subject: Clean My Credit - How To Remove Negative Items And Clean Up Your Credit Report [print this page] You should be aware that you are of the majority if you need to clean your credit. In fact the experts estimate that 1 in every 4 credit reports has an error on them. This error is costing the consumer real money!
Removing these negative items can be long and difficult road for two reasons.
1. One negative item can snowball into multiple negative items on your report but it originated with one item. For example, let's say you had a Capital One credit card that was charged off. On your report you will see the item Capital One and see that it is charged off.
The next step is your Capital One will sell your account to a debt collector lets call them Company X. Company X now has the right to contact you regarding the debt and can also make a negative entry on your report. If Company X does not receive payment from you they will sell you account to Company Y and the process with start all over.
Therefore what started as one item a Capital One credit card is now three negative items on your report! The number of times your account is sold will depend on the amount of the account, the larger the amount the more times it can be sold.
2. Getting the credit bureaus to deem your dispute valid and conduct an investigation. Unfortunately the credit bureaus have no financial incentive to ensure that they have accurate information about you. They will earn just as much money with accurate or inaccurate information on your report.
This is because the bureaus sell your information to other businesses and lenders. The bureaus make their money when your credit is checked. In other words the credit bureaus customers are other businesses.
The bureaus actually spend money investigating disputes. Why do they investigate? Federal law requires them too. In fact the bureaus have been fined time and time again by the FTC for violating this law. The most notably when all three bureaus were fined for setting up a 1-800 number to call in regarding a dispute. Unfortunately the bureaus forgot to hire people to answer these phones and consumers were waiting exorbitant times, if ever gotten too.
Therefore the bureaus will do everything they can to avoid investigating a dispute. They have formulated very effective tactics to minimize the amount of disputes they actually investigate and in turn money they have to spend. These tactics can be very overwhelming especially because you are battling three major giants that are all using these tactics. This is one reason many people will turn to a professional credit repair service.
