Credit Repair Life Skills

Upon receiving your credit report from your credit reporting bureau, you might become overwhelmed by the vast amount of information in it. And remember that it is advisable to obtain your credit reports from each of the 3 major credit bureaus, namely Equifax, TransUinon and Exeprian.

Credit Repair Tips - Analyzing Your Credit Report Simplified

Here, we will discuss the key categories as a start to help you understand where and how to go about repairing your credit and reducing your debt.

Your “Personal Information”

Here you will find personal details like name, current address, social security number, date of birth, spouse’s name (if applicable). Understand that errors and mistakes do happen in about 80% of the credit reports from large companies. Hence it is imperative that you double check all the facts in your credit report. It’s not unusual, for there to be two or three spellings of your name or more than one Social Security number. But do be extra careful to double check all your details to ensure total accuracy as false or incorrect personal details could give rise other wrong entries into your report.

Your “Credit History”

Basic information of your credit history includes the reporting company’ name, your account number, whose accounts which are largely listed as individual, undesignated, joint, authorized user, maker, terminated, co-maker/co-signer and shared. This section also includes dates of account opened, months reviewed, your last activity. High Credit indicating the highest amount charged or the credit limit, terms of installment loans.

More key to your purpose of credit report analysis are balance outstanding, Amounts Past Due, Status of account with letters and numbers to indicate timeliness of payment and finally the last date reported on your accounts by your creditors. It is critical to note that this category describes your existing and paid credit accounts with records of late payments reported by creditors. Tedious as it may seem, it is absolutely critical that your carefully read through each account and note inaccuracies they contain. Here, you need to execute extra thoroughness especially if you find that there are information which does not belong or refer to you in the records. You should then submit a dispute letter to the credit-reporting party to erase the errors.

Your “Collection Accounts”

When any of your accounts are referred to the collection agency within the last 7 years, you will find them in this category. The Basic information listed here are name of the collection agency, amount you owe, in some cases, their contact information. Remember that key to credit repair first steps is to ensure accuracy of the facts. If the record does not look familiar, check internally with your spouse of other shared account users to verify and confirm that the account does not belong to you and it’s a wrong entry. Then proceed to contact the credit bureau and submit a dispute letter.

Do not contact the credit bureau before verifying the account(s), as this could raise queries not beneficial to your credit record. Once you confirm that the collection account(s) do not belong to you, you should contact the collection agency and get confirmation in writing. You should receive the letter which should also be copied to the credit reporting bureau in order that the error is cleared from your records. If the collection account is yours and you are sure that you are able to clear the outstanding credit debt, contact the collection agency and arrange for payment to clear the debt. Also, ensure that both you and your credit reporting bureau gets a copy of your cleared debt for the latest updated reporting.

Your “Public Records”

In this section you will find public records obtained from local, state or federal courts reflecting your your history of meeting financial obligations including bankruptcy records, tax liens, judgments, collection accounts, overdue child support (in some states). The Public records category is better off absolutely as having an entry into this category is never a good situation at all. Again, be meticulous and verify all information listed. All mistakes must be conveyed to the credit bureau via the submission of a dispute letter similar to above stated procedures.

Your “Additional Information”
This would include all your past addresses, past employers etc if and when reported by your creditors.

Your enquiries category shows an entry of any company whom you authorized to view your credit report. There is a misnomer about records in inquiries. You would have thought that a large number of credit enquiries can negatively impact your credit score. Within the industry, the truth of the matter is that the vast majority of enquiries are ignored by the FICO scoring models. For instance, the model has a buffer period that ignores enquiries within 30 days of getting a mortgage or a car loan. It also counts two or more “hard” enquiries in the same 14-day period as just one inquiry. Key point to note here is that only companies which have your written authorization is permitted to check your credit history.

How Long Does Your Information Stay In Your Credit Report?

Different types of information are retained over different time frames. It is important to note that credit and collection accounts will be reported for 7 years from the date of the last activity with the original creditor. And if you’ve filed a Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 bankruptcy, this information will be reported for 10 years from the date filed with all other courthouse records reported for 7 years from date filed.