How Long Does It Take To Fix My Credit?

This is a question I get asked quite often. There is no way to put a date or time period to it. There is a general time line that you can expect, but you see, you are not in control of how soon or how long it takes for the credit bureaus or collectors/creditors to respond to your dispute.

So, here I want to explain a basic time line to give you a general idea.

• You get your credit report - same day usually, unless you request it by mail from the bureaus, then expect 15 - 30 days.
• Review and highlight the negatives on your report. Categorize them into collections, charge offs, and judicial. Usually, collections are 3rd party collectors, charge offs should be original creditors, and judicial will be tax liens, bk's, judgments, etc. Write their correspondence address on your list as you will be using this on your letters and for mailing. This can be done the same day you get your credit report, so you are still at 1 day.
• Start writing letters. You will write one type of letter demanding validation from the 3rd party collectors. You will write a different type of letter to original creditors. Now, you can demand validation from them, or if its something simple like 1 or several late pays, you can be specific and just tell them you want to validate the late pays because you don't recall ever being late. Then you request for them to remove the late pays from your report. Many times they do just that. Instead of the hassle of validating, they just remove them, especially if they are old.
• For the judicial entries, guess what? You can actually demand validation for those baddies! The thing is, courts don't verify or validate, so I would be shocked to hear that someone got validation back from the court. Tax liens are a different story though. Those would be disputed with the IRS. You would demand validation the same as you would of a 3rd party collector. That is what they are. The IRS is a collector and not a government agency. They've done a good job at fooling everyone, haven't they! Writing the letters can take you anywhere from a few hours to 2 days at most. So, I would say, you are now on Day 2.
• Now that you've finished the letters, you will need to mail them. These letters need to go CMRR (Certified Mail, Return Receipt). So, some time before you start your credit repair, or after, just trying to cut time here, pick up some green cards and green and white certified mailing supplies from the post office. They are free! It should take you no more than an hour to get everything addressed - envelope, green card and receipt, and ready to go to the post office. You do need to go to the post office to mail these. Cost is under $6 a letter. Okay, that is still day 2.
• Collectors and creditors will have 30 days to respond to your dispute. But, you should receive your green cards back within a week - 2 weeks, tops.
• Next step is to write your letters of disputes to the credit bureaus. These do not go out before you get the green cards back. You must wait till you get those first. 1 letter to each Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. You can dispute every item on each one at the same time. But, DO NOT DISPUTE THE BK AT THIS TIME!!! So, getting the letters written, envelopes addressed and mailed, 1 day. You're up to about 2 weeks.
• The credit bureaus are to respond to your dispute in 30 days. So, the time line now is about 45 days 

You should see a little improvement at this time. You will repeat this process again and again, to get things off your credit. Each dispute with the credit bureaus needs to attack the negative item differently so that they don't label it frivolous and stop the process for 6 months.

The disputing process is a little more detailed than what I've given here because I'm just giving general info, but figure a 30 - 45 day cycle for each round of disputes till you get most or all of the items off.  Expect 2 to 3 rounds at the least and more like 6 -12 months, sometimes longer when there are BK's and things like that.

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below or email me. I'll respond as soon as possible, usually within a day or two, many times, the same day!

FTC Warns 18 Websites for Violating New Rules for Free Credit Reports

This is a great article from creditinfocenter.com, written by Meredith Simonds. I'm glad she's letting the public know about this and I'm glad the FTC is actually doing something useful!

Shannon
(This article was originally linked but links have been removed as requested by creditinfocenter.com, due to Google's webmaster guidelines.  I would still like to give credit where credit is due, so you can still find this article there, you'll just have to copy/paste and do a search on their site)

FTC Warns 18 Websites for Violating New Rules for Free Credit Reports

July 28th, 2010 ·

by Meredith Simonds


Of all the advice for protecting your credit, regular monitoring of your credit report is at the top of the list. It’s so important, in fact, that the federal government requires the three main credit reporting agencies to give you a free copy of your report every year. Unfortunately, many consumers are confused by sites offering these “free” credit reports in exchange for other paid services. The government passed a new law to help consumers out, but at least 18 websites are breaking the rules and the feds aren’t standing for it.
Many websites display ads for people to order the free credit report they are entitled to every 12 months from each of the three credit reporting agencies — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. However, to process your request, some of these sites require the purchase of other services. Complaints by confused consumers finally led to the passage of a law requiring the following verbiage to appear at the top of any page on which an ad appears for a free credit report:

You have the right to a free credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com or 877-322-8228, the ONLY authorized source under federal law.

Obviously, this is a huge deterrent to anyone who was considering requesting their report through said website. Certainly it will cut into the profits of those that have grown accustomed to making money off services attached to the “free” credit report request. But for those sites that were simply offering a link to a free report as a service to its readers, this new law will only serve to increase credibility.
Apparently at least 18 sites were counting on lax enforcement of the new law, as the FTC recently sent warning letters to 18 websites that have yet to post the required text at the top of the page. The Consumerist lists the sites here.
Bottom line, the safest and surest way to request your free credit report is to do so directly through the only government-authorized website. If you have not requested your free credit report within the last 12 months, you may do so now through AnnualCreditReport.com.