How to Clear My Credit History
The first step is to get up to date copies of all three of your credit reports. Now you need to identify the items that you want to challenge and try to have removed.
Next you need to write a dispute letter to each bureau for the item in question. In your letter you will need to include your personal information and the reason for the dispute. You can challenge an item for any number of reasons including; its not your account, the balance is wrong, the item is wrong, the dates are wrong, and many more.
Once the bureau gets your letter and deems it valid they will investigate the item. They will contact the business that created the negative mark and ask them to verify the account. If the lender is unable to verify it then the bureau must remove the item from your file.
You will get a letter from the bureaus with the results of the investigation. They will notify you if the item was updated, or if it has been removed from your file. It is not uncommon for items to be removed because the lender didn’t verify it, this is part of the reason credit repair is so popular.
If you are currently being contacted by debt collectors then it would be in your interest to settle with them. However before you just go and start paying delinquent debts you need to negotiate an agreement, otherwise your credit will not benefit at all.
In your agreement you need to get them to agree to stop reporting this item to the bureaus in exchange for your payment. Don’t worry this is fairly common, and every credit intelligent individual will negotiate for this. The debt collector will have no issue agreeing to it. This way once you settle the account and then dispute the item on your report when the bureau investigates it, the collector will not verify the account due to your agreement and the item will be removed from your report.
Once an agency has purchase your debt you shouldn’t offer any more than 50% of the balance to settle. This is because the agencies will add in additional fees, plus the balance has likely ballooned from a default interest rate with the original lender. In the debt world accounts are sold for literally pennies on the dollar.
However before you pay anyone you should use debt validation. This makes the collectors prove that they legally own your debt. If they can not provide evidence of this then you do not have to pay the debt and it will be removed from your report when you dispute it.
The cause for the popular myth that you just have to just live with bad credit is mostly due to the bureaus. They are very hesitant to investigate a dispute because when they do they are only spending money. Further the way our credit system is set up the bureaus have no financial motive to ensure they have accurate information about you.
This is because they are selling your information to businesses and lenders. Every time your credit is checked the bureaus cash register is ringing. If you hit a brick wall or just get fed up with trying to deal with the bureaus we would encourage you to seek out a professional service. You don’t just have to live with a damaged credit history, you can remove the negative items.
For a free credit consultation call us at 1-800-768-3386 or visit us to learn more about how to clear my credit history or for more about how professional credit repair services can help you fix your credit.