If you have inaccuracies or sticky listings on your credit report, you may have considered the credit repair choice. The Fair Credit Reporting Act or the FCRA was enacted back in’79 to “promote the fairness, accuracy and privacy of personal information on credit reports”. This law also allows consumers to dispute information on their credit reports, which is important because it is expected that as many as 75% of all credit reports hold inaccuracies and erroneous credit.
You have the right to dispute the errors on your account and if the credit bureaus and lenders cannot bear out the precision of the information it must be removed from your file. You can do credit repair on your own or you can also take on a professional service to help you.
But, be aware that the Federal Trade Commission states unambiguously on their website that “No one can legally remove accurate and timely negative information from a credit report. The law allows you to ask for an investigation of information in your file that you dispute as inaccurate or incomplete”.
This statement seems to be very upfront and it is one cause why credit repair critics try to discourage you from trying to repair your credit by convincing you that credit repair is fruitless. But, the fact is that you can make large changes to your credit score and your credit report by taking steps to repair your credit.
The FTC quote may seem to be obvious but there is actually quite a bit of uncertainty. In fact, up to 75% of all reports contain mistakes and wrong information. Credit repair companies actually offer a advantageous service. You can always take the steps to repair your credit yourself also, but it can be prolonged and exasperating and you may not want to attempt such a project if you are like many individuals these days and short on time.
And then again, while you are not supposed to be able to eradicate true and timely information from a credit report, who determines exactly what is “accurate and timely”. Mistakes and miscommunications occur often between lenders and consumers. In many instances, something that is considered to be “true” may not be completely so.
Commonly, there are things that show up on a credit report that are wholly inaccurate. Listings showing on your report that belong to someone else, are duplicate entries, are the result of identity theft or have been listed longer than 7 years, are obviously inexact and need to be removed from your account. These types of items regularly show up on credit reports.
As a consumer you also have the right to dispute any item that you think is misleading, ambiguous, unverifiable, biased or questionable. Intermittently there may even be issues that the lender feels are precise but you were never able to preserve yourself with your side of the account. One reason why it is so fundamental that a consumer can dispute damaging listings is because of the fact that there are always two sides to a story. You can dispute anything showing on your report that is inaccurate, untimely, misleading, incomplete, ambiguous or questionable either on your own or by employing a skilled credit repair service.
Repairing your credit may perhaps become essential at some point. If you need further information about credit repair services visit http://724Credit.com and don’t forget to sign up for a free credit repair course.