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Myth:
It is illegal
or immoral to have your credit history restored.
Fact:
It is not illegal nor immoral. In fact, that is what the Fair Credit
Reporting Act is all about. The act was enacted by Congress in 1971.
One of its purpose is to give consumers the protection of the law and
to help guard against any unwarranted invasion of a consumer's right
to privacy.
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Myth:
The information
on a credit report cannot be changed.
Fact:
Actually, the opposite is true under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Federal and State laws require that items be removed if they are not
100% accurate or cannot be verified in a timely manner.
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Myth:
It is
impossible to get a bankruptcy off a credit report.
Fact:
Bankruptcies can come off credit reports like any other derogatory
item. The nature of the derogatory item has nothing to do with its
removal under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
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Myth:
Credit
Reporting Agencies are empowered with some kind of governmental
authority.
Fact:
Absolutely Not!! They are simply large corporations whose primary goal
is to make a profit like any other business. If you have ever applied
for or received credit, a file exists in one or more of the credit
bureaus. These companies collect, store and distribute as much credit
information as they can find, retaining negative information on a
credit report for 7 to 10 years. This information is evaluated by
potential creditors to determine your credit worthiness. Credit
reporting agencies are in business to protect the interests of the
creditors. Our goal is to help and protect the individual consumer
from inaccurate credit reporting.
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Myth:
Bad credit must remain on my credit report for seven to ten years…
Fact:
The law does not require that bad credit be reported at all… The
credit bureaus and creditors do it to make money! The lower your
credit scores are, the higher the interest rate they can charge you!
If your credit is good, your interest rate is lowered and lenders
compete for your business.
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Myth:
Paying an old bill removes it from my credit report…
Fact:
In most instances it reactivates the reporting, which may continue for
seven years from the date of payment. In other words you could be
buying bad credit!
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Myth:
Information on my credit report cannot be changed.
Fact:
It can. The creditor can change it, and Federal Law requires the
permanent deletion of information which, after reinvestigation is
found to be inaccurate, incomplete, or information which can no longer
be verified.
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Myth:
All Public Record items such as Bankruptcies, Judgments, and Liens are
reported by the Courts to the credit bureaus…
Fact:
The Courts do not report this information to the credit bureaus, but
instead, the credit bureaus send their employees to the courthouse to
retrieve this information so that they can sell it to their
subscribers. This information is many times reported inaccurately and
therefore just waiting to be challenged. Experian has 97 ways of
reporting bad credit and 4 ways of reporting good credit…
