If you are struggling with bad credit, chances are you are considering engaging in some type of credit repair. It is important to remember that although you might hear numerous schemes advertised by a less than ethical credit repair company, the reality is that all legitimate forms of credit restoration do take some time.
Negative accounts will remain in your credit file for seven years and a bankruptcy filing will remain for ten years. While there is no legal way to remove a bankruptcy from your credit file (despite what you might hear) there are ways to get negative accounts removed prior to the seven year mark. As an example, you may be able to use debt validation or the 623 method to get the account removed from your credit. One thing to remember is that if your lender has gone out of business and the new servicer was not transferred all records, they may not be able to verify the details of the account. If they are not able to substantiate the information that they are reporting it must be removed from your credit file.
If you have collection accounts you do not want to simply pay them off. It is far better to contact the lender prior to making a payment and arrange for them to delete the account in exchange for payment in full. You may need to find a way to make extra cash so that you can pay them off at once, but the results will be worth it.
It is important to keep in mind that while you are working to clean up your credit you should also be focusing on adding good new positive accounts to your credit file. These can help to counter balance the negative accounts. It is important to have accounts with only a positive credit history, so make sure that you are able to make your payments on time ever month. You should also avoid carrying balances because having credit cards at or near their limits can really lower your credit score. It is better to have credit available to you that you are not using.
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