With a bankruptcy mark on your report your score will be lowered considerably. However there is hope, you can remove this mark and by building some positive credit you can create a good score.
The truth is that this mark does not have to remain on your credit for 10 years. To remove it we suggest:
1. Dispute the mark with each bureau.
You can do this yourself or by hiring a service, a dispute letter must be sent to each bureau disputing the accuracy of the mark. Upon receipt the bureaus will investigate, however because bankruptcies are recorded in public records which the bureaus will not check during an investigation, the mark will not be verified.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act says that any mark that can not be verified by the bureau must be removed from your report. Additionally this mark says that you the consumer can dispute any item on your report that you do not feel is accurate. Often people are concerned with the legality of credit repair, and you should know you will never be fined, prosecuted, arrested, or face any legal action for disputing an item.
Before you dispute the bankruptcy it is a good idea to make sure that all other negative marks read “included in bankruptcy.” The reason is once the initial bankruptcy mark is removed you will dispute all the other negative items because you do not have a bankruptcy mark on your report. There are rumors that it is much easier to remove this mark after two years.
2. When your bankruptcy mark is erased, you can start to dispute each negative account.
You can dispute it on the basis that it says “included in bankruptcy”, but you do not have a bankruptcy on your report. Thus each negative mark should be erased once investigated. Doing this will give you a clean slate on your report.
3. We suggest you start building positive credit. This is most effective by opening a new revolving line of credit such as a credit card.
With on time payments you will build a positive payment history, this is heavily weighted when your score is calculated. It will also help if you keep your balance under 30% of your limit because this will help your utilization ratio. This means you will have better ratio of available credit to debt.
It might not be the most ethical to dispute items you know are accurate on your report. However is it ethical for lender to charge you 30% interest rate for missing a payment, no matter how long you have been a model customer?
In sum you can remove a bankruptcy and all the negative marks on your credit report. If you build some positive credit and remove the negative credit you can achieve a very high score. This will improve your quality of life by; lower interest rates, more purchasing power, and extra money.
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