is it really possible to erase a person's bad credit history?
358784
Yes, there are ways to remove some of the bad entries in your report.  If you want to go to battle, read the links I've supplied below.\n\nDo not waste a dime going to any of those credit repair places.  They will charge you a lot of money to do the exact same things you can do yourself, and they will be just as successfull.  \n\nHere is a real quick rundown on what to do....\n\nGet your credit report (for free) from www.annualcreditreports.com.  Study them carefully for any errors and negative reports.\n\nKeep a carefull log of any calls you make, who you talked to, and any letters you write.  Be sure they are sent by certified mail.\n\nExamine your report for any debts that have run over the Statute of Limitations.  Also carefully note the reporting dates of each item.  According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, they can NOT be listed if they are older the 7 years BEGINNING ON THE DATE OF DEFAULT!  Creditors and collection agencies are good at moving up this date, or even reinserting it after it has expired.  Verify this date with your own records if you have them.\n\nSend a letter to the credit reporting agency (CRA) and protest any negative information.  The CRA will then "verify" the debt with the creditors.  That means that all the creditor has to do is respond back within 30 days and say the report is accurate.  They don't have to prove anything or supply any paperwork.  If they don't respond within 30 days, the CRA must REMOVE the entry.  This works great with some older debts.\n\nIf the debt gets "verified" (you get a letter from the CRA), then write the creditor a "Demand for Validationn" letter.  (See the link below).  Validation mean they must supply you with contracts, bills, receipts, and everything that was used to calculate your debt.  This,again, is in accordance to the Fair Credit Reporting Act.  \n\nIf they send you this information, and it is complete and accurate, you have hit a brick wall and there is no good way to remove the entry, unless you can sweet talk the creditor into removing it on their own.  Not likely.\n\nIf you do not hear from them in 30 days, send a copy of your validation letter, plus another demand to the CRA to remove the entry due to lack of validation.  \n\nIf they still will not remove, you have grounds to sue both parties in court.  \n\nAnd yes, Mr. Collection Agent, this is a fact. I'm doing that very same thing right now.  Funny how responsive creditos are they THEY are the ones getting sued.\n\nYou are about to go to war.  Knowledge of the law is your only weapon.  Don't fight these guys unarmed!
196733
Of course they can. They are a collection agency. A collection comes along and takes over where the original credit grantor left off and gave up. They get a portion of what was owed on the original debt like 25% or so. Sometimes they purchase your debt from the original creditor for pennies on the dollar! Remember, the collection agency isnt your friend no matter how nice they are. They're in it for you money; as much as they can. Sometimes they will offer a "paid in full" for a lump sum of just half of what was owed. Make no mistake. Even doing that they still make money although they wont let you know that. You need to arm yourself with credit knowledge. Start by going to annualcreditreport.com and getting your free annual credit reports. Learn as much as you can by yahooing or googling about such info. If your debt is old, it might be better to not even mess with the collection agency. By law, a negative (unapaid) item in your credit report has to be removed after 7 years. Hope I helped some. Good luck.
1146737
Well unfortunately credit isn't easy to obtain when you've messed up your credit record. I should know, I also got into a mess.\n\nIn the UK it takes 6 years for the credit reference agencies to 'forget' about your past. Up until then, you are pretty well stuffed unless you can lay your hands on some cash.\n\nTIP1:\nChange your name. This is complex and you need a new address to move to under your new name otherwise the credit agencies will tie you together if you stay at the same address. It's also very longwinded and possibly illegal. Personally I would not recommend this as you could get in trouble.\n\nTIP2:\nIf you are a homeowner, you can get a nice new homeowner loan from many places. Just be sure to keep up your repayments or you might find yourself in a big mess.\n\nTIP3 (This is genious here):\nIf you have £1150 you are sorted.\nGoto your local bank and open a savings account. Put in £1000 and then ask to see the manager about a SHORT-TERM loan. They will refuse until you agree that they can freeze your savings account for security. This means you cannot access your savings. When you are asked why you need the loan, Tell them it is for "Credit repair/Building". This is genuinely recognised reason which they will loan money for.\n\nOnce this is done, take the loaned £1000 and repeat the process another 4 times with different banks. When you leave bank #5, return to the 1st bank with #5's money and pay them off (AND the small amount of interest owing - hence why you need £1150). Take your savings back out and go pay back Bank #2. Take your savings from #2, Repay #3 and so on.\n\nOnce you have repaid bank #5 you have 5 very good, clean positive points on your credit reference score from 5 banks. Suddenly you will find that credit is available to you from practically anywhere and many bank managers will be only too happy to help.\n\nTIP 3 sounds rather longwinded and far fetched, but infact does apparently work very successfully. It is used by people ranging from 1st time property developers to people looking for short term loans. The only snag is you do need just over £1000 to start with - Not easy if you don't have it.\n\nGood luck whatever you decide..
533997
Yes.  This has happened to me.  I am having a problem right now trying to get some stuff removed from my credit report.  The problem is that there are 3 credit bureaus and they do not share information so you have to contact all three - Experian, Equifax, TransUnion.  Use these sites to get free copies of your reports.\nwww.freecreditreport.com\nwww.annualcreditreport.com
925216
That’s great that you atempted to repair your credit yourself before you decided to pay someone. \n\nNow that you know how aggravating the credit bureaus are to deal with, you need to find a legitimate company. Let me tell you; they are far and few between. I tried to repair my credit myself and gave up. Then I hired a company in California called a “Fresh Start” they charged me $695 and stole my money. I never heard back from them. It turns out it was a complete scam. \n\nStill very serious and skeptical about repairing my credit, the 2nd time around, I researched quite a few different companies. I finally decided on a company in Florida called Credit Network. They are a smaller company and they really know what they are doing. They also didn’t charge anything upfront except for a small setup fee, after that they charge $49 mo, after the work is performed for the previous month. When I started I had 73 negative items between all 3 bureaus! That was about 8 months ago, and they have deleted all but 17 bad items. They were realistic when they said it could take over a year, buts that’s fine with me, because they followed through on what they said.     \n\nSomething very important….. The bad debts that you say you owe; you need to pay them off. I don’t care if you settle them or pay them in full, eventually you need to pay them off because if you don’t, there is a very good possibility they will pop back up on your credit after you delete them. I was told that debts get sold and resold, even after the statute of limitations. So if you are as serious as you sound about repairing your credit, you have to pay them off!! \n\nOh yeah, here is the link to them http://www.expert-credit-advice.com/credit_repair_service.htm
272675
Actually I have tried this, It is very difficult to erase a credit card with incidental contact with magnets. Audio video and floppies, Just think about it and they are gone!
123318
Don't do this.  It's a scam.\n\nThere is no way to "fix" your bad credit.  You can only improve it over time by paying your bills & being responsible.\n\nYou can, however, fix errors if there are any on your credit report.  You're entitled to one free credit report a year at annualcreditreport.com
972602
Yes I do! But read because its not just that simple\n\n\nThat’s good that you tried to repair your credit yourself before you decided to pay someone. Now that you know how aggravating the credit bureaus are to deal with, you need to find a legitimate company. Let me tell you; they are far and few between. I tried to repair my credit myself and gave up. Then I hired a company in California called a “Fresh Start” they charged me $695 and stole my money. I never heard back from them. It turns out it was a complete scam. \n\nStill very serious and skeptical about repairing my credit, the 2nd time around, I researched quite a few different companies. I finally decided on a company in Florida called Credit Network. They are a smaller company and they really know what they are doing. They also didn’t charge anything upfront except for a small setup fee, after that they charge $49 mo, after the work is performed for the previous month. When I started I had 73 negative items between all 3 bureaus! That was about 8 months ago, and they have deleted all but 17 bad items. They were realistic when they said it could take over a year, buts that’s fine with me, because they followed through on what they said.     \n\nSomething very important….. The bad debts that you say you owe; you need to pay them off. I don’t care if you settle them or pay them in full, eventually you need to pay them off because if you don’t, there is a very good possibility they will pop back up on your credit after you delete them. I was told that debts get sold and resold, even after the statute of limitations. So if you are as serious as you sound about repairing your credit, you have to pay them off!! \n\nOh yeah, here is the link to them http://www.expert-credit-advice.com/credit_repair_service.htm  \n\nand the home page: \nhttp://www.expert-credit-advice.com/
686380
I love all these idiotic answers to just "pay your bills".  \n\n\nThere is an excellent article you need to read on this...see the link below.  It gives a good step-by-step on how to get your credit score cleaned up.\n\nBe advised that if the debt on your report is accurate, and the creditor properly validates it, you can not get it removed from your history.  It will have to come off after the 7 year reporting period expires.
1152757
you from the UK? got info the other day from a company called Nationwide Credit consultants tel:0870 787 1990, call is free. You pay them a fee and can have your history cleared of the last 6 years, and yes it is Legal too so try that. I will.
510092
I'm one of the investing financial advisors who you don't want to talk to yet.  But I've also done some credit work in the past, and I know who you are looking for.  Be very careful, because there are a lot of crooks out there who sell fake credit repair packages.  The best place for you to go is to a non-profit credit counseling organization.  They can help explain all the issues.  Sadly, there truly ISN'T a quick and easy repair that you can make, but there are steps you can take that will gradually improve your credit over time.  If you handle things right, once your bad times are far enough in the past, it will be like you never did anything wrong.
786381
Not sure how you would do this, but could you do a background check on yourself to see if there is anything there incorrectly?  There are tons of cases of credit reports being flawed.  Isn't it possible that a background could have false information in it?\n\nIf they found something, they certainly should have told you.
904564
This does sound like one heck of a mess! You will have to return to the States one way or another. You have proof that you weren't even in the states when your Mom stole your ID. I knew a young girl here in Illinois who was told she could get her credit cleared but she had to press charges against her Mom she really didn't want to but she just had no other choice. She did and her Mom did serve a little time in the county jail and is on probation and my young friend has her name cleared.
718582
I am really surprised at the wrong information that was given to you here. It is not true that paying off the account will allow it to be removed from the credit report any faster than if it is settled. The opposite is actually true in many cases. Negative information is kept on the credit report for seven years from the start of the last delinquency. If you catch up at one point and then get behind again, this will start the clock over. If you settle the debt, then there is no restarting of the clock.\n\nIt is also not true that a settlement will necessarily keep you from getting credit for years. Most loans are based strictly on your credit score. There is no appreciable difference in the credit score of someone who paid off a debt in full and someone who settles the debt as long as they happen at the same time. Much more important is how long ago the delinquency was. If you have to wait to pay it off, it will have far more impact on your credit score.\n\nThe money that you save by settling the account can be used to help you financially now and to help you rebuild your credit. Further, you can negotiate how the company reports the debt to the credit bureau in your settlement offer. You can have them just report a zero balance and not report that it was even settled. I have done this for many clients.
934701
Try this.\n\nWhen you call these companies, tell them that you want IN WRITING a guarantee that they will raise your credit score and remove bad items from your credit report once the bills are paid.  \n\nAnd that they won't take any money unless these things are accomplished.\n\nYou won't find anyone who will agree to this.  Why?  Because they can't possibly promise such a thing.\n\nThere are only two ways to get a negative item removed from your credit history.\n\n1) The creditor must delete it\n2) The creditor fails to respond to an investigation request from the credit bureau.\n\nNote that payment of a bill does NOT remove the item.  It only changes the status from being late or in collections, to paid.  But it still reflects late payments or collections.  It's still a negative item.\n\nThese "credit repair" companies will TRY to negotiate a payment arrangement that will TRY to remove the negative items.  But there are no guarantees.  \n\nBut it is a guarantee that these companies will demand payment for their services, whether they succeed or not.\n\nBefore you go this route, do your research.  Many of the things that these companies do, you can easily do yourself.  \n\nAlso note that many of these "credit consoler" or "credit repair" companies are a front for companies offering consolidation loans or other such services.  Be aware of what's going on!
979862
steal your identity - manipulate your banking - eliminate your credit rating etc etc etc
214814
No, no most of the answers are wrong, your negative credit reports will never clear themselves, check with your state, usually the statute of limitations on debt is seven years, seven years from the date of the negative report, you can pettition the bureaus to remove any that are over the statute of limitations. No one will remove them for you, you have to do the foot work.