How Can I Get Closed Accounts Off My Credit Report?
Existing laws provide ways to remove closed accounts from your credit report
A credit report is a very important financial document in anyone’s life. It affects how you are likely to be offered loans and credit cards and the subsequent interest rates charged. Thus, having negative marks on your credit reporting such as late payments or collections lowers your credit score. You might even find accounts that you have closed but are still reported in good standing and can remain on your report for several years and affect your score. Are there accounts that you think should not be included in your credit report anymore as you have closed them? Let me share some tips on how to do that.
Check Your Credit Report
Before attempting to have them deleted as being unreported, obtain full credit reports from all three agencies, including Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Both can be accessed through www. annualcreditreport. com and you are eligible for one free credit report per year from each. Go through all the accounts provided on the list and note any of the closed accounts and any of the accounts that you still want to have purged. Also, consider the status of the account and when it will drop from the reports.
Dispute Inaccurate Information
If you realize that there are some closed accounts in your credit reports which are reporting the wrong information such as the payments that are a few days delayed or collection accounts, you should file a dispute with credit bureaus. They are detrimental even if the account has been closed because they contain wrong negative information that affects your scores. Write a letter to the company/organization/agency to challenge the information and prove that it is wrong. This is the fastest method of getting negative items removed if they are incorrect.
It can take 4-10 years for the teenager to receive his or her desired outcomes.
Likewise, credit accounts that have been closed and which had no negative information in the credit report can remain on the credit report for a long time. However, most of the closed accounts are removed from your credit report within 10 years from the date of closure of the accounts. Revolving credit accounts such as credit cards are permitted to remain on the reports for up to a decade even if they are closed. Closed installment accounts such as an auto loan sits on your reports for 10 years from the time the account was opened. There is a possibility that student loans and mortgages may remain on your reports for a longer duration. Therefore, it should be ensured that it has been 10 years or more before making an effort to get the closed accounts closed.
Send Goodwill Letters
However, some credit card companies may close such accounts within the first 10 years of inactivity if you are willing to write them a goodwill deletion letter. These letters ask, you to give them their goodwill and to have your closed account deleted from your credit report as early as possible. Think through all the time you may have interacted with that company like whether you were their customer for a long time and whether you had been paying your bills on time. Dispel the effect of the closed account on your credit report and request them to delete it out of goodwill. They are not obligated to do so, yet writing goodwill letters is effective most of the time, as long as the appropriate tone is employed.
Ask After paying
If you once had an account in collections that you sought to pay and clear, then it would be relatively easy to get it removed from the credit reports if you request for it to be done after clearing your balance. The primary goal for collection companies is to recoup the amount that is owed to the credit provider. After fully paying a debt, you should make a call to your collections company and inform them that the closed account is negatively affecting your credit scores. You might enquire if it is possible to request the account to be deleted from the credit reports or if it is possible to change it to Paid as part of goodwill because you have repaid the amount in question. Try to be polite when asking your question and if the person to whom you are asking the question becomes rude or unresponsive, try to take the question to the next level. A lot of collectors will be willing to collect from individuals who have paid collections balances for various reasons as business-friendly practices.
Negotiate Early Removal
If the accounts that were repaid and shut down like loans or mortgages, then the creditor might be willing to delete such accounts from the report before the 10-year statutory period. Once again talk to the creditor, and tell them you have cleared the credit, and then ask if they agree to delete the record in the next one to two years instead of deleting it in the next 10 years. Inform them that you are working on improving your credit reports and it is unfair that, such accounts are CLOSED, but still linger in your credit files for several years. They may agree to drop it early if it was a healthy account and you had a reputation for timely payments.
The Third Step: Look for a Reliable Credit Repair Company
If you have tried multiple times to get accounts deleted early from the credit reports and all efforts fail, then it is advisable to search for an expert credit repair company. Several of the well-established credit repair agencies have also noted that it is possible to persuade creditors to delete the accounts in the spirit of goodwill. They know how to draft goodwill letters that will influence the target company. And they continuously challenge the negativity of items until it is eliminated. Of course, anyone seeking the services of credit repair firms must first research deeply on the firm that they intend to hire. Try to find out more about the complaints regarding the particular company and the general rating of the firm in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as well as the feedback and the testimonies of the clients to choose favor of the most reliable company with a high percentage of success.
I have submitted for your consideration 6 proposals that will help reduce early cellular account closures as listed below;
When it is done personally by the cell phone company, then they usually respect the consumer’s demand to close the paid account early. Thus, if you have a cellular account that has not been used for a long time, is now closed, and is paid off, phone the customer support of the cell provider. Simply state to them that you owe nothing anymore but the closed account still reflects each month with your cell company under the creditor name. Ask them to stop reporting the account moving forward and if the account was 12 months old or older then they should stop reporting it. These requests are usually met by cell companies because it is advantageous for the companies to assist former customers in enhancing credit scores.
In conclusion, it is not easy to get rid of accurate but closed accounts on credit reports and such a process depends on one’s persistence and the approach to employ depending on the account type or creditor. Wait for accounts that are more than 10 years old before performing other tests and checking to make sure information is reporting accurately. It is courteous to send goodwill letters requesting removal to individuals and organizations. In the case where you lent money through an installment loan/debt, negotiate early debt removal. Near the bottom of the list of ways to negotiate pay collections is to expect that the collector will delete to improve the chances. And if you desire that real people consistently manage the process of deleting your account, then use credible credit repair help. If the positive steps are followed closely and with a lot of dedication, the accounts that are closed can be moved out of the credit report before the ten years that it takes for them to freelance out on their own.
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