Hi everyone, I have 2 questions if someone wouldn't mind helping me out. 1) How do you get a credit "score" and then update it as I have seen a lot of members here doing? 2) Can someone tell me the proper sequence of events to challenge information in your credit reports? Or possibly easier as I know the above will take some time, point me in the right direction to peruse these posts myself and gather some information. I sent a letter to Equifax about 45 days ago and did have some success in removing about half of the items I disputed. Most of the items I am trying to remove are several years old and fairly low amounts, all of the collections(2) are medical related and I have a letter from one original creditor stating this account is paid and has been for years but the collection co. will not let go. Equifax said they verified the information but they did not check with the original creditor.
singledad: I am new also but have started my own journey(and it is a journey) so let me share what I know. First, you want to get all of your negative accounts (unpaid)together and mail each one a validation letter via certified mail return receipt requested. This is very important because it establishes that your validation letter was received and the date they received it. They have 30 days to validate the debt and if they cannot you can send your supporting documentation to the Credit Bureas and demand that the items be permenantly deleted. This is the law. Second, they may attempt to validate the debt by sending you a computer printout of some kind or another. The law says this is not sufficient. If you recieve something of this nature immediately send them a partial validation letter again return receipt requested. If they cannot provide something with your signature on it ideally an application for credit then you must immediately dispute again with your supporting documents to the Credit Bureaus. This is usually sufficient to have the item removed. However in the rare case that the collection agency or credit bureau decides to play games with you then you may need to send an intent to file suit letter and follow up in small claims court. Third, the credit bureau will sometimes state they have verified the debt at that point you need to send them a letter requesting their verification methods again certified mail return receipt requested. This usually comes before the intent to file suit letter. They must furnish you with the methods they employed to verify your debt. Usually in this case they will either start a "re-investigation or just delete the account in question. I hope this helps...Again I am new here so if any of my advice is a little off the mark someone will come along to correct me. I think I'm pretty right on about this though. The letters you need to begin can be found on this board somewhere. Not on the message board but the screen before I think. Just look around the discussion home page.
singledad: you get your credit score when you order your credit report from Trans Union, Equifax and Experian. It will usually be somwhere on one of the pages. Also, you improve your credit score by restoring your credit. Either through the clean-up process of validation and disputing items in question or by attaining new credit and being fiscally responsible or a combination of both. Usually the former is required for the latter to be possible.
I think that is correct for TransUnion, that they give you your score when you order your report, IF you request it, but unless something has changed, Equifax and Experian are a bit different. Experian scores for a free 30 day trial and then for $80/year, through can be viewed from sites like www.creditexpert.com. The nice thing is they have unlimited views of your credit report and a pretty nice site for extras like the score simulator and free score updates. Equifax scores are the only TRUE FICO score and are obtained through www.myfico.com. There are other sites that offer scores like www.worthknowing.com for TU and www.creditxpert.com (different spelling) for Equifax, some even have tri-merged reports and scores (again not FICO)... each offer different scoring models, different amounts of views (once, 3 times, unlimited) and different introductory deals. Bottom line though, these scores should be used as a refrence to how you are now, vs. how you are tomorrow, because other than myfico.com, all the scores seem to be meaningless for refrence in the real world. -Peace, Dave
