Dealing With Some Tough Situations

Because we are dealing with a difficult and complex process, there will be times when you will face some formidable and challenging dilemmas. To deal with these problems, you must develop special techniques that allow you to overcome and win. Here are a few such situations for which you need to develop an effective strategy. Of course, the best way to handle these situations is dogged persistence. Do not give up. Keep at it, and you will see results.

Situation #1: If you have declared bankruptcy, then you must make sure that you first delete all the "Included In Bankruptcy" accounts from your credit report. This means contacting the various lenders and talking with them about deletion. You will have a tough time of it, but if you show persistence, you will succeed. Once you have cleared matters with each of the lenders that were included in the bankruptcy, then you must approach the credit bureau and request deletion. The reason you must first contact the lenders is that in the case of bankruptcies, the credit bureaus often check with one of the lenders included in the bankruptcy. This is why it is crucial that you clear everything with the lenders. Once they have agreed to your demands, they will not verify your bankruptcy once the credit bureau approaches them.

Situation #2: It not unusual to see duplicate entries of the same account on a credit report, where one entry is negative and the other positive. To get around this problem, you should challenge and dispute both the negative and positive entries. This will give your case more credibility, and make the credit bureau notice.

Situation #3: Try not to deal with the smaller, "pass-through" credit bureaus. They tend to be more interested in thorough investigations than the three main credit bureaus. If possible, try to get a street address in the jurisdiction of the three main credit bureaus. Perhaps you can use the address of a friend or relative. Once you have secured such an address, you need to send a verification of your "new" address to the credit bureau, usually a letter addressed to you at your "new" address. Send this proof of your new address to the credit bureau, and at the same time, file a forwarding order with the Post Office, requesting that all mail addressed to your "new" address be forwarded to your actual address.

Once the investigation is complete, you can cancel the forwarding order with the Post Office.

Situation #4: If your file is being investigated by a pass-through credit bureau, you may find that you'll get a letter asking for an investigation fee. This will likely happen if you live in the state of Florida. Do not reply to this letter of demand. Wait for about 3 months and try your dispute again. Or better still move your address (as described in Situation #3 above) to the jurisdiction of a main credit bureau, since the three main credit bureaus do not charge for investigating disputes.

Situation #5: According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a negative credit listing can stay on your credit report for seven years. In case of bankruptcy, unpaid judgments and liens, the derogatory information may stay for up to ten years. If your listing is seven years old, you need to watch your credit report carefully. Often credit bureaus will retain a bad credit listing for longer than seven years, because consumers fail to act and dispute the listing. You must take definite steps to dispute your credit report if it is still showing a seven year old listing.

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