Credit Repair - Texas?
I Would like to find out what my rights are under the Fair Credit
Reporting Act as it applies to Texas. I just completed paying of
all but one credit card and would like to correct my credit reports.
I have heard that the Credit agencies have a limited amount of time
to verify and disputed information or clear it - is this correct?
How should the letter of disputed information be worded so that this
applies, should any part of the Fair Credit Reporting Act be mentioned?
Since you are not specific about what aspects of your credit report
that you want to correct, it's a bit difficult to formulate a response
that will answer your question.
There are three big credit reporting agencies: TRW, Trans-Union, and
Equifax. You should start by contacting each of them and requesting a
copy of your report. Each has slightly different policies, but they
are REQUIRED to provide a copy free-of-charge if you have been denied
credit in the last 30 days (TRW gives you 60 days). Email me if you
would like contact info for the "big three".
The Fair Credit Reporting Act allows negative credit history to be
listed for seven years (ten years for bankruptcy, except for a
completed Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which remains for seven years).
Good credit history remains in your report indefinitely.
If you have been delinquent on one or more credit accounts, it is
likely that they will be listed in your file. You cannot remove a
notation that they were past due at some point, but you should be sure
that it now shows that accounts are paid in full.
I have spent some time and effort clearing off the 'obsolete'
information on my file. The credit reporting agency depends on its
subscribers (lenders, merchants, etc.) to send them correct data. The
merchants are VERY quick to report an account in dispute, but they
don't make any special efforts to clear that 'disputed' mark once the
issue is resolved. I tangled with Sears about a charge that was
incorrectly posted to my account over TEN years ago, and found that it
was still marked 'ACCOUNT IN DISPUTE'. Even worse, the account was
closed long ago (in excess of 7 years), but Sears still listed it as
active.
I also had a MasterCard account still listed as open, with a
significant (unused) line of credit. A large amount of unsecured
credit disturbs some lenders, because they consider it money that you
can borrow and spend at any time. I wrote the card issuer, and they
denied any record of the account. Two weeks later, I got notification
from TRW that they had run a periodic account review. :-)
I wrote each of the merchants that still listed closed accounts as
open, and asked them to correct their reports. Some did, some
promised to do so but never did, and some didn't even respond. I then
wrote TRW to dispute the reports, and included the responses (or lack
thereof) from each of the merchants. That finally took care of it,
but I haven't got around to doing the same for the other two of the
"big three".
I believe the time is 30 days. However, you shouldn't minimize their
ability to verify disputed information. Even if they confirm their
information as accurate, you may file a short statement which will be
added to your credit report.
It isn't necessary to mention the FCRA. If you request a credit
report, they will probably include information informing you of your
rights under the FCRA, and attach a form that you can use to dispute
information that you think is incorrect.
Obligatory opinion: my dealings directly with TRW have been mostly
satisfactory. They could have been a little more aggressive about
clearing items off my report that were obviously incorrect: how could
an account with a balance of $0.00 be "in dispute"? I have less kind
things to say about some of the merchants that report information to
them.