Your creditor threatened a court-ordered judgment but you thought that, if you waited long enough, he would get tired of pursuing you and let it go!...
Your creditor threatened a court-ordered judgment but you thought that, if you waited long enough, he would get tired of pursuing you and let it go! Unfortunately, that’s not how it turned out and now a judgment has been issued against you.
What’s worse, you didn’t realize how much this would affect your credit score. The fact is, a judgment can remain on your credit history anywhere from 10-12 years and, if the debt is still unpaid at the end of this time period, your creditor may be able to renew the judgment. Even a paid judgment will remain on your credit report for seven years from the date paid!
Now, you would like to remove the judgment from your credit report. You need to be aware that it is illegal for credit reporting agencies to remove accurate entries. There are only two ways an entry can be legally removed from a credit report. The first way is to prove that an item is inaccurate. The second way is to dispute the item and, if the creditor cannot verify the item within a legally specified time frame, the credit reporting agency is legally required to remove the item. Items which consumers believe are false can be disputed pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Included in the FCRA, are judgment and public record items.
If you decide that you would like to dispute a judgment entry on your credit report, it will be necessary to send a dispute letter to the credit reporting agencies that are reporting the judgment. Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion are the three major credit reporting agencies. With entries such as credit cards or car loans, the dispute would be forwarded to credit card companies, banks, credit unions, loan companies, car dealerships, etc.
However, with a judgment or public record, the credit reporting agency will forward the dispute to the governmental agency which maintains the record, normally located in the county courthouse of your resident county. Recording and verifying judgments is performed by county employees, not high-tech automated software programs. As it takes longer for a human to search legal records and verify a judgment or public record than clicking a computer key a few times, it is often the case that a judgment or public record request for verification is unable to be completed within the 30-day time limit. If this is the case, the credit reporting agency is legally required to remove the judgment entry from your credit history.
If you are hesitant about taking this process on yourself, you might consider employing the services of a seasoned and knowledgeable consumer rights attorney. An attorney who specializes in consumer rights has likely resolved hundreds, if not thousands, of similar cases during his career.
is possible. Discover the only legal way to remove any questionable at www.creditreportjudgement.com.
If you know how to build positive credit, you will know how to increase your credit score. Low interest credit products will be available to you if you build positive credit.
It is a common misperception that if you charge massive amounts on your credit cards and then pay them off each month, you will be building positive credit. In addition to not being necessarily true, this, in actuality, can hurt your credit standing. The reason for this is that credit providers want to know how much credit you have available to you and, of that amount, how much credit you have used. So, let’s say that you have applied for credit and, during the approval process, your credit provider sits down to view your credit report. He finds that your credit report shows that almost all of the credit limit on your credit cards has been used, because you have not yet paid that month’s bills. This will give a skewed picture of your finances and make you look like a bad credit risk.
Additionally, using up most of your available credit will give the appearance of spending beyond your means. This may not be the case, however, it may look that way. If you are one of those that likes to charge everything, you may want to rethink this strategy.
It is also best not to have large amounts of unused available credit. So, what is an acceptable amount of credit to use? Well, a good guideline would be to use somewhere between 10% and 20% of your available credit. Credit providers will take this to mean that you can refrain from running your credit cards up while, at the same time, making your payments on time and as agreed.
It is important to maintain at least one credit card. If you are worried about approval, there are credit card providers that offer credit cards to people who suffer from poor credit. You should be on the watch to maintain the 10% to 20% rule noted above. You should not incur large amounts of monthly interest if you follow this guideline. Also, you should make sure that any credit cards you have or that you subsequently obtain are reported to the three major credit reporting bureaus – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
You should be diligent in making at least the minimum payment due each month and never, ever be late with a payment. If you do this, your credit score will increase.
You can apply for a small low-interest personal loan to help build positive credit, if you do not want to apply for a credit card. The strategy is the same. Make your payments on time each month and pay at least the minimum amount due. Positive credit can be built with any credit product if it is used properly and responsibly.
Learn How to Stop in its Tracks. Free Tips to Escape Debt in Less than Seven Days.
Credits and loans are used by individuals when purchasing their needs. A car loan is applied for to get a car, a mortgage is taken to get a house, a student loan is taken to get an education and a credit card is used to get about just anything else. Cash is barely needed nowadays to purchase your needs.
Getting a loan or any other credit for that matter is not so simple. The bank that will issue the credit will not do it blindly. They will first check your credit background and only when they find it satisfactory will they approve your loan. These financial entities will be able to check your credit history through credit reports. Given this fact, it is vital that you first review all your credit reports before you decide to get a loan and find out your chances.
A “consumer reporting agency CRA)” is in charge of gathering and selling credit information. One common example of this is a credit bureau. There are three main credit bureaus in the USA at present and some minor ones. Likewise, there are 3 major types of credit reports, i.e., the annual credit report, the consumer credit report and lastly, the business credit report.
Experian, Equifax and TransUnion are the 3 major credit agencies where people get their credit reports from. All three maintain the “annual credit report”. This credit report can legally be requested by individuals from any of the three agencies every year for free. An extra copy will require a fee though.
The Consumer credit report accounts the consumer’s credit history that is offered by various agencies that do credit reporting in the USA. The difference of this to the annual credit report is that it can be demanded anytime for any reason by the consumer. Likewise, unlike the annual report, this one is not free. It can be requested online anytime as long as you pay the fee. The business credit report is basically an account of a business or a company’s credit history. This type is also not free.
A credit report basically contains several information, first of which is the “identifying information”. This includes the name and aliases, the addresses and social security number and other pertinent details such as the date of birth, employer details and your spouse’s identifying details.
The credit report also includes the “credit information” such as the existing bank account details, the existing loans and all other related data. The report also indicates the “public record information” like the court records, previous bankruptcy records, etc. Finally, the credit report has “recent inquiries” which include the names of those who took a copy of the report for the last two years as may be needed.
Getting the different reports from the three major credit agencies mentioned above is very vital to someone who intends to get a loan or a mortgage. These reports will enable you to already know your chances of your loan and will therefore prevent unsavory surprises. Reviewing all three reports will also assure you that no mistakes or errors in details are in the report.
About the Author:
Jenny Hughes offers advice on credit-related topics, such as or how to .
