After a time, your credit may start to run rough. A few situations could lead to errors in a credit report. It could be debts you never recorded or credit bureaus recording pending bills of a defaulter who has the same name as you against your name. Well, you shouldn’t be worried about that because the government of the United States says no fewer than 20% of Americans have errors in one of their credit reports. In this article, we will take you through the credit repair process, explaining why it is crucial and what we do to help you repair errors in your credit report. If you have not been following our blog, you can start by reading our past articles on FICO score, and Credit Score. Reading those will help you fully understand what we shall be talking about in the coming paragraphs. Repairing your credit is correcting errors in your credit report that could severely affect your credit score. A low credit score, as you know, means you won’t be able to get credit from lenders, and that can limit you in a lot of ways. So since you always want to avoid low credit scores, let us look at the process of credit repair.

Dispute Process

The three major credit bureaus in the United States, Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian compile data form banks, credit card issuers, collection agencies, mortgage lenders, and courts to create your credit report.  Your credit report is an electronic file based on your current and previous credit history. Credit reports are dynamic. They change as soon as your credit bureau uploads new information on your credit records. Lenders use your credit report to determine your creditworthiness, so if you have a low FICO score, chances are they won’t consider you for a loan.  There are five sections on the left of your credit report that are critical to your FICO score at the top right corner of your credit report. The first part contains your name, your address, and your social security number. The next section contains public records t collected by the court on bankruptcy.

Following that is a collection for no/late payment demands, which shows that you have an unpaid bill turned over to a collection agency. Tradelines are the most crucial part of your report. They contain information about your various accounts, which includes credit cards, car loans, mortgages, retail accounts, and student loans. Under the trendlines, you will find the date you opened these accounts, loan amounts, your current balance, and payment history. Creditors update your trendlines every month. Whenever someone accesses your credit file, bureaus report an inquiry. The final section of your credit card contains inquires resulting from a credit application. 

You should be familiar with this because you have to review your credit card periodically for inaccurate information. Even if you would like to contact us at iconiccreditservices for a  paid credit monitoring service, you will still find this information useful.

Whether you rely on us or do it yourself, the credit dispute process starts from reviewing your card periodically for inaccurate or incomplete information. You can get one free report annually from each of the credit bureaus at annualcreditreport.com. Some errors to look out for in a credit report are identity mistakes such as incorrect names, phone numbers or address, mixed files containing someone else’s account information, wrongly attributed accounts, closed account reported as open, misattributed ownership, un-updated payment record, repeated debts, a repeated statement with multiple creditors, incorrect account balances, and inaccurate credit limits. As soon as you notice any of the following in your credit report, the next thing you want to do is to get in touch with the furnisher, which is either a bank or utility bill, provider. We follow the same process when we help you monitor your report. If the bank or utility bill company is unable to help, contacting the credit bureau becomes the next line of action.

Disputing your bureau is permitted under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, although there is a recommended process that will make them consider your request faster. Write to your bureau using a sample dispute and make sure to include photocopies of materials that support your position. Include a copy of your credit report with the errors circled or highlighted. Send your mail via a registered courier and keep copies of all the documents you send, including your postage receipt. As we do, you should send disputes to the company that reported the inaccurate information, and your credit bureau.

Be patient after you have sent your dispute. The review process for credit disputes takes 30 days, which includes the time it takes the bureau to contact the provider of inaccurate information. If you are correct about your claim, the provider of incorrect information will notify the three credit bureaus so that they can correct the information in your credit report. If your request is frivolous, the information provider will let you know by sending a written notice in five days.

After the investigation, your credit bureau will send you the results of their investigation in writing. You will also receive a free copy of your credit report if they have changed the wrong information. The Federal Trade Commission says you can ask your credit bureau to notify anyone who has received your report in the past six months about the error and send the corrected copy. Where your credit dispute continues to return unsuccessful, you can ask your credit bureau to include your part of the dispute in future reports and send the new reports to anyone who has recently received a copy of your report. If you feel your bureau treated you unfairly, you can contact the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with your complaint. They will investigate your claim and get back to you with a response in 15 days.

Myths About Credit Repair

Quick Fixes

There are no quick fixes for repairing your credit score. Be on the alert and disparage any individual or agency that promises to give you quick fixes on your credit problems.

I5 Minutes Phone Call to Get Good Credit

That is impossible. Imagine it took just fifteen minutes to build a record on which top financial institutions base their decisions. That will result in chaos, and who would ever want to be careful with credit when it takes just fifteen minutes and maybe thirty minutes to build a perfect FICO score. 

Falsifying Documents to Clear Credit

Hey, your credit report is available online, and if you try to falsify anything, you will end up being the only one who has that incorrect report of yours. Credit bureaus send the information about your credit situation summarized in your credit report to lending institutions without contacting you. They contact your bureau to inquire about you. I am sure you understand how foolhardy it would prove to alter a report that only makes sense with you.

What you Should Know

Getting a high FICO score is not as easy as many people think, but it is never impossible to build an excellent rating with the right advice and action. At Iconiccreditservices, we are committed to helping you repair bad credit reputation represented by low credit scores. Feel free to reach out to us today, and you will get that feeling of iconic.