The National Consumer Assistance Plan (NCAP) has made it difficult for credit bureaus to add judgments on your credit history, but it’s still possible to see a civil judgment lower your credit score. If so, removing the judgment from your credit report shouldn’t be an enormous problem. Fast credit repair services can get it done quickly and with zero headache.
Three Ways to Remove a Judgment from Your Credit Report
Regardless of why you see a judgment on your credit report, you should try removing it as soon as possible. Here are some effective strategies that can be helpful:
1. Confirm the Court Ruling
According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you must validate debt from civil judgments, just like with consumer credit. To validate your debt, you must write to the court that made a ruling against you. Request that the court authenticates and proves the judgment is yours and accurate–if the court doesn’t respond with valid information, including the filing date, your correct Social Security number, your correct address, and your date of birth, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you can dispute your debt as inaccurate and get it removed from your credit report. It should be noted that getting a judgment removed mayincrease your credit score, but if you’re wondering if credit card scores can be manipulated, the answer is not so much about manipulation as it is influence.
Because the National Consumer Assistance Plan now bars this type of private information from appearing on credit reports to begin with, the civil judgment will automatically be removed as it’s considered invalid by default.
2. Appeal for a Vacated Court Judgment
If you follow the news, you know that single court judgments are rarely the final word on legal matters. Thus, you can appeal the court judgment and other resulting court orders.
If, for example, the person who sued didn’t follow the correct legal steps, your judgment might be overturned. Or, if your state’s statute of limitations on debt doesn’t predate your debt, then your ruling may also be overturned. After this, you may legally get the court judgment removed from your credit report.
If you’re wondering how long a credit dispute takes, with a proper credit repair agency, it can take a matter of days or weeks, as opposed to months if you were to try to do all this yourself.
3. Pay off the Debt You Owe
A simple way to remove a court judgment from your credit history is to pay off your debt if you can afford it, assuming it’s yours and valid, and can’t be removed from your credit report via the validation process. However, only pay off the debt if it’s yours and the lawsuit was handled properly, meaning you may not lodge an appeal successfully. Unfortunately, paying off debts doesn’t always result in credit bureaus removing the court judgment from your credit history.
So, if possible, make your payments contingent upon the creditor removing the debt from your credit history. Have this agreement in writing, and don’t give the collection agency or creditor your credit card number or bank account details. You don’t have to pay the entire debt–instead, you and your creditor can negotiate your balance down. This approach is helpful if the money is going to a collection agency.
Final Thoughts
A judgment lingering on your credit history is problematic. For example, it may mean you can’t secure a loan or mortgage in your name. Luckily, there are steps you can take to get a civil judgment removed from your credit history. All that paperwork is quite the hassle, and a qualified credit repair company like The Phenix Group can make the process a cinch.
Also read more about can credit scores be manipulated?