The process of filing for bankruptcy protection should not be taken lightly if you are considering this as an alternative for dealing with your current debt situation. While filing for bankruptcy provides a legal option for many to avoid collection agency harassment, it is also a solution that has negative repercussions for many years to come. A bankruptcy credit report is not appealing to creditors and employers who may use your credit report to determine your personal character. Therefore, bankruptcy must be considered a last resort solution after other options are carefully weighed.

The Impact of a Bankruptcy Credit Report

When your bankruptcy is filed and approved by the courts, this action is reported to all credit bureaus and can remain on your report for up to 10 years. You cannot request that a bureau remove the bankruptcy from your report. Bankruptcies are viewed even more negatively than charge offs, delinquencies or collection accounts. Additionally, your score could drop more than 100 points. Many people are not aware that not all debt qualifies to be discharged during a bankruptcy. These include taxes, student loans and child support. Continued late payments on any of these items will have further negative impact.

Life after a Negative Report

A Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 can make it more difficult for you to buy a home, obtain credit or insurance. Any credit extended to you will come with high interest rates. It is also an embarrassment to admit ones inability to pay debts. However, it is more important to learn from past mistakes and gain financial knowledge to make better choices in the future.

A low credit score after a bankruptcy is not the end of the world. It is possible to maintain a positive report and strengthen your position to deal with future financial matters. For many, bankruptcy can be a path to a fresh start by not having the burden and stress of a lot of debt. Repeat bankruptcy offenders who try to abuse a system designed to help may never learn from their mistakes.

Rebuilding a Negative Bankruptcy Credit Report

It will take time to rebuild a positive credit history and clear your report of any negative items. Many are able to do this by getting small amounts of credit and responsibly repaying the bills on time. Secured credit cards with low limits are another way to try and rebuild good credit. Monitor your progress periodically to help you stay on track.

The concept of credit reports in many cases can become complicated to some people. Despite the fact that several individuals have an understanding of the process, it is still very confusing to millions, especially when they are faced with a lot of financial debts. The biggest reason for this is the fact that most times the credit reporting agencies tend to be silent about the methods associated with their operations. But, for those you need help, this guide to disputing credit report is specially designed for you.

More often than not, there are times when individuals end up being lost with the handling of the entire process. But, although this procedure might be challenging, it is very important for you to dispute credit errors whenever they are discovered in the report. You would be surprised to the many different reasons why this report need to be correct at all times, it might mean nothing to you at the moment but can become vital in the future. We all know that the disputing of any claim on a report is not the simplest procedure in the world, yet it is something that has to be carried out. Besides, it is necessary to do as early as possible and ensure that all the details in the report are precise.

However, before you make an attempt to dispute anything in the credit report you first have to obtain a duplicate to review the document carefully. This can easily be retrieved from any of the credit bureau agencies and after reviewing the information and facts, you should make a note of all the errors that you might find. In the event that you discover an item that you think is incorrect, then follow the guide to disputing credit report and know how to take any action if necessary. If not, you will be taking a risk and the wrong information in the report could impact negatively in the future if you happen to make applications for any type of loan.

This is not a process that you can simply take up the phone or log on to the internet to solve; there is a process that has to be followed. The procedure entails the writing of a letter which states the error that was found in this credit report. Besides writing this letter, you will need supporting records to submit alongside which would include evidence of the claims. After that, the credit bureau may request the credit card provider or anyone who provided the details to perform in the investigation.

Additionally, you must make contact with the individual that provided the information toward your credit report initially and inform them you had written a letter and send to the credit agency. After that an investigation is going to take place that will ascertain if the details need to stay or be eliminated from your report. Even though it might be painful to do this, it is an important procedure that has to be done if you really want to preserve a good credit score.

Presently there are a number of resources available on the internet for people who need guide to disputing the credit report. Doing any form of research is good these days, especially when you are protecting your rights and money.

A credit report; also be known as the credit reputation, credit score or credit history, which is a report of the history as well as the status of your current and past borrowings, their repayment in addition to the information on late payments as well as bankruptcy. It is important for you to have a good credit report by ensuring that you repay back all your loans in addition to manage your cash flow properly so as that you prevent negative information in your reports. With a good credit history it shall open so many financial doors like mortgages that a person with a bad credit history has lower probability of getting. Sometimes a credit agency may insert inaccurate information into your report that may hurt your credit reputation.

For one to avoid such circumstance it is important to work with a debt consolidator, credit agency or credit lenders who are reputable for their accurate as well as offer perfect services they offer this can lower the probability of having inaccurate information is put into your report. As well, the reputation of past credit reporting of the firm is also imperative for you to take into account of if it is good or not before you use their services.

What’s more, you can build good rapport with your credit agency as you perform all your transactions it is beneficial. It is important to always work with a legitimate credit agency therefore; the possibility of an untrue report is lower .Also one should check if your account with the agency is as per your record or your receipts. This is very important since the credit agency can have no reason to write you a negative report but if your account has errors as well as it indicates your repayment is not consistent, then you shall get a bad report.

The inaccurate information that could be hurting your credit score is most probably found on the consumer statement such as fraud cases, late repayment cases from a debt consolidator report also in the public statement having information on bankruptcy of the client.

Final Tip: while you can get a free annual credit report once per year, this one does not contain your credit scores making it incomplete, then trying to get a full credit report in a free trial base with one of the best credit report services become a must, this way you will have a full picture of your very particular financial situation, this will undoubtedly help you to get your credit scores improved and consequently a fixed credit report.

Annual credit report request form is required by an individual when he wants to check his credit ratings. It is very essential to avail the annual report due to numerous reasons the prominent among them is the detection of identity thefts. It shows in detail the repayment pattern of a consumer towards the lenders to which he owes money. It is the indicator of your borrowing and repaying habits for a particular year which acts as a guide for lenders while verifying your loan application.

Ordering individual company reports at different times during the year gives you a chance to monitor your credit report more frequently without having to pay for your additional reports. Ordering it can help you be aware of your credit power or in some cases your lack of power. Ordering your free report is the first step to taking charge of your financial situation. It sounds scary, but it’s not, the hardest part is getting started.

Checking your own credit, placing a fraud alert or subscribing to a monitoring service does not cause a hard inquiry. Inquiries stay on your credit report for up to two years. However if a lender or a credit card company checks your credit report, it goes down as a hard inquiry and may cost you five points.

Checking your score is necessary. Checking the information on your credit report on a regular basis can help in two ways. First, it can alert you to any fraudulent activity that has been taking place with your name or your accounts.

Check out our videos on identity theft and especially medical identity theft. Checking your credit reports should be good to tell you if everything there is OK. Checking your credit through the credit bureaus directly can cost you as much as $9 per report, although it differs from state to state. You can request that the report be mailed to you or obtain it online.

Check with your financial institution about the interchange fee that takes place. Usually, by selecting “credit,” your institution collects a small fee from the merchant. Check your state laws to see what you are guaranteed! Check your credit report at least once a year to correct errors and detect unauthorized activity.

Free annual credit report is a document that contains all your relevant personal and financial information such as your full legal name, your date of birth, and your social security number. It also contains your current and previous addresses, and current and previous employment information. Free yearly credit report helps you to keep a check on your credit standings in the market. By availing this report you can evaluate your credit conditions that can prevent you from bad credit report. Free instant credit report is provided by any of the three major credit bureaus. The credit report which is basically annual report of your credit history gives you the detailed information about your financial position in your credit dealings.

The following information is on your credit report such as your residence history, open accounts, derogatory reporting, public records, open accounts, closed accounts, outstanding balances, minimum monthly payment amounts, outdated ratings and inquiries. If you find errors or questionable activity, there are additional steps you will need to take in order to get the information updated and corrected.

Identity theft is happening every second in American and if you have a credit score, it makes you a target, which means everyone is now a potential target in the arena of identity theft. Identity theft: When a person gains access to your credit card details like the PIN or the SSN, it is called identity theft. A person can use your credit card and can substantially ruin your financial life.

Request that the fraud department flag your file with a fraud alert. You may also wish to consider asking the three agencies to put a freeze on your credit reports thereby locking out anyone seeking to open an account or fraudulently establish new credit in your name. Request and receive a free copy of your credit report once every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. The three companies have set up a central website (annualcreditreport.com), a toll-free telephone number (1-877-322-8228).

Lender that you applied with is obligated to give your name of agency from which he acquired your credit information. Also he will have to furnish you with a valid reason for loan rejection. Lenders always check your report before giving approval. And if your loan denied, you can call for your credit report anytime. Lenders looking to issue credit in the name of someone with a credit freeze will be unable to access the credit history without your explicit permission.

Errors in your credit report can affect your credit score and, in turn, your ability to get a loan or to obtain a favorable interest rate. You are not required to order your credit score. Errors on your credit report can cost you in higher interest rates. Things on your credit report can last a long time, especially if you’ve ever declared bankruptcy.

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Now that you have obtained your credit report, the first thing you need to do is read through it and understand what it all means. Don’t feel bad if you don’t understand what the credit report is saying to you. Most credit reports are coded because it allows shorter time for the computer to transmit all the information between the reporting agency and its clients. All reports should have the codes print directly on the back of the report itself or on a separate attachment telling you what the codes stand for.

Credit Bureaus may not all have the same format on how the report should look, but they all have the same information included on the report. Equifax is the only credit-reporting agency that provides consumers with a credit report in a column format. This means that Equifax reports are easier to read and easier to understand. In this chapter you will be shown examples of what is on the report from Equifax, Trans Union and Experian/TRW.

EQUIFAX: They often separate out the accounts with the different collection agencies. The Company Name is the name of the business reporting the information. In many cases, just below the company name is a description of the type of account (such as student loans, credit card or line of credit), some payment history and or the account’s status (such as charge off, collection account, payment deferred, account transferred or account closed by consumer.)

o The Account Number is the number from the company reporting the information and who is responsible for the account and what type of obligation you have. Here are sample codes explaining what they are:

A = Authorized user (of someone else’s account)

B= On behalf of another person

C= Co-maker/Co-signer

I= Individual

J= Joint

M= Maker

S= Shared

T= Terminated

U= Undesignated

o Date Opened is the month and year you opened the account.

o Month’s Review is the number of months for which your account payment history has been reported to the credit bureaus and when it was last looked at.

o Date of Last Activity is the date of the most recent month and year that something happened on the account. This may be the last time you made a payment or when the account was charged off or sent to collections. This date is important because negative information can stay on your report for up to seven years after the date of the last activity.

o High Credit is the credit amount of any loan you took out, your credit limit or possibly the highest amount you have ever charged on that specific account.

o Terms indicate either the number of installments you have (indicate by an M) to pay off the debt or the amount of your monthly payment.

o Balance is the amount you owed on the account when the creditor last provided the credit bureaus with the information.

o Past Dues is the amount past due on the account when the creditor last provided the credit bureaus with information.

o Status indicates both the type of account and your payment history that you have made.

o Type of Account: I stands for (Installment) meaning payment amount is fixed each month; O stands for (Open) meaning entire balance is due each month); R stands for (Revolving) meaning payment amount is variable each month.

o Payment History Codes: 0= too new to review; 1= Paid as agreed; 2= 30+ days past due; 3= 60+ days past due; 4= 90+ days past due; 5= 120+ days past due or account sent to collection; 6= Making regular payments under wage earner plan 7= Repossession 8= Charged off to bad debt.

o Date Reported is the date the creditor last provided Equifax with the information. Creditors who have requested a copy of your report are listed in the final section with the date they requested your report. Under Equifax’s policies, coded inquiries are given only to you and other creditors are not allowed to see them.

TRANS UNION: Breaks down the credit information into several subsections.

o Public Records. This section includes information obtained from local, state and federal courts and offices including lawsuits, bankruptcies and liens. Any information that is public accessible.

o Accounts with Negative Marks. Trans Union separates out the accounts that contain information which some creditors may consider to be adverse and highlights the negative information by enclosing it in brackets. The bracketed information usually includes the account’s status, any past due amount and information on any late payments that you have made.

o Accounts without Negative Marks. Immediately following the negative accounts, Trans Union lists the accounts that are reported with no adverse information. Both the accounts without negative marks and those with no adverse information contain the following information: the name of the company, account number, the type of credit extended to you, the date the creditor last provided Trans Union with the updated information, the amount you owed on the account when the creditor last provided Trans Union with your balance, the person who is responsible for the account, the month and year you opened the account, the amount of any loan you took out, or the highest amount you have ever charged on that specific account, your credit limit on a revolving or open account, or the amount of your monthly payments and number of months that it took you to pay off an installment debt, the month and year you or the creditor closed the account, and the status of your account as of the last date the account was updated. Items such as charged off as bad credit, collection account, paid as agreed, payment after charge off or collection are also on the report.

o Inquiries-Full Disclosure. Trans Union divides your inquires into two sections. The first section lists the companies that received your full credit report in response to your request for credit. These inquiries stay on your credit report for at least two years.

o Inquiries-Partial Disclosure. Some companies received only your name and address for the purpose of making you a credit offer or to review your accounts. These inquiries stay on your credit report for up to a year and are not seen by other creditors.

EXPERIAN / TRW: This credit bureau summarizes the contents into two categories,
one section for listings of creditors who receive your report for offering you credit, and the second for their own purpose of marketing.

o The report starts off with potentially negative items such as public records and accounts with creditors and others and then is followed with accounts in good standing. On each page of this report, the consumer’s name and a unique number appear on the top corner.

o Experian / TRW provides you with information affecting your credit worthiness. The items listed with dashes before and after the number, such as -3-, may have a negative affect on your credit.

o Those items are listed first; beginning with public records and followed by credit accounts. After the negative entries, the item for which there are no negative entries follows.

o For all accounts, negative or positive, Experian / TRW includes the creditor’s name and address and the account or court case number. To protect your identity and lessen your risk of identity theft, Experian/TRW does not include the full account number. They only include the first few numbers and leave the final few digits out.

o Experian/TRW notes the date the account was opened and how long the account has been reported with them, date of the last activity on the account, the type of account, your payment terms, your monthly payment amount, who is the responsible person for paying, the original amount that was borrowed, your credit limit or your highest balance, and any recent balance or payment. Finally, the comments paragraph tells the status of the account and for past due accounts, and when the information is scheduled to come off your report.

o Following the list of credit accounts, Experian/TRW provides more detailed information for certain accounts. This detail includes your monthly balances for you for the past 24 months and your credit limit, high balance or original loan amount you borrowed.

o Towards the end of the report, Experian/TRW separates out credit inquires into two sections. The creditors who reviewed your report for the purpose of offering you credit and creditors reviewing their own accounts or who reviewed your report for marketing purposes. For the first set of inquiries, each entry indicates how long the item will remain on your record.

o The end of the report contains identification information, which includes your name and all other names you have used in the past, your current and previous addresses, your social security number, date of birth, and current and previous employers. Remember that once a credit bureau gathers information about you, they can report that information and that information can and will stay on your record. The items listed below tell you how long each of these items will stay on your credit report. This will give you an idea of what you need to avoid or fix, if at all possible.

o Bankruptcies from the date of the last activity may be reported for no more than ten years. Though the date of the last activity for most bankruptcies is the date you receive your discharge or the date your case dismissed, credit bureaus usually start counting the ten-year period from the earlier date of filing. Some credit bureaus report successfully bankruptcies for only seven years. That may not always be the case.

o Lawsuits and judgments may be reported from the date of the entry of the judgment against you up to seven years, or until the governing status of limitations has expired, whichever time period is longer. Credit bureaus usually delete all lawsuits and judgments after seven years.

o Paid tax liens and criminal records from the date of the last activity can stay on for up to seven years. Accounts sent for collection, accounts charged off or any other similar action may be reported from the date of the last activity on the account up to seven years. The date of last activity is 180 days from the delinquency itself. Creditors are obligated to include the date of the delinquency when they report past due accounts to credit bureaus.

o Bankruptcies, lawsuits, paid tax liens, accounts sent out for collection, criminal records and any other adverse information may be reported indefinitely if you apply for a large amount of money over one hundred thousand dollars of credit or insurance, or if you apply for a job with an annual income amount of at least $75,000. However, credit bureaus usually delete all items after seven or ten years.
Now that you have read through this info and you know how to read your credit report and
understand it, you should be able to analyze your report and make a list of everything that you see that is inaccurate or out of date, misleading, or not authorized to be in your file.

Your credit report also contains certain items known as “Public Records”. Public Records include any credit-related lawsuits that you may have been involved in as well as liens, repossessions, foreclosures, judgments and bankruptcies.

Credit bureaus also report the names of other member creditors who have made inquiries into your account. If a potential lender sees too many recent inquiries, they might not grant you credit if they feel that you are getting overextended.

There are, however, two types of inquiries that are part of your record but are never seen by creditors. There are inquiries made by you, on your own behalf, and inquiries made by companies that send you all of those unsolicited credit card and loan offers that you get in the mail. So, while these offers may be annoying to some, the good news is that you are not being penalized by them.

How am I identified in my credit report?

Your credit report lists your name, current and previous addresses, Social Security Number, Date of Birth, Spouses Name (if you are married) and your employer.

What other personal information do “they” know about me?

Nothing. By law, your credit report cannot contain information about your race, religious beliefs, political affiliations, sexual preferences, criminal records, or any other lifestyle issues.

How far back does my credit report go?

Positive or “good” credit information remains on your report for as long as you have an active credit relationship with the creditor and for up to seven years after that relationship ends satisfactorily.

Negative, or “bad credit” remains for seven years except for bankruptcies which remain for up to 10 years. The public record information that we mentioned earlier can remain for up to seven years after you remedy the problem that caused the information to appear in the first place.

An unpaid judgment, which is an amount of money that a court has decided that you owe as the result of you’re having lost some legal action against you, such as not paying a bill which resulted in the creditor taking you to court, can remain on your report for up to 7 years AFTER you pay the judgment, and will remain indefinitely if you do not pay it.

Creditor inquiries generally stay on your report for up to two years.