Repairing credit, slowly but surely

[davebar210]

I am trying to buy a house with my fiance' and we were given our credit scores and reports. We were very suprised to see how low our FICO scores actually were. I have been trying to dispute some stuff off of my CR, but she has a judgement on here from Illinois for a credit card from years ago. How can she go about disputing or paying on the judgement??

[Lian]

Is the judgment legitimate? Disputes are for contesting the accuracy of reported information. If it is accurate, then other courses should be considered.

There are two usual ways to go about getting legitimate judgments removed from your CR. Both rely upon getting the judgment vacated, and thus grounds for CR removal. The first usual way is to contest the judgment itself with the court by asserting some legal impropriety, such as lack of proper service of the notice of the legal action upon you. That is done by a motion to the court to vacate the judgment on that grounds.

The second is to pay the judgment amount, and then motion the court to vacate the judgment based on its payment. Some courts will grant such a motion. It varies by jurisdiction, but is definitely one of the first things to pursue.

Make sure you know the normal CR exclusion date, which is 7 years from the date of entry of the judgment. Once that period has expired, it will die of its own old age.