Please help, I'm new to the board and credit repair but really want to start repairing my credit. I read the library on this site and lots of the postings. I think that I understand the basics of what I need to do but the order of the steps has me confused, I think because people seem to use different terms for the same thing. Could someone please help. After I get my credit reports and find the negative items I need to do the following in this order. 1) I send the credit reporting agency a dispute letter saying the debt is not mine? Is this the same as asking them to prove the debt is mine, to validate/verify? 2) After 30 days if they are unable to validate/verify they must remove the item from my report? 3) If they don't respond at all after 30 days I demand that they remove the item from my report? If they do validate/verify I then ask them to prove how they determined that the debt is mine? 3) If they still don't remove it I keep repeating steps #1 #2 & #3? What kind of reasons do most peope use for step #1. just claim it is not theirs? I gather that most people dispute them even when they are, isn't this just asking for trouble? I'm not all that opposed to doing it but a little worried I might get myself in some legal problems? Could someone maybe give a brief listing of the steps to take in the correct order? I realize that credit repair is not a simple thing but a real brief outline would be a great help.
You've got the right ideas. A great free resource that's pretty comprehensive is this: http://mixsix.com/credit/ Disputing is easy. Make a copy for yourself of your reports then just highlight the items that really are wrong. then you can call the bureau or mail a letter starting a dispute. When you dispute, you can dispute: Not mine, wrong account number, never late, balance 0, wrong open date, wrong closed date etc. You can dispute anything that's wrong even by a little bit. A credit bureau just verifies (not validates) info. Meaning, they contact a company and ask "is this correct"? then the company either will not respond, respond no, correct, or confirm the info is not yours as reported. Once you start a dispute, you don't have to do anything. You will wait a little over a month and then you'll get another report sent to you with the results of the investigation. you can also see some updates online. Some people use "not mine" when the item is, but I wouldn't either. Normally there are real errors in the line and you can get a deletion from a real error. The other idea you've been reading about it called validation. This is something you do with a collection agency and it comes from the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Eg: an item shows up on your report that really isn't yours. you know it's not yours but the creditor keeps telling Equifax that it's yours. You basically are asking the collection agency to PROVE it really is yours (and not just look at a computer screen and tell Equifax "yes, that info matches ours") In essence, you are saying that, while your info may somehow have gotten into the system, the debt isn't in fact yours... Or even if it is, you are actually just putting the burden of proof on the collection agency and not on Equifax to prove the debt is yours. they are very different letters. Disputing with a bureau is as easy as: your name and address and ssn the report number Bank of America #12334545 isn't mine. Please delete. Always tell them what you want them to do. act like they're 4 years old or so. OR Amex #45566 balance is 0. Please correct my balance to reflect 0. I have a friend who occasionally says "not mine" when the item really is but he won't put it in writing so he calls the dispute in so there's no paper trail. I've never needed to b.s. the bureaus. they screw up your info so often that they almost always give you a reason for a dispute. and there's really no repurcussion to lying... but if you ever take them to small claims court a lie might bite you back. after a dispute is done, if they verify something as correct, you can ask for a procedural description. Again, you're just asking "how did you verify this?". likely they'll ignore the request or send you the wrong info. some members have used this as a reason to sue in small claims court and then the bureau most likely deletes the item because it's not worth a lawsuit. You can dispute until they start saying no. repeated disputes sometimes work. but if you have collection items we I would also start attacking the information at its source (hence, the validation letters we send). These try to force the person putting the info on your report to remove it. It's just another strategy. Go and read that free info, it'll explain the basics and his material is gold. I read every book and online reference on credit and I found his free info more informative than most that I paid for. Good luck.
1) send a dispute saying the acct is not yours, please delete.This is not the same as asking them to prove the acct is yours. Credit bureaus do not prove the validity of reported info. The reporter of info has to prove the validity. If a credit bureau verifies an acct to be yours and correct after investigation, you then request the procedure used to verify along with who verified at what address and phone #. 2) If the creditor doesn't respond to the credit bureau after 30 days, the bureau is required to delete the information. If they do verify then you ask the credit bureau how they verified it. You can also send a validation letter to the collection agency requesting proof of the existence of the acct and proof that it is yours. 3) If they verify and/or validate, there's not much else you can do but redispute, or, you could offer payment to the creditor/collection agency in return for complete deletion. Most people dispute the accts. as not theirs. If you have something like a 30 day late, you then dispute as never late - please remove the late pay.
I'm new to credit repair as well and must admit that I am still somewhat confused with the sequence of events as they should occur. I do have an idea that might help new people like myself and illni. I can construct a Flow Chart of the procedure as I understand it and then post it on the net. Then perhaps LKH, Breeze, Marie, and some of the other old pros here could look at it, e-mail corrections etc which I make and then re-post. Seeing the steps laid out with the flow of events as they 'ideally' should occur would be very helpful. It would also help all the experts on here as well, instead of answering the same questions for every new person that comes along they could simply refer them to the url for the flow chart. Let me know what you think.
So let me see if I got this straight. 1. To credit bureau's, I only send "dispute" letters. 2. Validation letters are ONLY sent to collection agencies. 3. The estoppel letter is ONLY sent to collection agencies after 60 days of no response of a validation letter? Are these correct? I too am just getting started on credit repair and have not actually written to any credit reporting agencies just yet, but would like to make sure I'm clear on these. Thanks!
