Common Credit Report Errors To Look Out For
According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, these are the most common errors consumers find on their credit history:
Mistaken identity
- Wrong name, address or phone number
- Accounts from someone with a similar name
- New credit accounts opened by someone who stole your identity
Incorrect account status
- Accounts wrongfully labeled as open, past due or delinquent
- Accounts that wrongfully listed you as the owner instead of authorized user
- Wrong date for the last payment received, date the account was opened or delinquency status
- Same debt listed multiple times
Data management
- Information that is not removed, despite already being disputed and corrected
- Accounts that are listed multiple times, with different creditors
Balance
- Incorrect credit limit
Apply To The Court Seeking To Set Aside The Judgement
In some instances, a judgement creditor will not agree to sign consent orders. This is because once the court has entered a judgement, the judgement creditor has no obligation to consent to set aside the judgement. In this case, you will need to apply to the court yourself.
For example, government agencies such as the Australian Taxation Office and local councils have policies in place which prevent them from consenting to setting aside judgement debts.
How To Get A Judgment Removed From Your Credit Report
Created by FindLaw’s team of legal writers and editors| Last updated June 20, 2016
Your consumer credit score, as noted in a credit report, can have serious negative effects on your ability to secure a loan, obtain housing, or even get a job. Judgments recorded on your credit report for any unpaid or late debts will lower your consumer credit score. As a result, it’s important to understand the process for getting a judgment removed from your credit report, so that you may eventually move on from this burden and repair you consumer credit score.
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If You’ve Had A Judgment Taken Against You For A Debt There Are A Few Ways You Can Remove Judgments From Your Credit Report You Can Appeal For A Vacated Judgment Dispute The Inaccuracies Or Simply Pay It
If you’ve had a judgment taken against you for a debt that you owe, you’re probably familiar with the impact it has on your finances and your credit score. Judgments usually show up under the public records section of your credit report.
There was a time when judgments could show up on your credit report at any time, but recent legislation has made it more difficult for them to be reported. The new rules required public records data to contain a consumer’s name, address, social security number, and/or date of birth.
In response, the credit reporting agencies Experian, Equifax and TransUnion also came to an agreement known as the National Consumer Assistance Plan to ensure that accurate reporting is followed and consumers are aware of their rights.
However, if judgments meet certain criteria set forth by the Fair Credit Reporting Act , they can still be put on your credit report and damage your credit.
Our guide explains what a judgment is and how you can remove it from your credit report.
Open A Secured Credit Card
Secured credit cards are another option you can use to rebuild your credit after a judgment. When you apply, prepare to fork over a deposit equal to the credit line to open the account. The creditor will then holds the funds in a savings accounts until you close the account or it is converted to an unsecured credit card.
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Avoid The Following Strategies
While the following methods can be tempting options when trying to repair your credit, they can often cause more harm than good. Stay away from the following:
Closing a line of credit that is already behind on payments
Closing a card thats behind on payments doesn’t eliminate the debt. In fact, it can lower your credit score by increasing your debt-to-credit ratio, also known as credit utilization percentage. This ratio represents the amount of credit you’re currently using divided by the total amount of credit you have available.
For example, if you have two credit cards, each with a maximum credit limit of $5,000, your total available credit is $10,000. Owing $3,000 on one card and $2,000 on the other would mean you’re using 50% of your total available credit.
To improve your credit score, experts recommend keeping your credit utilization under 30%. Following the example mentioned above, that would mean using only $3,000 or less per cycle.
If you close one of your credit cards instead of paying it, you’ll have less available credit. Creditors evaluate your debt-to-credit ratio when you apply for new cards or loans. If your ratio is over that threshold, they might classify you as a high-risk borrower, offer you less attractive interest rates or even deny you credit altogether.
Filing for bankruptcy
There are two types of bankruptcies available for individuals: Chapter 7 and Chapter 13. A third type, Chapter 11, is meant for businesses.
How Many Points Does A Judgement Lower Your Credit Score
Identification. Adverse public records, which include judgments, tax liens and bankruptcies, are considered when calculating your credit score. The dollar amount of a judgment makes no difference and the mere presence of a judgment can cause your score to drop up to 150 points when they are first reported.
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Derogatory Mark: Account Charge
If you dont or cannot pay your debt as agreed, your lender may eventually charge the account off. The charge-off will appear on your credit reports for seven years.
What to do: Try to pay off the debt or negotiate a settlement. While this wont get the charge-off removed from your credit reports, it’ll remove the risk that youll be sued over the debt.
How Do You Get Something Removed From Your Credit Report After 7 Years
In theory, debts should be automatically removed from your credit report once they reach their legal expiration . If you see debts on your credit report that are older than that, youll want to contact both the creditor and the credit bureau by mail requesting a return receipt. In your letter, include all documentation about the debt, including any inaccuracies.
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When A Creditor Takes Enforcement Action
If the judgment creditor is in the process of obtaining orders to enforce the judgment, you cannot apply to set aside the judgment.
However, you can make an application to stay the proceedings and then proceed with your application. A stay application prevents the creditor from enforcing the judgment until your application to set aside the default judgement is dealt with.
Confirm Any Information From The Court
If you do receive information back from the court verifying the details of your civil judgment, take the time to make sure that its all accurate.
All of this information goes through so many different touchpoints that theres a good chance some of it was reported inaccurately.
Everything must be error-free. That includes your name, balance, account numbers, dates associated with the account and judgment, and your account and payment statuses.
If you find anything thats incorrect, you can send a dispute letter to the credit bureaus and request that the judgment entry be updated or removed altogether.
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Request Validation And Dispute Inaccuracies
- In cases where the judgment was paid off but not recorded.
- If the debt belongs to someone else, either because of identity theft or an error in recording the original information.
- If the statute of limitations has expired for the judgment.
- In cases where the creditor has gone out of business.
- If the debt is not valid or the collector is not authorized to collect it.
What Is A County Court Judgment
A County Court Judgement, also known as a CCJ, is a court order created against you for a debt to another person, bank or loan company that you have failed to repay under the terms laid out by the loan contract. This gives your creditor legal power to force you to repay the debt by terms dictated by the court.
Judgments for these sums of money are entered on the Register of Judgements, Orders and Fines and will remain on the register for 6 years if no action is taken to remove it.
CCJs are made in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland operates a similar process of collecting money judgements called âdecreesâ. You can check for a decree in the same way on the Register of Judgements, Orders and Fines.
You will receive notification of your CCJ by post and it will include how much you owe, how to pay, a deadline for payment, and whom you must pay.
People worried about their ability to repay a CCJ can use government legislation to stop pressure for payment and write off up to 81% of their total unsecured debt.
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How To Remove Negative Items From Your Credit Report
First, it’s important to know your rights when it comes to the information in your credit history.
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act , credit bureaus and lenders must ensure that the information they report is accurate and truthful.
This means that, if you find mistakes in your , you have the legal right to dispute them. And, if the information disputed is found to be incomplete or erroneous, the bureaus are obligated to remove it from your record.
Some common credit report errors include payments wrongly labeled as late or closed accounts still listed as open. It’s also possible for your report to include information from someone else, possibly someone with a similar name, Social Security number, or identifying information.
Bear in mind that correct information cannot be removed from your credit report. So, if your score is being dragged down by accurate negative information, youll need to repair your credit over time by ensuring you make payments on time and decrease your overall amount of debt.
Here are some tips to help you repair your credit history:
How Do Judgments Impact Your Credit Score
Judgments will plummet your credit score, but the impact will lessen over time. . But beyond your credit score tanking, there are several other negative consequences that can result from a judgment being filed, including:
- Less favorable approval odds for credit and loan products
- Exorbitant interest rates on credit and loan products
- Higher deposit requirements for rentals and services
Why so? Well, lenders will perceive you as a risky borrower with an elevated chance of default. In turn, they may require that you spend more in interest in fees to access their products. Or they could deny your application altogether.
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How Long Does A Judgment Stay On Your Credit Report
A judgment remains on your credit report for seven years from the date it was filed. That means it will negatively affect your credit for seven years. However, the negative impact weighs less and less as time goes on.
If youre still unhappy about having to wait that long, it is possible to have judgments removed from your credit report.
If you can get the judgment removed, you wont have to wait up to seven years before being able to get a mortgage, car loan, or any other type of credit again. Keep reading to see how you can get a judgment deleted from your credit reports.
What Is A Civil Judgment
When you owe money to a credit card company, public utility, or bank, or any other creditor, you could be sued in civil court.
If a judge agrees you owe the money, he or she can order you to repay the money you owed. This court order is called a civil judgment or a court judgment against you.
And, after ordering you to repay the money, a judge could approve wage garnishment which means the court would take part of your paycheck and give it to the creditor before you even see the money!
A judge could also order you into a payment plan or place a lien on your personal property. A lien means you couldnt sell your house or car without using the proceeds from the sale to satisfy the judgment.
For years, civil judgments appeared on the public records section of your credit report, pulling down your credit score just like bankruptcy or charge-off would.
Now, through the NCAP, Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax have stopped including civil judgments in your credit report. But an old court order or a judgment that adhered to the Fair Credit Reporting Act could still be hurting you.
Its also possible the credit reporting agencies have included a judgment creditor by mistake.
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Analyzing Your Credit Report
What If I Dispute The Debt
To have the opportunity to dispute a judgement debt, you will need to apply to the court that issued the judgement to set it aside.
An application to set aside a default judgement must address the following:
- the reason you failed to file a defence within the time frame
- any bona fide defence you have in respect of the claim and
- the reason you have delayed in making the application .
Where you have paid the judgement debt, this may be regarded as admitting the validity of the creditors claim. This can make getting an order to set aside the default judgement very difficult, as you have already admitted that you were previously in debt and needed to pay someone back.
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How To Remove A Judgement From Your Credit Report
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In this Article: How to remove a judgement from your credit report and save your credit score.
A judgment on your credit report makes it nearly impossible to get new credit and for close to 7 years.
So, if you are ready to protect your , improve your personal finances, and avoid falling down a rabbit hole, then pay attention.
Fortunately, its easy to remove a judgment from your credit report. Find out how below.
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Basis For Getting A Judgment Removed
In the United States, there are three major agencies that collect credit information: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Each agency will sometimes collect credit information that’s inconsistent with the findings of the other agencies or that’s simply incorrect. As such, you should be aware of each of these agencies and the particular credit report they’ve generated for you. For example, with one agency you might have an accurate credit report, whereas for the two others, they may be misreporting some aspects of your credit information. If you believe that any judgment noted on your credit report is wrong, you should dispute that judgment.
You may dispute a judgment on your credit report based on the following arguments:
The Debt Was Paid.
The credit agencies will remove the judgment from your credit report if you can show that you did, in fact, pay your debt on time. If you paid your debt after the judgment was already established on your credit report, the agency won’t remove the judgment, but it will – at the very least – mark your debt as paid, which is helpful though not ideal.
The Debt Belongs to Someone Else.
Sometimes, the credit agency will claim that you have a debt, when it actually is someone else’s debt . You’ll have to file some paperwork to prove you’re not the one who owes the debt: this may include your social security information, birth certificate information, bills, etc.
The Period Has Expired.