as items don't remain longer than the legal limit - which is usually a maximum of seven years except for bankruptcy-related items which can remain for no longer than ten years.

It's that misconception, what I've termed the Myth of Mandatory Credit Reporting, that keeps consumers subjugated to the whims of sloppy credit reporting and, unfortunately, often with terrible consequences.

Fortunately, our federal laws are designed to protect consumers rather than creditors or credit bureaus. So, for example, as I mentioned before, the FCRA places limits upon what credit bureaus can report and for how long. Other protective statutes like the Fair Credit Billing Act and the Truth in Lending Act restrict banks and other creditors with regard to how they can and can't interact with their customers. And perhaps most importantly, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act keeps abusive debt collectors in check.

The good news is that every one of these statutes can be leveraged in order to ensure that a consumer has the best credit report possible. Remember that any company placing a mark on a credit report must comply with a phalanx of consumer protection regulations, all of which are designed to protect the average citizen. If all requirements aren't met, and if the legal imperative mandating accuracy isn't upheld, then the credit report must be revised. Even credit checks can negatively impact a consumer's credit rating. Fortunately, the governing federal statute stipulates that third parties must establish clear 'permissible purpose' before viewing a consumer's credit report, and that requirement can be enforced as well. Good consumer law firms, like Lexington Law, can assist consumers with seeing such processes through to their logical, and usually favorable, ends. Significant credit score gains can be attained in a fairly short period of time.

Until recently, an accurate credit report's worst enemies were of course the sloppy credit bureaus and those careless creditors who report to them. The sudden ascendance of the Internet during the end of the last century gave rise to something perhaps even more insidious, and that of course is identity theft, a circumstance whose negative consequences can be severe. Too often the major credit bureaus simply don't believe victims of identity theft, and consumer law firms can prove quite helpful in that circumstance.

You can get a free credit report once a year by going to http://www.annualcreditreport.com/.