RoxanneHow can you clean up your credit report quickly? By doing the following:
- Submitting disputes to credit bureaus
- Contacting businesses that have reported you to credit bureaus
- Making goodwill requests for deletion of paid-off accounts
Sending pay for delete offers to creditors - Any of those moves can clean up your credit report and increase your score. The moves we are about to discuss, however, are myths that will not clean your credit at all.
In other words, don’t make them thinking you’ll see a positive change in your history.
Myth 1 – “Close an account to keep it from being reported.”
Some say you should close an account with a past due balance if you’re worried about it being reported.
What will closing that account do? Make it unavailable for use. It will still be subject to delinquency reporting, however, until you get up-to-date with payments.
Myth 2 – “File bankruptcy to clean your credit history completely.”
Yes, filing bankruptcy can give you a sigh of relief by discharging various debts. But does this mean that you have a clean slate of credit to start from?
The answer to that is no since those discharged accounts will stay on your credit report.
Accounts that are included in bankruptcy are noted as such. They will not be removed from your credit report. Depending on the type of bankruptcy you file, they could stay on it for ten years.
Myth 3 – “Pay off a delinquent balance to make it disappear from your report.”
Paying a delinquent balance can put you in better standing with a creditor. Once you pay it, however, its status will change to “Ok” or “Current” if it’s not in collections or charged-off.
What happens to collection and charge-off accounts? They keep carrying that negative label even if you pay what’s due.
A Work-Free Way to Clean up Your Credit
While the three myths above won’t give you cleaner credit history, this can: Waiting it out.
Sometimes submitting disputes to credit bureaus or contacting companies doesn’t work at removing negative entries from your report. The same holds true for goodwill requests for deletion and pay to delete offers. If you find yourself in such a spot, sometimes waiting is your only option.
Most negative entries can remain on your report for up to seven years or ten years for bankruptcy. Once that time passes, you can look for the negative items to disappear.
What should you do in the meantime? Make sure you pay any open accounts on time, as doing so can improve your credit despite the negative marks.
The more positive moves you make, the more you’ll be able to outweigh the negative that could stand out as red flags to lenders. Although unfavorable entries can remain on your report for years, the more time passes, the less effect they have on your score.
