I have been reviewing my credit history preparing to apply for a refinance on my home. Here is my situation. 1. BK chapter 7 in 07/2004 Is this removable? 2. A previous Address typo on equifax. Should I remove? 3. 4 Charge Offs reported. Should I dispute? 4. 2 credit cards reporting balances usually less than 50% of limit. Balance paid monthly. Used in my business. Should I put a notation on my file that these cards are used for business purposes? 5. FICO score is now 683 with Equifax. Should I bother with any of the above or will I do more harm than good? Comments and suggestions appreciated.
Maybe. It has been done before but it is a matter of public record so maybe you can get yours removed and maybe you can't. All you can do is try. That can prove to be difficult as well. Again, all you can do is dispute it and see what happens. Might as well. What have you got to lose? Nothing. I don't see any reason to dispute it. Maybe someone else will. I'd say go for it.
Beware of disputing any "unpaid" charged-off's accounts which are not time barred by the applicable statute of limitations for contractual actions within your jurisdiction. Such actions could prompt a civil action (albeit unlikely in my opinion from the action in of itself). If paid or time barred, be sure to pinpoint any inaccuracies or areas which are incomplete and don't issue a not-mine dispute if it isn't. This will negate any potential cause of action you may accure in disputing the tradelines. You can remove old addresses from Equifax and Trans Union with a simple phone call. I would encourage anyone to do this insofar as 1) it removes one data field a furnisher could use to verify information and more importantly, 2) it lessens the chance the "pre-approved" credit offers will be mailed to obsolete addresses. Regarding your business accounts, I would leave those alone inasmuch as they are probably helping you. Work on getting the balances at least to or below 30% of your available credit limit. In theory, business cards are to report only to your business reports; i.e. Experian, DNB, and more recently, Equifax, however, they will report on personal files when and if the account ever becomes delinquent. With respect to the Bankruptcy, those are removed quite frequently. I'd suggest you dispute the case numbers, dates, status, etc. Dispute any account included therein as well or it virtually frustrates your purpose. You really run no risk of disputing with Equifax, as opposed to Experian, because it is a rare instance where the date of last activity will be re-aged to the date of dispute. This is the only way a dispute may adversely impact your FICO scores. Not too say that it never happens or the a furnisher may inadvertantly re-up the date. With a 683, you could re-fi now, at least with my brokers. Ideally, it would be best to dispute, wait for the accounts to be marked as such and then apply. Again, in theory, accounts marked in this status are not to be considered in ones FICO and thus, perhaps your scores would be a little higher thereafter.
