How do you restore bad credit?

 

We offer one on one confidential counseling, allowing you to indicate to us which items you wish to dispute, and how you want us to dispute them. Once we’ve received your credit reports we will draft letters to dispute negative items on your behalf. These letters are designed to communicate your dispute in such a way that the credit bureaus will accept the dispute and conduct an investigation.

 

While this may sound easy, any person who has attempted to dispute their own credit will tell you otherwise. According to federal law, the credit bureaus can ignore your dispute under a variety of conditions. In our experience, a large part of dispute letters sent directly from consumers are rejected under one pretext or another.

 

At the conclusion of the credit bureau's investigation, a new copy of the credit report is sent to your home along with any deletions or improvements. You then copy and send us the new credit report and the cycle repeats itself at timed intervals.

 

A disputed credit listing must be accurate and verifiable for it to remain on the credit report. If the credit listings is only somewhat inaccurate, the credit bureau may simply change the item to reflect the accurate status. Very often, though, disputed credit items cannot be verified: the creditor either no longer possesses the information or does not wish to go to the trouble of verifying it. Also, the reinvestigation must be completed within 30 days or the listing must be removed. For these reasons, properly disputed credit listings are removed with remarkable frequency.

 

Each time an investigation is commenced, the odds of receiving a particular deletion increases.

 

How do you do this legally?

 

Although the credit bureaus would like to have you think otherwise, there is absolutely nothing illegal about disputing items on your credit report. In fact, it is your explicit right by law to do so (see Fair Credit Reporting Act). Credit report repair is as legal as pleading "not guilty" in a court of law.

 

How long does it take?

 

It is inappropriate for any credit repair company to promise a particular result within a certain time frame. We can no more do that than we could promise a client that he or she would prevail in a court of law. Though we can give you an idea as to how we have performed in the past your mileage may vary. If credit reports are received promptly, many clients see exhilarating progress within the first 60 days.

 

Statistically, participating clients have received, on average, 10.77 deletions by the end of the 1st dispute, 15.15 deletions by the 2nd dispute, and 25.8 deletions by the end of third dispute. A deletion is a credit item that has permanently disappeared from the credit report of the client. We tabulated these statistics from clients who had sent copies of all three credit reports. Though we realize that these average results are exciting, we must warn you not to interpret past performance as a guarantee or promise that we will achieve precisely the same results for you as we have other clients in the past. Your results may be better or worse.

 

The progress of your case will depend on your participation (sending in credit reports on a timely basis,) the nature of your case, and the level of credit bureau cooperation.

 

What if deleted items reappear?

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On occasion, a negative listing that was recently deleted will be eventually verified by the creditor. The new Fair Credit Reporting Act requires that the credit bureau inform you before the re-report a previously deleted listing. The FCRA also makes it more difficult for credit bureaus to re-report listings. Because of these factors, it is fairly rare for listings to come back on once they've been deleted.

 

If an item is re-reported, it is a simple matter to challenge the listing again at a future time to press for permanent deletion.

 

Do I need to pay my bills?

 

If there are delinquent accounts appearing on your credit reports that have not been paid off, the actual debt behind the listing remains the same even if we delete the account from your credit report. You still owe the same money that you owed in the first place. If you don’t pay the debt, the creditor or collection agency could always re-report the item. So removing the listing without addressing the debt is only a temporary solution.

 

Does paying my old bills/old debt restore my credit?

 

You would think that would be true. But, again, the credit reporting system just doesn't work that way.

 

When you pay an old debt, the negative credit listing doesn't disappear. In fact, it re-ages and the seven year clock begins again with that negative listing. The most ironic thing is that a paid, current negative listing is not any better than an unpaid negative listing. That's not always true, but in most cases, you won't get much further by paying the old debt.

 

Do I need to see my credit reports first?

 

Yes! You need to know what is on your credit reports, so that you can inform us or give us a copy of that credit report so that we may be able to start on the repairing and restoring your credit profile. It is like a road map. You need to know where you are at now, and what route you are going to take to get to your destination.

 

One amazing thing about bad credit is that almost any small amount of bad credit will trigger universal credit denial. A little bad credit isn’t much better than a ton. So, if you believe that there might only be a couple of negative listings on your credit report, it still makes sense to retain us for the time it takes to remove them.

 

Do you guarantee your service?

 

It is important to understand there are no particular guarantees on a certain item on your credit report. Just like in a court of law, an attorney could never guarantee a client that the judge or jury would find in their favor. We can guarantee however, that your credit reports will improve over time and your credit scores will also improve over time.

 

Can I restore my own credit?

 

Given some experience and study, you could do some of what our staff does. It is much like your right as a citizen to represent yourself in court. Most people choose to allow an attorney to represent them because the attorney understands the legal system better. But, should you wish, you could represent yourself.

 

Another factor to consider is the amount of time and follow-up required to coordinate disputes with all three credit reporting agencies. We have systematized the disputation of credit through a trained staff and a custom designed software package. 

 

With that said, we encourage consumers to dispute their own credit if they have the time, patience and knowledge to do so.

 

How do I get updates on casework?

 

Credit reports will arrive first at your home. So, when we accomplish deletions and improvements, you will see them first on your credit reports. Make sure that you forward all correspondence from the credit bureaus to us so we can proceed with your case. We will always keep you informed of the process and the results.

 

Additionally, you are always welcome to call or email your credit consultant and request an update of the progress of your case.