Cleaning Up Your Credit Report

[Carter]

I have an issue with two credit cards showing "charge off" the accounts were opened in 2004 I filed chapt. 13 in 2006 and in 2010 I disuputed them asking Equifax to mark them "included in BK" they left it as "charge off" and changed the date reported to 7/2010! Now it looks like I have a new bad debt. Also, I had a car loan through Honda Corp. and they were reporting "repo" with a balance owed of $17,000. I disputed that one and it came back that Equifax was reporting correctly! I called Honda and they said they had reported it as an account "included in bk" all three times I diputed the account. The Honda account is also showing the date changed to 7/2010 as reposession when it was 2006 before. My score dropped several points because all three accounts now have a recent date for the bad debt! I should have left them alone because now the 7 yrs starts all over again! I have disputed all 3 accounts 3 times and each time it looks worse on my credit report and my score drops another couple points each time I dispute them!!! I even got a letter from Honda stating that they are reporting zero balance and included in bk but Equifax isn't fixing it. This is very frustrating!!!

[curiouscat]

I have an issue with two credit cards showing "charge off" the accounts were opened in 2004 I filed chapt. 13 in 2006 and in 2010 I disuputed them asking Equifax to mark them "included in BK" they left it as "charge off" and changed the date reported to 7/2010! Now it looks like I have a new bad debt. Also, I had a car loan through Honda Corp. and they were reporting "repo" with a balance owed of $17,000. I disputed that one and it came back that Equifax was reporting correctly! I called Honda and they said they had reported it as an account "included in bk" all three times I diputed the account. The Honda account is also showing the date changed to 7/2010 as reposession when it was 2006 before. My score dropped several points because all three accounts now have a recent date for the bad debt! I should have left them alone because now the 7 yrs starts all over again! I have disputed all 3 accounts 3 times and each time it looks worse on my credit report and my score drops another couple points each time I dispute them!!! I even got a letter from Honda stating that they are reporting zero balance and included in bk but Equifax isn't fixing it. This is very frustrating!!!

This is called "re-aging" and yes, my friend, it is illegal. The a-hole creditor rely on you to be a victim and not fight back. No, the 7 years should not start over again. Read up on the FCRA, the FDRPA and state laws. Write them a nasty letter - find a template here or elsewhere or if you don't feel comfortable, get an attorney to advise you.

I had this happen with Homecomings Financial (one year after I had paid in full and had a reconveyance from county recorder stating paid in full - these clowns were trying to say I was "30 days late" on a PAID IN FULL account). Also AmeriCredit is scum and tried to illegally re-age my account. Certified letters threatining the actions pertinent to state civil codes (California) and proof of the paid-in-full status took care of these scum. I kind of wish they had kept pursuing, because I wanted to make some easy money.

[AbbeyA]

I just pulled my credit report for the first time since ch 7 bk discharge on July 1st 2010
I didn't realize that the credit report doesn't include the actual credit score -- I went through equifax and ordered the free credit report. There was a link where I could have paid to get my score, but shouldn't it be included in the credit report? Where are you ordering your credit reports and are you paying for them?

Thanks for any information you can provide.

[HHM]

I just pulled my credit report for the first time since ch 7 bk discharge on July 1st 2010
I didn't realize that the credit report doesn't include the actual credit score -- I went through equifax and ordered the free credit report. There was a link where I could have paid to get my score, but shouldn't it be included in the credit report? Where are you ordering your credit reports and are you paying for them?

Thanks for any information you can provide.

No such thing as a truly "free" score. The score is a separate product. Generally, when you see advertisements for a "free score", you only get that if you enroll in some sort of credit monitoring service.

In any event, to determine if you need to do something with your credit report, you do not need the score. Just look at how the various accounts are reporting. Have they zero'ed out the balance owed, in the remarks/comments does it say Included in Bankruptcy (or some variation). If all is good, don't worry about your score, it will increase over time.

[sah2]

You can get a free score and credit reports from all three bureaus with a free trial to a credit monitoring service. Equifax (equifax.com) and Identity Guard (identityguard.com) both have this. You can get a free Experian credit score and credit report from Quizzle.com (no credit card or trial required) and a free Transunion score from Creditkarma.com, although I am suspicious of the CreditKarma site, because although all the info they have on me is correct (and they have been sending me credit monitoring updates for free which include absolutely accurate information) my score is way higher than the other sites say it is. With the free trials and with Quizzle.com, you only get to look at the credit report and score once (which is why I have signed up for a few) without paying or waiting a few months. With CreditKarma, although it seems to be inflated, you can update it daily (my score actually dropped 3 points the other day due to hard credit inquiries)

[AbbeyA]

Thanks for the information and quick answers, much appreciated! : )

[ben1381]

There may be new rights to free credit scores in the same manner as credit reports in the new financial reform legislation signed by the president. Does anyone know anything about this?

[nervousbker]

Can you please clarify? Should the report have both charge off and discharged in Chapter 7 if the charge off was prior to BK? I just got my discharge on 8/2 and would like to move forward.

[snowhawk]

Can you please clarify? Should the report have both charge off and discharged in Chapter 7 if the charge off was prior to BK? I just got my discharge on 8/2 and would like to move forward.

Similar question, should we see charge off during our CH 13 and the IIB together in the history or just one? Does it matter for CS?

[ssc2761]

My experian credit report indicates all creditors payment status as included in bankruptcy, or some variation of this. However, in the comments section on some of them it states "transferred to another lender or claim purchased." Does this matter, since the payment status indicates bankruptcy? Also some of the creditors still list payment history even though they are included in bankruptcy. Is this normal or is their nothing I can do about it? All the accounts do state IIB and either zero balance or the balance is blank. Any responses are greatly appreciated. First time poster. Thanks for all the help.

Discharge granted 7/7/10.

[bakergrl]

I went through all 3 of the companies and disputed what was not correct and have recieved emails that they have all been corrected. Will fixing the incorrect items help improve my score, and if so how long after can I expect a change in my score?

[dawntyoung]

I've filed for ch7 bk. With the FCRA 7-year rule will the accounts be removed 7yrs after the beginning of delinquency or 10 years after the date of the bk discharge?

[dawntyoung]

Also, is there any way to get things removed from the credit report before the 7 years? I have some medical bills I would like to remove post discharge. What about debt consolidation companies? For example, I have a consolidation for my student loans, but then each one is reporting closed. Can the individual closed accts be removed? It just looks like overload of high debt.

[buffy]

How should a reaffirmed mortgage be reported? Right now it shows included in bankruptcy, delinq.date, major delinq. date. Problem is the account was NEVER delinq. I've tried to get it corrected by disputing on line and have called the mortgage holder. Both insist it is reported correctly. How can I get the delinq. info removed?

[IBroke]

Here's my plan:

Once discharged, I'll purchase a credit report online and dispute ALL negative accounts. There is a bureau that offers an online-report with the option of disputing "accounts have multiple errors - please verify ALL information". I don't even need proof that I disputed because I will receive the RESULTS by mail directly from the credit bureau. Some of these accounts have errors already and it is very likely they VERIFY these errors.

And that's when it's getting interesting: Once a creditor VERIFIES incorrect information through a dispute with a credit bureau, there are at your mercy - especially after a discharged CH7.

If they VERIFY incorrect information, they can be sued because they blew it - by law, they DON'T have a second chance to correct their VERIFIED error.

This comes in very handy. After the discharge, they all of a sudden owe YOU money.

The great thing is that you have control over the creditor from that point on. That saves you time and hassle as well because you don't have to dispute the same creditor with the other bureaus. You tell the creditor by certified mail that by VERIFYING wrong information with the credit bureau, he is in violation under the FCRA and that you are DEMANDING the REMOVAL of the entire tradeline/account from ALL credit-reports within 30 days or he will be sued for the FCRA-violation. And the great thing is that they can't come after you because you were discharged..

Also, I read several reports that claim that you actually have the RIGHT to demand that the creditor has to REMOVE (not correct) the tradeline once he verifies inaccurate information.