My client needed a credit report repair. His TransUnion credit score went down to 649. I had to do something to repair his credit report. That was also his middle credit score (see credit scores to learn more). He owns construction and repair business and buys properties on a regular basis. So having a bad credit report wasn’t very helpful in obtaining mortgage for a next house or lot. While score of 649 is not that terrible, he was self employed, which often meant Stated Income, and his bank account wasn’t very fat at times, which meant Stated Assets. All three factors lead to a situation where interest rates became too high. You want to have credit score of at least 680 when getting a stated loan.
The main culprit for this credit report repair was a little stupid collection for $48. It was paid but was sitting on his credit report under Derogatory Accounts section with 'Paid Collection' status. By law it can sit there up to 7 years or so. See more on bad credit time limits.
TransUnion has special code - reason for such things: 039 - SERIOUS DELINQUENCY. See other credit codes and reasons used by all 3 credit score models.
Now who would’ve thought about mere $48 collection that was paid 2 years ago and forgotten?
His credit report was repaired within 2 months. It cost me 2 postal stamps and 15 minutes to write this dispute letter. When I say I repaired credit for him, I meant I typed the letter, printed it, put a stamp on and to TransUnion it went. Here, find TransUnion address and phone as well as those of Equifax and Experian.
As expected, Trans Union responded within 30 day period which the law allocates. It took only 3 weeks and we got denied.
Never mind, I sent the very same letter again, adding only that it was second attempt. Within a month or so we got response – they reinvestigated and deleted this record. See the Trans Union response underlined in red.
Within one month, his credit score went to 663 and then to 682. That is 33 points higher. 039 code was gone as well. Other factors likely contributed to improving credit score by 33 points but the removal of this derogatory record definitely had a significant positive impact.
People can do it on their own. As you can see it is not a rocket science. See examples of many helpful credit dispute letters.
Read on... to learn a simple, effective strategy to fix credit on your own.
