New York Credit Repair

There are several steps you can take to help improve your credit rating, but building and maintaining a good credit score requires diligent effort and a long-term commitment to financially sound living. Bills.com has a great article about understanding your credit score, for you to learn more.

Federal law (US Code Title 15, §1681c) controls the behavior of credit reporting agencies. This law is known as the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Under FCRA §605 (a) and (b), an account in collection will appear on a consumer's credit report for 7½ years. The clock starts approximately 180 days after the date of first delinquency on the account. To learn when an account will be removed by the credit reporting agencies (TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian and others), add 7½ years to the date of first delinquency. Subsequent activity, such as resolving the debt, is irrelevant to the seven-year rule. However, if the debt is a tax lien, that can appear for seven years from the date of payment. A bankruptcy will appear for ten years from the date of the final order. Delinquent federal student loans can be reported indefinitely, i.e., for as long as they are delinquent.

You could dispute the inaccurate items on your credit report without the assistance of a credit repair firm. However, like most professional services, you pay these firms to do the work for you and to provide professional advice based on their experience in working with other consumers in similar situations. I like to compare this service to people going to a tax preparer to have their tax returns completed; they could do it themselves, but prefer to hire a professional to save them time and to point out ways that they can save more money on their taxes. You certainly can dispute items on your credit report without professional assistance, but many consumers prefer to hire a professional to help them through the debt dispute process.

Generally speaking, the fees charged by these law firms for credit repair assistance are reasonable. One of the more well-known firms, Lexington Law, charges $99 as an initial fee plus $39 dollars per month, which is not much money considering the amount of time their services could save you, especially if you have many accounts on your credit report that need to be disputed.

As I mentioned, you can also dispute the derogatory items yourself.

Step 1: Obtain a copy of your credit report.

First, obtain a copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. You can request no-cost, no-gimmick copies of your reports by visiting AnnualCreditReport.com.

Once you have received copies of your reports, you should carefully review them to make sure that all listings, especially the listings appearing in the "derogatory" category, belong to you and are being reported accurately. Credit reports are notoriously inaccurate, with consumers frequently finding listings of derogatory accounts that never belonged to them or that were paid off years ago.

Dispute any inaccurate listings with the appropriate credit bureau. See the Federal Trade Commission document FTC Facts for Consumers: How to Dispute Credit Report Errors for more information.

Clearing up inaccurate derogatory accounts may improve your credit score significantly, depending on the number of inaccurate listings you find on your reports.

Step 2: Pay off items.

Next, you should try to pay off any derogatory items that legitimately belong to you. While paying off these accounts will not make them fall of your report, it should improve your credit by reducing the amount of delinquent debt reporting to the bureaus and preventing the accounts from continuing to be reported as delinquent.

Once you have dealt with you derogatory accounts, you should begin paying down your other accounts, to reduce your debt to available credit ratio. You can safely carry some debt, but carrying too much debt month to month demonstrates that you are financially strapped, and should not be extended more credit. Ideally, your ratio of debt to available credit should be no more than 33%.

Step 3: Build your credit.

Finally, if you do not already have a long, positive credit history, you should begin to build one. You can start by opening a few small credit card accounts, making charges on them, and paying off most, if not all, of the balances each month. By doing this, you will show yourself to be a responsible user of credit, and your credit score should improve with each month you continue to show a positive payment history. If you find that you cannot obtain a traditional credit card because of credit problems, a secured credit card, in which you deposit cash in an account as collateral for the credit line, can help build a positive credit history.

How to calculate your credit score

Your credit rating is calculated based on several variables, including your payment history (do you have any late payments, charge-offs, etc.), the amount and type of debt that you owe, if you have maxed out any of your trade lines, and then several other secondary factors like the length of your credit history and how many recent inquiries have been made to look at your credit history. Since your past payment history accounts for approximately 35% of your FICO credit score, establishing a good payment history with your creditors is essential to building and maintaining a good credit rating.

To learn more about credit and strategies to improve your credit score, I encourage you to visit the Bills.com Credit Solutions and Resources page.

I hope this information helps you Find. Learn & Save.

Best,

Bill

Bills.com