Today, we’ll examine what a credit report is, how a bankruptcy affects your credit report, and how you can repair your credit with a qualified and legitimate credit repair service in Dallas, Texas.
What Is a Credit Report, and How Is It Affected By Bankruptcy?
Each time you take out a loan, credit card, or mortgage, a file is started regarding that account with one of three companies known as Experian, Equifax, and Transunion. Together, these make up America’s credit reporting agencies; they constantly examine how much money you owe, to whom, if you’ve ever missed a payment, and if you’ve maxed out any of your credit cards. They’ll also look at how many loans you’ve applied for in the last thirty days.
Using all the above information, these companies will use a proprietary formula to determine your creditworthiness in a credit score between 300 and 850–the higher your score, the better.
A single missed payment on a credit card or mortgage that ends up more than thirty days past due can cause your credit score to drop by up to one-hundred points–or more. Worse still, if it’s a mortgage with multiple missed payments, you may end up as “rolling thirty days late.” Each month, your credit score gets hit, as you are again thirty days late on last month’s payment because you could never come up with the double payment to fully satisfy your outstanding debt.
Bankruptcy affects a credit report in all kinds of ways that one may or may not expect. Suddenly, you have a gigantic line item that states you went through either Chapter Seven or Chapter Thirteen bankruptcy. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy will show up on your credit report for up to ten years; a Chapter Thirteen will last for up to seven years.
However, depending on what debts were discharged in your bankruptcy, those items will now be shown as discharged or charged off and no longer due. This is, in some ways, a positive, as it is no longer an open account constantly attacking your credit.
How Can Credit Repair Help With Bankruptcies?
While the bankruptcy itself cannot be removed, the charged-off accounts may have inaccuracies. Furthermore, maybe some credit reporting agencies didn’t get the memo, or your bankruptcy has been approved and validated by a judge–yet six months later, your credit report still shows an account that should now be charged off.
The process of disputing these inaccuracies, especially during bankruptcies, can be labyrinthian. Prepare to be stonewalled when you call the bank asking for proof that you no longer owe them money, when at one point you actually did owe that money. Waiting on hold for hours just to be asked to fill out reams of paperwork is enough to make most people give up before they even get started.
Credit repair can take this process off your hands and expedite the process. Using legal means of dispute, a legitimate credit repair company can set the record straight on what is accurate and inaccurate so that you can begin rebuilding your credit faster.
A bankruptcy is absolutely not the end of someone’s financial future. For instance, did you know that banks can help with credit repair? If you can maintain a single new account in good standing for just a couple of years, your credit score can be improved immeasurably.
Red Flags to Watch For
Anyone promising to remove legitimate items from your credit report or provide you with a brand new credit profile is selling snake oil. Working with unscrupulous companies such as these can make your situation worse than it already is, either by disputing legitimate items that cause headaches with banks you may have a good relationship with, or by offering you a predatory loan with exorbitant interest rates and promising to pay off all your debts in one fell swoop.
Final Thoughts
If you would like your credit repaired as fast and painlessly as possible, a legitimate credit repair company, like The Phenix Group, can easily help. They’ll ensure your credit record is set straight and fix inaccurate late payments on your credit report so you can focus on what matters to you most, instead of dealing with mounds of red tape.