A bankruptcy can have a devastating effect on your credit score. A bankruptcy listing on your credit reports to many lenders is the only thing they need to see to determine you are completely unworthy of credit.
Many people will tell you that it is impossible to remove a bankruptcy from your credit reports. The truth is that you can dispute a bankruptcy the same as you can any other type of derogatory account on your credit report.
Note that whether the account is "really" yours or not has no bearing on the credit bureaus responsibility to verify it. If it cannot be verified, it must be deleted. Period. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the burden of proof is on the credit bureau.
Please let it be clear that it's never ever wise to be dishonest when communicating with credit reporting agencies, plus it is totally unnecessary. There are many ways to dispute the bankruptcy without lying.
Did you know that the credit bureaus don’t even investigate public records? The courts will only verify such records in person. The credit bureaus will claim that they have a system to verify such records, but when it comes down to it, they don’t. They also know that if a consumer were to seek litigation and financial damages in a court of law, they would be in big trouble.
I had my bankruptcy removed from 2 out of 3 of my credit reports. The one that would not remove the bankruptcy claimed that they verified it electronically and that it’s public record. It is indeed public record; they were right about that part. But, I asked them who they verified it with and they said they verified with my local courthouse. That’s impossible since the local courthouse confirmed that they only verify public records in person – not electronically, not through the mail, and not over the phone.
This particular credit bureau is much harder to work with than the others. They are very adamant about keeping items on your credit report whether they are accurate or not. This credit bureau has also been sued the most. And as long as they refuse to properly investigate accounts according to federal law, I'm sure that trend will continue.
Check out AAACreditGuide.com for more free credit repair tips.
Ardell: If lenders see a bankruptcy on your credit report, more than likely they will charge you higher interest rates which will usually cost an extra $100,000 or so on average, for a 30 year fixed mortgage. Is that fair? Maybe. Maybe not. It's not really for me to say. But, according to lender's profits over the years, I think their risk is very minimal.
It's great that you are so concerned about the lenders and their billions of dollars, but I am more of a consumer advocate. I care more about the consumers who are struggling to live paycheck to paycheck then the multi-billion dollar corporations. Many of us believe that the credit reporting system is unfair, unjust and heavily flawed. Not all of us accept the system "as is" and will use the federal law in our favor.
Rick: The system itself is one big flaw. Did you know that a study released by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group in June 2004 found that 79% of the consumer credit reports surveyed contained some kind of error or mistake. That is a MASSIVE amount of erroneous information. We're talking billions of dollars being paid in interest fees, late payments, etc by consumers because of errors on their credit reports. Talk about a flawed system. It makes me want to puke.
You guys should realize that credit bureaus are not your friends. They do not care about you at all. They are strictly in business to SELL YOUR PRIVATE INFORMATION. Accuracy is OBVIOUSLY not a concern of theirs.
William,
Yes, it was Experian. :) They are a nightmare. I have not tried what you described. Can you send me more details on that procedure?
Thanks,
Chane
Could you help me with Experian and removing a bankruptcy? Thanks.