By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2010-07-22 12:28:38 | Word Count: 664
Your credit can be a real nightmare, especially if you’ve ever been forced into foreclosure scenario or had to declare bankruptcy. Besides the emotional toll these traumatic events can exact on you and your family, there’s the very real issue of your credit being damaged and your inability to make any major purchases based upon your credit score. It seems that no one will lend you money to take care of a large expenditure, especially a home, business or automobile. The good news is that you might be able to come out of it just by waiting.
After seven years, even a foreclosure must leave your credit report as a negative event. It’s the law that these black marks on your credit be removed by credit reporting agencies and the creditor alike.
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Get copies of your credit reports from the three major reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) and note the dates when the negative events occurred. Make sure that all negative credit marks are removed after their statute of limitations expires, because creditors never want to see something like a foreclosure lingering, even after a number of years. It gives them evidence, whether justified or not, that you are not a good credit risk and will walk away from an obligation. They make no money if you simply disappear.
If the items have not been removed after seven years, contact the reporting agency that lists it (it might be on all three reports) and dispute the item in writing. Credit Elves has sample letters available for creditors and reporting agencies that will give you a clear format to work with, including dates, the exact disputed items, when the items were supposed to be cleared, and how you would like the matter taken care of. You’ll basically be informing everyone involved that this is “out of date information,” no longer pertinent to your credit history.
Another factor to consider is that in addition to erasing bad history, you should be actively creating some good history. Lenders like to see that even if there was trouble in the past, you are making payments in a timely manner now, and can be trusted to make payments to them in the future, on time and in full. It’s a good idea to keep your current credit clean, and perhaps add a small credit account somewhere that you know you can maintain easily, as a show of good faith and character. You might not even need the card or charge account you open, but make a small purchase and make the payments on time and it goes a long way to showing a lender for a larger purchase (say a house or a car) that you are capable of handling your finances in a responsible fashion now.
If your potential lender still has questions about your past, have a satisfactory explanation as to why it went badly before. If you get a compassionate lender, a compelling story about why you were not able to honor your prior obligations previously might help them understand why you are a good risk now.
