Cleaning Up Your Credit Report

[maungoo]

I called Experian and disputed the charged offs and late payments. They removed the accounts which showed charged off and late payments. I just explained the agent when I filed BK and about reporting charged off after filing was not right according to BK law.

Before I called them, I tried both on line and writing but failed.

[buffy]

I am trying to clear up some inaccuracies on my husbands Experian report. About half the accounts that were included in bankruptcy are listed as charged off. Some show 30, 60, or 90 days past due even though we paid payments right up until the day we filed.
Some show account balances after we filed. I thought we got a stay starting the day we filed. Is this correct? I already disputed all inaccuracies on-line but they all came back as correct and verified. Now I am going to dispute in writing by registered mail. Has anyone ever filed a lawsuit against a creditor for reporting and verifying incorrect info to the credit bureaus? Also one creditor has the bankruptcy date wrong. They then verified that they were reporting correct info. Shouldn't Experian have caught this error since the court info is a part of the credit report?

[IBroke]

Here's my plan:

Once discharged, I'll purchase a credit report online and dispute ALL negative accounts. There is a bureau that offers an online-report with the option of disputing "accounts have multiple errors - please verify ALL information". I don't even need proof that I disputed because I will receive the RESULTS by mail directly from the credit bureau. Some of these accounts have errors already and it is very likely they VERIFY these errors.

And that's when it's getting interesting: Once a creditor VERIFIES incorrect information through a dispute with a credit bureau, there are at your mercy - especially after a discharged CH7.

If they VERIFY incorrect information, they can be sued because they blew it - by law, they DON'T have a second chance to correct their VERIFIED error.

This comes in very handy. After the discharge, they all of a sudden owe YOU money.

The great thing is that you have control over the creditor from that point on. That saves you time and hassle as well because you don't have to dispute the same creditor with the other bureaus. You tell the creditor by certified mail that by VERIFYING wrong information with the credit bureau, he is in violation under the FCRA and that you are DEMANDING the REMOVAL of the entire tradeline/account from ALL credit-reports within 30 days or he will be sued for the FCRA-violation. And the great thing is that they can't come after you because you were discharged..

Also, I read several reports that claim that you actually have the RIGHT to demand that the creditor has to REMOVE (not correct) the tradeline once he verifies inaccurate information.

[buffy]

How should a reaffirmed mortgage be reported? Right now it shows included in bankruptcy, delinq.date, major delinq. date. Problem is the account was NEVER delinq. I've tried to get it corrected by disputing on line and have called the mortgage holder. Both insist it is reported correctly. How can I get the delinq. info removed?

[dawntyoung]

Also, is there any way to get things removed from the credit report before the 7 years? I have some medical bills I would like to remove post discharge. What about debt consolidation companies? For example, I have a consolidation for my student loans, but then each one is reporting closed. Can the individual closed accts be removed? It just looks like overload of high debt.

[dawntyoung]

I've filed for ch7 bk. With the FCRA 7-year rule will the accounts be removed 7yrs after the beginning of delinquency or 10 years after the date of the bk discharge?

[bakergrl]

I went through all 3 of the companies and disputed what was not correct and have recieved emails that they have all been corrected. Will fixing the incorrect items help improve my score, and if so how long after can I expect a change in my score?

[ssc2761]

My experian credit report indicates all creditors payment status as included in bankruptcy, or some variation of this. However, in the comments section on some of them it states "transferred to another lender or claim purchased." Does this matter, since the payment status indicates bankruptcy? Also some of the creditors still list payment history even though they are included in bankruptcy. Is this normal or is their nothing I can do about it? All the accounts do state IIB and either zero balance or the balance is blank. Any responses are greatly appreciated. First time poster. Thanks for all the help.

Discharge granted 7/7/10.

[snowhawk]

Can you please clarify? Should the report have both charge off and discharged in Chapter 7 if the charge off was prior to BK? I just got my discharge on 8/2 and would like to move forward.

Similar question, should we see charge off during our CH 13 and the IIB together in the history or just one? Does it matter for CS?

[nervousbker]

Can you please clarify? Should the report have both charge off and discharged in Chapter 7 if the charge off was prior to BK? I just got my discharge on 8/2 and would like to move forward.

[ben1381]

There may be new rights to free credit scores in the same manner as credit reports in the new financial reform legislation signed by the president. Does anyone know anything about this?

[AbbeyA]

Thanks for the information and quick answers, much appreciated! : )

[sah2]

You can get a free score and credit reports from all three bureaus with a free trial to a credit monitoring service. Equifax (equifax.com) and Identity Guard (identityguard.com) both have this. You can get a free Experian credit score and credit report from Quizzle.com (no credit card or trial required) and a free Transunion score from Creditkarma.com, although I am suspicious of the CreditKarma site, because although all the info they have on me is correct (and they have been sending me credit monitoring updates for free which include absolutely accurate information) my score is way higher than the other sites say it is. With the free trials and with Quizzle.com, you only get to look at the credit report and score once (which is why I have signed up for a few) without paying or waiting a few months. With CreditKarma, although it seems to be inflated, you can update it daily (my score actually dropped 3 points the other day due to hard credit inquiries)

[HHM]

I just pulled my credit report for the first time since ch 7 bk discharge on July 1st 2010
I didn't realize that the credit report doesn't include the actual credit score -- I went through equifax and ordered the free credit report. There was a link where I could have paid to get my score, but shouldn't it be included in the credit report? Where are you ordering your credit reports and are you paying for them?

Thanks for any information you can provide.

No such thing as a truly "free" score. The score is a separate product. Generally, when you see advertisements for a "free score", you only get that if you enroll in some sort of credit monitoring service.

In any event, to determine if you need to do something with your credit report, you do not need the score. Just look at how the various accounts are reporting. Have they zero'ed out the balance owed, in the remarks/comments does it say Included in Bankruptcy (or some variation). If all is good, don't worry about your score, it will increase over time.

[AbbeyA]

I just pulled my credit report for the first time since ch 7 bk discharge on July 1st 2010
I didn't realize that the credit report doesn't include the actual credit score -- I went through equifax and ordered the free credit report. There was a link where I could have paid to get my score, but shouldn't it be included in the credit report? Where are you ordering your credit reports and are you paying for them?

Thanks for any information you can provide.