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Information on getting delinquent accounts off credit reports - The Bills.com Blog
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Information on getting delinquent accounts off credit reports
Question: What is the fastest way to get a report of collection and late payments off a credit report?
Answer: To be honest, there is no reliable way to clear accurate credit information from one?s credit report. Despite the claims of many organizations offering ?credit repair,? a listing which accurately represents your payment history to a creditor will probably stay on your credit report for seven years from the dateof charge off, which is when most derogatory items are removed from your credit report, with the exception of bankruptcies and certain other items which can stay on your credit report for ten years. If you have an account on your credit profile which is reporting as delinquent or in collections, you may not be able to remove the account from your credit report, but you should at least be able to mitigate the negative impact of the derogatory listing on your credit score.
First, you may want to pay off any delinquent accounts which are appearing on your credit report. You will likely have difficulty clearing up your credit rating if you leave old collection accounts unpaid and unresolved. You do not necessarily need to pay the full balance of the debt; many creditors will accept a settlement of significantly less than the full balance owed on delinquent accounts in order to resolve the debt. If you contact your creditors, or the collection agencies representing them, you may be able to negotiate settlements for 50% or less of the current balance owed. You may also wish to contact a professional debt negotiation firm for assistance in resolving your delinquent accounts; for more information on the options available to you in resolving these old debts,
I encourage you to visit the Bills.com Debt Help page . Also, if you enter your contact information in the Bills.com Savings Center , we can put you in contact with a pre-screened debt resolution firm which may be able to assist you in paying off your delinquent accounts.
In addition, if you have any questionable items on your credit report which you think are reporting inaccurately, disputing the items is the first step in having them removed from your report. Generally speaking, I encourage consumers to carefully review their credit reports from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus?Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion?at least once per year to make sure that all of the information appearing on the reports is accurate. Credit reports are notoriously inaccurate, and close scrutiny is required on your part to make sure that your credit report is current and accurate. The Federal Trade Commission offers a free guide to disputing items on your credit report. In addition, the FTC offers a guide to self-help credit repair, available at www.ftc.gov
, which may assist you in cleaning up your credit report.
Since it is somewhat unlikely that you will be able to have accurate credit information removed from your credit reports, you may want to focus instead on how you can improve your credit rating going forward. The first step to rebuilding your credit rating is to establish new positive trade lines to counterbalance the negative impact of these old delinquent accounts. As mentioned above, you also need to carefully review your credit reports on a regular basis to make sure that all information appearing on your reports is accurate and up to date. You also need to avoid overusing credit, as having too much debt can negatively influence your credit score; a good rule to follow is to carry balances equaling no more than 25% of your total available credit lines. To learn more about credit, credit reports, and credit scoring, I encourage you to visit the Bills.com Credit Help page .
I wish you the best of luck in your efforts to rebuild your credit rating, and hope that the information I have provided helps you Find. Learn. Save.
Best,
Bill
www.bills.com
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