Common Credit Repair Mistakes

[Game Plan]

I have been on this forum for only a couple of weeks and have read a lot of good posts. There is a lot of information here on the proper way to repair you credit.

However, I have seen it mentioned several time on this forum that if you don’t know what you are doing with credit repair, you can actually make things worse. Can anyone disclose what are some of the more common mistakes that folks make with DIY credit repair?

[chane]

The worst is people sending their bankruptcy papers to the CRAs. It happens all the time. It's the best way to make sure that the bankruptcy stays on their credit report for 10 years. Nothing you do after that will get it removed or any of the "included in bankruptcy" accounts removed. The consumer has basically shot themselves in the nuts. It is the single dumbest thing one could possibly do as far as credit, in my opinion.

I also see a lot of people sending in proof that they paid something...that just admits to the CRAs that the account was yours and that you paid the negative account. It cements that negative on their credit report for 7 years. People think that because they paid it will now be positive...dead wrong. It's more positive than not paying it, but it is still negative and will stay on from the date of last payment and continue to destroy their credit scores.

The most common mistake is sending disputes with stories and reasons or doing it online and giving the reasons that the CRA provides you with. That is a HUGE mistake. First of all, the CRA doesn't care about your story. They take your dispute and classify it with a number. Giving them a reason helps them classify it. You don't want to do that. That gives them something to work against.

If you just simply say you want to dispute it and not give a reason, they have nothing to go against. For example, if you do give a reason like "not mine"...they will try to prove it was yours. Does that make sense?

Saying "not mine" too many times will makes them think that you are a victim of identity theft. Then they put a "fraud alert" on all 3 of your credit reports, which will make it much harder for you to dispute in the future and get credit in the future. See how they use what you say against you?

Another big mistake is paying off old debts. Thousands of people do this everyday and it basically re-ages the account and makes it stay on 7 more years. If they wouldn't have paid it, it would have dropped off within days or months. It makes me sick. They think they are doing the right thing, but they are absolutely destroying their credit by doing so.

I could probably think of many more mistakes. I may post some later. Credit repair is a very delicate thing and there are many unintended consequences to suffer if you're not doing it 100% correctly.