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Advice on bankruptcy and credit card charge off - The Bills.com Blog
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Advice on bankruptcy and credit card charge off
Question: My husband and I declared bankruptcy 3 1/2 years ago. There are still a number of credit cards listed on our credit report that were included in the bankruptcy. They are classified as charge offs, but were included in the bankruptcy. How do we get them taken off our current credit report?
Answer: Generally speaking, any account included in your bankruptcy filing will appear on your creditreports as ?included in bankruptcy,? and reflect a $0 balance. It should not appear as open and past due, which is what you seem to be experiencing with your accounts. In order to correct this problem, you should first pull a copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Transunion, and Experian), then carefully review the reports to identify which discharged accounts are being reported inaccurately.
You can access free copies of your credit reports at www.annualcreditreport.com, a website sponsored by the credit bureaus in compliance with federal law allowing all consumers to obtain a free copy of each bureau?s credit report once every twelve months. Next, you should dispute the incorrect listings with the credit bureaus. The Federal Trade Commission offers a free online guide to disputing incorrect credit listings, available at
www.ftc.gov .
When disputing an account discharged in bankruptcy, you should include a copy of your credit report showing the inaccurate listing, as well as a copy of the order of discharge from the bankruptcy court, to show that the same account appearing on your report as delinquent was discharged in your bankruptcy filing. Once the credit bureaus receive your dispute letter, they should forward the documents to the creditors in question so the creditors can either challenge the disputes or correct the inaccurate listings. Given the fact that these debts were discharged in bankruptcy, there is no reason that the accounts should not be updated to reflect an accurate status. Having these accounts correctly listed on your credit reports should reduce their negative impact on your credit score, helping you rebuild your credit after the bankruptcy filing. Although
an account discharged in bankruptcy is not good for your credit score, having both a bankruptcy and delinquent balances on your credit report is usually worse.
Credit reports are notoriously inaccurate, so it is important that you regularly review your credit profile to verify that all of the information being reported by your creditors is accurate. Carefully monitoring your credit history and disputing inaccurate items can significantly increase your credit score, which could save you thousands of dollars in interest on a mortgage, auto loans, and other forms of credit. If you would like to learn more about credit scoring and credit reports, I encourage you to visit the Credit Solutions section of Bills.com at http://www.bills.com/credit/.
I hope this information helps you Find. Learn. Save.
Best,
Bill
www.bills.com
Also, make sure to get a free financial health check-up with Bills IQ!
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