I hope this inspires everyone to dispute, dispute and dispute. I received my updated Trans Union report today and the item I disputed was deleted. That makes 17 items that I have removed in less than 6 months (Jan. 31st will be 6 months since I started cleaning up). I am so happy. That leaves only one negative item on Trans Union. Good luck to everyone. BTW I still have a dispute out with Equifax (the same item that was removed from Trans Union). I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
RE: This makes 17 in less than You go girl!! If I send you my information, what would you charge me?? Can you give examples of what was deleted? Like lates? chargeoffs, how old etc?
RE: This makes 17 in less than Great Job Molly, always good to here some positive feedback. Reshod molly wrote: ------------------------------- I hope this inspires everyone to dispute, dispute and dispute. I received my updated Trans Union report today and the item I disputed was deleted. That makes 17 items that I have removed in less than 6 months (Jan. 31st will be 6 months since I started cleaning up). I am so happy. That leaves only one negative item on Trans Union. Good luck to everyone. BTW I still have a dispute out with Equifax (the same item that was removed from Trans Union). I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
RE: This makes 17 in less than Nine of the items were student loans. Six were chargeoffs (Mervyn's(paid) and Sterling Bank (was unpaid but I exchanged payment for deletion)) and 2 were collections(gas co.). The two chargeoffs appeared once on each report and the gas co. appeared on Equifax and Experian only. I still have six items to go (1 on Trans + 2 on Experian + 3 on Equifax). I started with 23 items total. I think the best thing to do is contact the original company while you are doing disputes. Start disputing the easier items with the bureaus. At the same time contact the company's that are reporting the negative information for the harder items. For instance, Citibank originally had my student loan so I wrote to them and asked for the original dates of loan, date of delinquency, date loan was sold, and original signature pages. The wrote back and said the loan was sold to... we cannot provide you with the information you requested. So I sent a copy of that letter along with a dispute to the bureaus and the item was removed because Citibank cannot verify the information they are reporting. And we all know that this violates our rights as a consumer per FCRA. Citibank did exactly what I wanted them to do-put it in writing that they weren't able to verify the info. That same item had been disputed with the bureaus and verified about 2 months before I sent in this dispute. Make sure you send everything certified. I have spent a lot of money on postage but I think it is worth it. With the Mervyn's chargeoff I got real lucky. The chargeoff was from 1996 but in 1999 I got approved for a Target card. You may not know this but Retailers National Bank is the issuer for both stores (they are basically the same co.). I wrote Mervyn's a pretty long letter stating that I was not aware of this debt when I closed my account and I am a loyal customer, I have a Target card (#223344555) blah blah blah. You get the idea. I didn't send that letter certified mail so I didn't know if they received it but about 2-3 months later it fell off all three of my credit reports. Be creative but don't give too much information when doing disputes with the bureaus. I know a lot of other people have had great success with their disputes also. I didn't think disputes would work until I started reading boards online. I thought if this is working for other people then it just might work for me. What did I have to lose? About ten bucks in postage. P.S. I have spent about $75.00 in postage so far.
RE: This makes 17 in less than BUT ON YOUR STUDENT LOAN DO YOU STILL OWE ON IT? I DO AN BUT SOME I DON'T?
RE: This makes 17 in less than Molly, That is great! I have had some luck but not that kind of luck. I've gotten the bk off of my reports and a few negatives as well but have run into a brick wall. But I believe your statement "dispute, dispute, dispute" is right on. If you don't have luck the first time dispute it a second time and so on. Eventually you will get those reports cleaned up.It may not be done in 6 months but it will get done.
RE: This makes 17 in less than Hard work, some postage and envelopes and persistance pays off. 2.5 years ago, my histories were riddled with derogatory trade lines, judgments, a bankruptcy, collection accounts and inquiries. You name it, it was on there, and it wasn't pretty. I read the boards online. I read everything that I could - read it in more than place to make sure it was accurate. Then I disputed. By telephone. By fax. By mail. For the non-recurring, non-active stuff that I felt were not being reported every month, I began by disputing it with each of the CRA's, two or three at a time. I specified exactly what I was disputing (i.e., this account is/was not mine, the original delinquency date is wrong, it was my ex-wife's account and not mine - some of them truthful statements and some not). Slowly but surely, they started to disappear. Some were easy - Sears, on the phone, deleted $4k worth of debt on two accounts that were joint, but I claimed were my ex-wife's, and she had filed BK, and I was only an authorized user. Boom - gone. A number were never verified. Boom - gone. Some I disputed two or three times, each time waiting until AFTER the earlier results came to me in the mail. Some took two or three disputes to go away, but eventually they did - Boom - gone. I read somewhere to just dispute the judgements because they were rarely verified (not the BK, but some other judgements - apt complex, etc.). Guess what? Boom - all three gone. Also during this time, several of the trade lines passed the seven year reporting deadline. Boom - gone. After about the first 9 months, I whittled it down to about half a dozen or so on each report that just wouldn't go away. Several were collection accounts for under $100. I contacted them, got them to agree to removal for full payment, and they were removed. Boom - gone. The remaining items were larger issues - a car repo and a mobile home repo. The mobile home repo was $7000 by now, so I contacted them and settled for a $3500 payoff, accepted as full settlement. They said 'okay' and that was that. Although originally telling me that they would only update it to "PAID/WAS REPO", the items either disappeared on their own (even though they were much less than 7 years old), or I disputed them and they were removed. Boom -gone. My CH 13 BK went 7 years in November of 2000. It was a long time living with that, but I made it. Boom - gone. The car was a different story. It was reaffirmed during my CH 13. A year into it, I decided that I was going to have the BK dismissed, because the only thing secured was the car, which would be 8 years old by the time I completed the CH 13. Because of this, I became liable for the debt again, but I dealt with them and settled for a $5000 settlement accepted as full payment for the $9000 debt. I took out a personal loan (had a cosignor) for the 5 grand. Not only was the car paid off, but I was building positive credit history with the loan from my credit union. To this day, the car is still on my TU as "PAID/WAS REPOSESSION" - it will be there until Dec of this year. It is NOT on the other two - for some reason, EXP and EFX could not verify, but TU has several times. During all this time (about 4 years after filing my BK), I began rebuiliding my credit. Several low limit, high interest credit cards (Providian, CCB). I never charged much (to avoid any fees), always paid on time. After a couple years, I got a loan for a 2 year old truck @ 20% interest and a large downpayment. I kept it for a year, made my payments on time, and traded it in on a lease vehicle with low interest - my first good deal in years! I kept slowly building things back up. Traded in those high interest, low limit credit cards for better cards. It's been a long road, but YOU can do it, too! Nothing is instant, but with the help from those on these boards, it can improve rather quickly. 2.5 years ago, I couldn't finance the steam off of a hot dog. Today, I have a boatload of new credit (prime mortgage for a brand new home, two lease vehicles, 3 credit cards with combined $30,000 limit, the personal loan from my CU, etc.,etc.). I'm happy to help whenever I can - share my experiences. And unlike some others, I don't want a dime from you. I may not always be right, but I can honestly say that I know more than MOST. It CAN be done!! Persist!
RE: This makes 17 in less than Thanks, John, for your inspiring post. I agree 100% that it can be done. I've had so many tradelines honestly improved or deleted just by following the advice on this board. Marci
