Most credit repair companies overlook this powerful tactic, but removing incorrect personal information on your credit report will get you better results on ALL of your other credit disputes. Plus, it’s simple to do.
The reality is, nearly 8 out of 10 consumers have errors on their credit reports. That's a huge number. With the US population being 332 million people, that means there are 262 million people with errors on their reports. That’s a lot of potential clients!
Why is this important?
Your credit report has information about you, your finances and your bill-paying history, so you have to make sure it’s accurate. Otherwise, you may not be able to buy your dream car, dream house, or even rent an apartment. Take a moment to clean up all the errors on credit reports. It can strengthen your clients’ approval odds and uncover some surprising ways to save money and raise their credit scores, getting that car, home, and apartment within reach.
The good news is, according to the FTC, 4 out of every 5 consumers who filed disputes achieved a change to their credit reports.
Better yet, keep on trying to ensure you always get your desired result. This stuff works when you never give up!
The first section of the report is where all of your personal information is listed, and so often, that’s where the first errors are.
The important thing to remember is, the very first thing you want to do is remove ALL incorrect, outdated, or conflicting personal information from your clients’ credit reports.
So how does this affect you and your clients?
Well, when lenders check your credit report to review an application for financial products, like credit cards and loans, and even apartments –
If there is any inaccurate information on your credit report, this can jeopardize your approval rate and affect the terms you receive, including interest rates.
What should you be watching out for?
Some common examples of personal information errors are:
Wrong or misspelled name, aliases, incorrect or old phone numbers, and misspelled or outdated addresses.
You may be wondering, where do all these personal information errors come from?
Sometimes, it can be a sign of identity theft, but more often, here's how they get there:
When you sit down at a bank, or a dealership or a credit union, or department store, Best Buy, and you’re applying for credit… the loan officer or even a salesperson types in your personal information into the application—and then that information is placed directly onto your credit report.
That’s right, that’s where those weird mistakes come from. Your name, address, social, date of birth, and employment information gets added to your report exactly how they typed it. This means that if the person typing it in spelled your name wrong, or puts in the wrong date of birth, or your street or anything else—whatever they typed, and however they typed it—that becomes part of your permanent credit file.
Why can those errors cause you to be denied the next time you apply for credit?
If the information you give them doesn’t match what’s on file, it’s a red flag.
Think about it from the lender’s perspective. If you were lending money to strangers and the information they provided does not match their credit report, you might think the applicant was purposely trying to deceive you.
Not only can it stop your clients from getting approved for credit, but there's a possibility that it can cost them a job they are applying for. Employers are pulling credit reports more and more these days. Some of them do it for security clearance and others do it just to fully vet their new hires. If the personal information doesn't match their employment application, some employers may choose a different candidate without the red flags.
In addition to making sure all of the personal information is correct, there is another reason to remove everything except for exact and current information.
Why? Negative accounts are tied to specific pieces of personal information. For example, your client may have a collection account tied to a misspelled name. Or, your client may have an old address or alias tied to the charge-off you want to get rid of. This means that by removing everything except ONE name, ONE current address, ONE correct date of birth, and one accurate social, and also just the current and up to date employer—that can help you to get faster results and more deletions for your clients.
So as a credit hero, the very first thing you want to do is remove ALL incorrect, outdated, or conflicting personal information from your clients' credit reports.
So what are the exact steps to fixing personal information errors?
That’s very easy.
In Credit Repair Cloud, once you’ve imported the report, take a look at all the data from the report. All you have to do is click on any incorrect personal information and it will create a dispute around that item. The software handles the heavy lifting, you just tell them what to lift. Then you just click add all those items into your round 1 letter. It makes it so easy and fast, so if you don’t already have an account, you can get a free 30-day trial at creditrepaircloud.com and see for yourself how easy it is to start this for yourself and for your clients.
“This is my current address XXXXX, and all of the other addresses you list on my report are wrong. Please remove ALL addresses except for XXXX. I have attached my ID with my correct address, and I request that you please delete any address that does not match this.”
If the credit bureau agrees to remove the information, then you’ve achieved your goal!
But sometimes, the credit bureau might deny your dispute. If that happens, they must send you a notice within five days of the decision.
And if you get a no, don’t worry!! Keep disputing it. Remember, the FTC says 4 of 5 times you request a change, it's granted. That means you may have to try 4 or 5 times.
The key is pressure and persistence.
At that point, if the credit bureau still fails to remove it, you also have one more big trick up your sleeve! If you think the credit bureau didn’t take reasonable action to resolve your dispute, you can also file a complaint with the FTC or the CFPB. And that will often get the action you want.
That’s all there is to it!!
The bottom line is, if you find an error on your credit report, make sure you dispute it as quickly as possible. Small errors may not seem like a big deal, but they are.
Once you start using this strategy, you’ll be amazed by how your success rate at deletions increases!
And now, you have another cool credit repair hack to take advantage of, and that means you’re one big step closer to starting or growing your own credit repair business.
This is a huge confidence booster!
So, if you want to get certified in disputing and launch your very own credit repair business in just a couple weeks, I invite you to join our Credit Hero Challenge!
It’s an amazing program that has helped tons of Credit Heroes get their first clients, get certified in disputing, and gain confidence in knowing they are launching their credit repair business on a solid foundation that allows them to grow and scale FAST!
We’re starting again soon, so SIGN UP NOW at creditherochallenge.com!