Steps to Legally Repair Your Credit
It all starts with a credit report.
You need to obtain a copy of your credit report from all 3 agencies.
A 3 in 1 report does not cut it. There is much more detail to
be found in the individual reports. Go ahead and spend the $30 or
so. It is worth it. Save copies of the reports, you will need them.
First, dispute
all of the negative Trade Line’s on your report. I got 4-5 deletions
that way. This was effective on about 20% of my accounts. This will
take 30 days or so. You can dispute over the phone, because I don’t
feel like suing the Credit Reporting Agency is the best way to go.
If you arena’t going to sue them, you don’t need the documentation.
IT may work for others, but I have had better luck with the Collection
Agency ’s and Original creditor ’s.
Next, after
the initial investigations are complete, Debt Validation all of the
remaining ones. Now, you can take your time and eliminate them in
manageable groups. However many you have the time and money for,
whether it is 3 or 10 at a time. The way to do this is simple. Sometimes
a company attempts to dodge Debt Validation’s by refusing to sign
for them. When the letter is returned to you, save it to use as evidence
later, and then resend it by FEDEX with delivery confirmation. More
expensive, to be sure, but most companies will sign for FEDEX without
a second thought. When the green cards come back, immediately request
reinvestigation from the Credit Reporting Agency . This does one
of three things:
- They don’t validate, and they don’t reply to the Credit
Reporting Agency . Deletion. You win.
- They don’t validate, they verify with Credit Reporting
Agency . Violation. Proceed to next step.
- They validate accurately, either with or without verifying
to the Credit Reporting Agency . Very rare. Only happened once
so far for me. They just don’t keep good enough records. You
negotiate pay for delete in this case.
There is no time limit for the Collection Agency to reply to your
letter. They can simply do nothing, and are not in violation. That
is why requesting reinvestigation through the Credit Reporting Agency
is important. It forces the Collection Agency to violate by re-reporting
an invalid tradeline or allow deletion. Get more copies of at least
one report that has been re-reported and save it. You will need it
later. I use the equifax service, so I can pull it once a day if
needed.
Next step. You
need to prove the violations are intentional to really get them.
So, you repeat the above steps using a repeat Debt Validation letter.
Once they have verified with the Credit Reporting Agency twice and
have not validated, you have repeat violations. This is enough to
get them. The above steps got rid of about 40% of
my total negatives. With the 20% who did not verify with the
Credit Reporting Agency , you are most of the way there.
Now you need to tally the violations. You can sue for violations
of FDCPA and state law. I used the Florida version of the FDCPA.
This was especially useful, because while the FDCPA allows $1000
in damages, the Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act allows
another $1,000 and whatever punitive damages allowed by the court.
Look into your state’s laws for details.
Once you count the violations, send them a fax telling them you
are suing them and give statute numbers, unless they agree to delete.
This may shake out a few more deletions. Maybe another 5-10%
Now, the
hard part. I have sued 6 Collection Agency’s and Original creditor’s
and only one went to trial so far. The one that did go to trial was
for a friend. She got scared and dropped the case, rather than fight.
All 5 of the remaining cases negotiated a settlement prior to trial
for my expenses and a deletion. The 5 settlements totaled about $1000
to my pocket, which just about covered my expenses. I could have
pushed it and asked for more, or gone to court and tried for more,
but my goal was clear credit, not making money. Besides, any lawyer
will tell you court is a crap shoot.
If you can get a deletion, take it. Don't get greedy.
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originally Posted on Credit Net
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