Everyone wants to manage his finances in the best possible ways. You can either do it by earning money from different sources, or borrowing money from different banks or put your house, car as a collateral in getting approved for the loan. No one can predict the future and no one knows the damage on your credit report can hurt you financially or socially. Based on the credit scores, we can determine a person’s credibility, his payment history, and how he had been using his credit. In short, it is a report that analyzes whether the person is worth of any new credit or not.

Remove a Judgement

Remove a Judgement

If you have a judgment on your credit report, it clearly gives an indication that you are no more worth of any new credit and finance. In order to get rid of such judgments, follow the simple steps mentioned below.

It is important that you feel confident and understand the concept of basic human rights as per the individual laws in every state. As per the laws, every individual has the right to challenge any inaccurate item showing up on his credit report.

Your next step should be to carefully review your credit report and see that everything reported on your report is correct by all means. If there is any error in it, it must be the errors reported by the credit bureaus. You must immediately contact the credit bureau who is reporting this inaccurate item and get it fixed as soon as possible. You might face a few hurdles in getting a judgment removed from your credit report. If you still owe to the creditor who has filed the judgment against you, then try to make out some payment arrangements with the creditor of pay off the judgment as soon as possible.

Credit bureaus

Credit bureaus

The next step is to send letters to the credit bureaus and dispute the judgment that is showing up on your credit report. You must point out all the errors that can be removed from your credit report and make a request to remove the judgment. Usually, the credit bureau will take 25 to 30 days to verify the disputed items with the original creditors. If your dispute is found to be correct, then the negative item will be removed from your credit report.

During this time period, you don’t have to do anything. Once you have the updated credit report, you will come to know which portion was verified by the credit bureau and which item was removed based on your dispute. Even after that, if you still think that there is something showing up on your credit report that should not be there, you can again contact the credit bureaus and request for removing that negative item. Remember that its a big achievement if you can get a judgment removed from your credit report.

Though you might be tempted to think you need a masters in taxation to keep your finances in order, in this case a little persistence and legwork should go a long way.

Helpful Resources:

http://www.usa.gov/topics/money/credit/credit-reports/bureaus-scoring.shtml

https://www.ftb.ca.gov/individuals/liens/credburu.shtml

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By financen | July 20, 2010 - 3:28 pm - Posted in Credit, Credit Repair, Credit report

Do you know that the three major credit bureaus will go through the most number of consumers’ credit report disputes during the holiday season? During this time of the year, the number of staffs in the credit reporting agencies along with the creditors themselves is less in number.

Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, a credit repository has five days to contact the creditor after the submission of the consumer’s online dispute or from the receipt of the written request. They are required to do all the investigations within the specified time period as per the FCRA laws. Once the dispute has been investigated with the information providers, the credit bureaus are required to reply to the consumer with the results of the investigation done within 30 – 45 days from the date of the submission of the complaint. They should submit a written report with the findings within five business days after the investigation is completed. If any changes are done on the credit report, a fresh copy should be mailed to the mailing address of the consumer.

The credit bureaus and the credit grantors are required to adhere to the time frame within which the dispute has to be verified. November and December are said to be the best time of the year to fix credit ratings and get negative information removed. This process is usually believed to take more time in other months of the year.

If the credit bureau or the information provider is not able to verify your dispute, then the negative item should be considered as inaccurate and hence, it should be removed from your credit file. Each questionable item should be dealt individually, except for erroneous personal data. If you have several items to dispute on your credit report, the credit bureau will assume that your request is frivolous or irrelevant. If you have to dispute multiple items on your credit report, send each letter separately so that prompt actions can be taken to fix your credit.

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By financen | June 7, 2010 - 2:10 pm - Posted in Credit, Credit Repair, Credit report, Credit Score

Your credit rating is the most important factor in front of anyone. You will need to have a good credit standing when you are applying for a job or when you are looking for some financial debt help from the banks and other prestigious financial institutions. Your credit can dictate the house you live in, the car you drive in. The information contained in your credit report is used for many different life events. Your credit scores will go down if your information providers have reported some negative remarks to the credit bureaus. It doesn’t mean that the negative items cannot be fixed. There are reputed credit repair companies that can help you mend a broken credit score.

 

 

Taking the help of a law firm to repair your credit is a good idea. These law firms have been helping people with bad credit to remove the negative items so that they can regain their financial worthiness. With the help of the law firm, people who earlier had bad credit are now able to have normal productive new lives as unverifiable and erroneous information were immediately removed from their credit report. These law firms use the credit repair review which finds out why you were denied in getting a new car, a home or a new career.

According to the FTC, an average person can usually spend at least 100 hours just to fix one negative item on his credit report. Anyone can get an inaccurate negative item removed from his credit report by contacting the credit bureaus, but doing so, you have to go through a lot of red tape and call each company reporting on your credit report. Most of the times, the credit grantors will give you a run around that can delay the whole process. These law firms in such situations seem to be a great relief as they work with credit agencies and the credit bureaus with the objective of removing the negative items on your credit report.

When you are looking for a company to fix your credit report, give more preference to a law firm because they have their licensed attorneys and they know the laws as per the FDCPA and the FCRA. They can not only empower the customers with knowledge and work out possible ways to fix their credit ratings, but can also take legal actions against the credit grantors and credit bureaus if they seem to be violating the laws and reporting inaccurate information even after providing proof.

There are different services available with credit repair from ala carta to monthly membership levels. There is a plan for all kinds of people who are looking to fix their credit ratings. If you are interested, law firms can set up your account within the same day and start the credit repair process after you provide them the latest copy of your credit report and put a request on the items to be investigated.

Credit repair process with the law firms is simple and easy. You just have to sit back and relax in the comfort of your living room. You can stay posted on the status of your account by logging into the online account with them. If you feel that your score is out of control then you could benefit from a credit repair review and have an experienced professional aid you with your credit problems. If you feel like someone else is driving your score, than you could definitely benefit from their knowledge.

By financen | November 6, 2009 - 12:21 pm - Posted in Credit, Credit Repair, Credit Score

A number of people are falling behind in their monthly payments to different creditors because of the rising costs in gas, food and also due to increasing unemployment. With the recent stressed economy, many people are finding hard to make ends meet. They are continuously missing their monthly payments, thereby causing havoc in their credit report.

Although credit repair can be quite a challenging job, but it’s not at all impossible as many people think so. There are legal law firms that specialize in credit repair services and improve your credit ratings. If you are getting late on your monthly payments to your creditors, these specialized law firms can negotiate with your creditors and arrange a payment plan after lowering the interest rates. They will stop any kind of late payments that might have shown up on your credit report if you were expecting to get late.

When you hire a credit repair service, check the company with the local authorities so that you know about their legitimate business and their work experience in getting results for the customers. With the changing laws and regulations, you need to make sure that you are working with a law firm that can keep up on all the changes. Browse through the internet and do a search on “fix my credit score” on the popular search engines. You will get a variety of credit repair companies and the features that they have to offer. Do a thorough research on the company before signing up for their services. You need to make sure that you are signing up with a legitimate company who will not put you deeper into debts, since you are already struggling to come out of this mess.

Hiring a company that is not judgmental is also important. It is very frustrating to fall behind in the monthly payments. A law firm that can not empathize is less likely to stand by your side and provide adequate service.

Once you have gotten your credit fixed by the credit repair service, it’s important to maintain your improved credit scores. Always check your credit report at least once in every six months and see if there are any inaccurate negative items getting reported on your credit file. Never miss your monthly payments with the creditors otherwise it won’t take too much time to fall in the same spot from where you have just come out.

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By financen | March 26, 2008 - 6:47 pm - Posted in Credit, Credit Repair

Every citizen should pull out their latest credit copy and review it at least once a year. If you do this, you will be keeping a track of your personal financial situation and in charge of your credit. It will be a rewarding experience to have your credit in full control. You will be able to make better decisions regarding your finance and if you feel the need to buy a home or a car sometime in the future, you will get to know the exact picture of your financial situation after reviewing your credit copy. You will also come to know if someone is trying to open unauthorized accounts using your identity.

Every US citizen is entitled to get a free credit report from each of the three national bureaus once a year. You don’t have to subscribe for anything to get the free copy once a year. There are many ways to get your free credit copy from different companies without having to sign up for the services offered by them. Since there are many kinds of scams, always be very careful with your personal information when you are trying to retrieve it from the internet.

There are many reasons to get a credit report at least once a year. The main reason is to make sure that no one is using your identity and opening fraudulent accounts in your name. Unfortunately, we are living in such a world where no one is safe. People can take out loans in our names and leave us with huge debts that we were never aware of. If you review your credit report regularly, this situation may not arise and your credit will never be ruined because of this reason.

Another reason why you should be reviewing your credit copy is to stay in control of your credit and finances. If you are in total control, you should not have any problems in getting the best deals from your future lenders. They will be quoting you the lowest interest rates and consider you a nominal risk to their finance. You should know what is on your credit report before you shop with different lenders for any type of loan or financing.

There are other ways to be eligible for a free credit report if you have already requested it once in a year. Due to some reasons, if you have been denied new credit, or if you are applying for a new job, you can ask the lender to get a credit report for you. He will show you your credit copy without charging any fee. You have these rights under the federal laws.

You are entitled to get a free credit copy from each of the three bureaus but you don’t have to necessarily pull it from all the agencies at the same time. The credit reporting agencies don’t share information between them. They have their own sources to collect information about you. That’s why the records with one bureau will not be exactly the same as the other one.

It is a very good idea to get your credit report once a year. This will allow you to monitor your credit history and give you a good idea whether you are in a situation to get a good job or loan/credit offers. If you are not pro-active, you might find yourself in troubles and in a situation that was never expected by you. Besides, monitoring your credit is a good way to safe guard yourself against identity theft.

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By financen | March 24, 2008 - 6:43 pm - Posted in Credit, Credit Repair

Before you get started to submit the application form for the free annual credit report, make sure that you are aware of the following facts. There are lots of scams around and it is important that you don’t fall into this prey and your confidential information fallen into the wrong hands.

You must be beware of people trying to cheat you. The only website that can generate free annual credit reports is annualcreditreport.com and it is affiliated with the Federal Trade Commission. Any other website that says that they can issue a free credit report copy is a lie. Be careful because they might turn out to be fake and fraudulent who are on the look for your personal information. Beware of any emails or people who are calling you claiming to be from the consumer credit reporting companies.

If you see that your credit report is showing some kind of error in the data reported, don’t hesitate to contact the bureau reporting the error and have them fix it. It is your right under the Fair Credit Reporting Act that your credit report must show your accurate credit history. After you have disputed an item on your credit copy, the credit bureau will run an investigation with the information provider and verify the details. The information provider will check in their system and verify the information reported and the results will be forwarded to the credit bureau and then to the actual consumer who disputed the item. If your dispute is found to be correct, the credit bureau will issue another copy of your credit report completely free of cost and it will be delivered to your mailing address.

In cases, if you have disputed an item and it is not been fixed by the credit bureau, ask them to attach a copy of your complaint in your file so that any company viewing your credit report will come to know that you disputed an item but, for some reasons, it was not fixed by the information provider. There is a 100 word limit within which you can explain the case that you think is questionable. The creditors viewing your credit copy will not make wrong decisions because of the error.

Your credit report is not accessible to everyone. It can only be requested by your creditors, insurance company, employer or any other financial institution. But you need to give a written approval to the credit bureau before they can send your file to your employer.

These are some of the important facts that you must know about your annual credit report. It is one of the prestigious financial documents and it shows out your credit level and the amount of money that can be borrowed along with the debts to be paid back. Everyone should be very careful with their personal information so as to avoid an identity theft or any other serious issues.

By financen | December 12, 2007 - 6:36 am - Posted in Credit, Credit Repair

Many people have questions regarding their tarnished credit and search for ways to improve it. This three digit score is very important when you are shopping for new credit, or buying a home. It is the most important factor to analyze your financial worthiness. Your potential creditors will grant you new credit after reviewing the following areas on your credit report.

  1. Your total payment history
  2. How much is your total balance owed
  3. Length of the credit score is determined
  4. The types of credit used so far.
  5. New credit is analyzed.

Go through the following tips and see how your credit scores can improve.

Check for any incorrect items on your credit report – Checking your credit report mandatory. There are possibilities of the three credit reporting agencies making errors since they handle zillions and zillions of consumers’ files. It is suggested to check the report once every six months and if you are applying for a new loan, check it frequently.

Timely payments – It’s a very good practice to pay the bills on time. The prompt payments will reflect on your credit report and you will be placed in a very comfortable position while applying for new credit from lenders. A late or a missed payment just before applying for new loan has severe effects on your credit reporting and the scores will go down. If the payment is missed from the last five years, it doesn’t have that much negative impact on the credit scoring.

Keep the credit balance to the minimum – It is always recommended to keep the credit card balance at the minimum. If you owe a large amount of credit, the FICO scores are affected. The FICO scores will stay good if you keep your balance less than 25% of the total credit card limit.

Regular and timely payments – Keep the debt to income ratio as low as possible. It is suggested not to close an account and transfer the balance to another account. This is because the ratio of the credit card balance is linked to the credit limit. And when you transfer the balance, the credit scores are lowered. It will be a wrong move to make especially when you are working hard on improving your scores.

Keep unused accounts active – Don’t close any unused account when you are applying for new credit. At the same time, don’t open new accounts because there’s no long payment history on that account. If you are having an old account in good standing, it will help your credit scores to improve. The lenders will need every proven track record of your credit history.

Try the following tips on your tarnished credit. You will see tremendous improvement over a period of time.