Everyday people ask me how do I get an account off of a credit report if it is REALLY the persons account. I always say that the question is not if a negative item is yours or not. The most important question – “Is the account reporting correctly?” As a credit restoration specialist, I need to know from my client all of the pertinent information before starting the process of improving my clients credit. We go over each and every account reporting on their credit profile. We then audit your credit report leveraging your consumer rights written in the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act).
The FCRA is a detailed series of laws governing how an account can report on your credit profile. The main 3 issues that I look for is if the accounts are complete, accurate, and verifiable. These are your basic rights and believe it or not about 9 out of every 10 credit reports I look at has some kind of error, or is missing something. Even positive accounts can be challenged if it isn’t 100% accurate. Remember that this report is like your financial resume so you want to make sure it makes you look amazing.
There are other methods that I use as well, such as debt validation. Debt validation is the process of asking a debt collector, i.e. a creditor or a collections agency to prove that they have a right to collect on a debt. Sadly, there are a lot of predators lurking on peoples credit reports that want to collect money from an ignorant consumer without even having the right to collect. So we make them show proof. Think about it, a company you have never heard of and have had no correspondence with calls or sends you a letter telling you to give them money. Your hard earned money at that! I see it all the time delete, delete, delete from the credit reports when illegitimate companies are challenged in this way.
