Credit repair services

Here at Shenwick & Associates, as an adjunct to our bankruptcy and debtor/creditor practices, we also offer credit repair services.  Although the three major credit reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) (“CRAs”) have received positive press recently for implementing the National Consumer Assistance Plan (NCAP) in March (which, among other things, prohibits reporting of medical debts until after a 180-day waiting period and prevents traffic and parking tickets or fines from appearing on credit reports), clients still complain about receiving credit reports that are riddled with errors, particularly after a bankruptcy filing.

The first step in the process is to obtain a copy of the credit report from each of the three CRAs.   AnnualCreditReport.com allows you to request a free copy of your credit report every 12 months from each CRA.  Credit Karma also provides individuals with free Equifax and TransUnion credit reports. Credit reports need to be carefully reviewed and any erroneous information marked with a clear explanation of what is incorrect.

Once we have copies of the credit reports, we can analyze them and prepare letters to the CRAs requiring that errors on credit reports be corrected pursuant to federal law and/or New York State law.  CRAs are governed by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act and the New York Fair Credit Reporting Act. These statutes detail the consumers’ rights to dispute information on their credit reports and how long negative information can remain on their reports.

Once we mail the CRAs a letter disputing the erroneous information, it usually takes about a month for the CRA to investigate the dispute and send the consumer the results of the investigation.  We then advise the client to obtain another credit report and review that credit report for errors. We’ve often found that it takes two or more letters to fully correct erroneous information.  Another option is to add a one hundred word personal statement to your credit report.

For more information about our credit repair services, please contact Jim Shenwick.