Can questionable, bad credit be deleted or corrected?

Can credit repair companies be trusted?

How much does bad credit cost?

Does paying off past-due accounts neutralize their negative status?

Can deleted items reappear on my credit report?

Are items such as bankruptcies and foreclosures impossible to remove or correct?

Should consumers try credit repair on their own?

Does bankruptcy wipe the slate clean for a second chance?

Do creditors bother to read the 100-word statement?

Can changing one's SSN or EIN tax number help credit matters?

Does enough good credit offset bad credit?

Does the CCCS help consumers restore credit?

Do negative items have to remain listed for 7 years?

What is the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)?

Do creditors bother to read the 100-word statement?

The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives consumers the right to add a brief statement to their credit reports explaining disputed items. Our experience has shown, however, that these statements are at best unhelpful, and at worst, damaging.

Many misinformed credit experts suggest using this statement to explain your side of the story when a negative item on your credit reports is lowering your credit score. Unfortunately, because human eyes rarely read through the details of your credit reports, this explanation most likely will have zero effect on a creditor's opinion of your creditworthiness.

Even worse, when you add a statement on your credit reports such as "these payments were only late because there was a problem with the company's automatic withdrawal system", it can be interpreted as an admission of guilt. If you try to dispute the item in the future, the credit bureaus will not need to bother contacting the credit grantor to determine the accuracy of the negative item because your credit statement already admits you were late in making the payment.

Because of their ability to hinder your credit repair efforts, we suggest making 100-word statements the first things you delete from your credit file.