How to Remove a Bankruptcy from Your Credit Report

There is no doubt that bankruptcies are detrimental to your credit rating, but contrary to popular belief you do not have to wait three years after bankruptcy to start to repair your credit and your credit rating. There are definitive steps that you should take as soon as your bankruptcy has been discharged to start your life after bankruptcy.

Most credit reports that I have seen that have a bankruptcy reported on them are choke full of errors. What happens is your creditors that you wrote off have stopped updating your credit report as they have closed out your accounts with them. So most of the time your accounts will still be reporting as late, with balances, charged off etc. This will in fact have more of a negative effect then if they were accurately reported as “included in bankruptcy”.

First of all you will need to get a copy of all three of your credit reports. One from Equifax, TransUnion and also Experian. Some creditors will only be reporting on one or maybe two of the credit bureaus, while others will report on all three. Highlight all of your accounts that are currently reporting incorrectly. Remember, your accounts that you filed on should all be reporting as included in bankruptcy with zero balances. If this is not correct then make a note of those accounts that are incorrect.

Now you will need to write a letter to each of the credit bureaus and ask them to correct the errors. Here is a tip. Do not let them know that you filed bankruptcy and that the accounts should be reflected in such a way. That is not your responsibility. Your responsibility is to make sure that all the errors on your report are either removed or corrected so that you can move on with your life after bankruptcy. By asking the credit bureaus to investigate the mistakes without telling them that they were included in your bankruptcy will actually increase your chance of getting the account deleted in total! That is what you want.

The credit bureaus receive hundreds of thousands of letters every week. It is very expensive for the credit bureaus to do this many investigations as the cost of labor alone is tremendous. So, in the effort to save money they employ tactics to ignore you or they try to blow you off by stalling you with a letter asking for you to prove to them who you are! My suggestion is to either stick to your guns or hire a professional like Lexington Law Firm who is used to dealing with the credit bureaus to repair your credit.

The next step to repair your credit after bankruptcy is to re-establish positive credit history. This can be done in many ways, but I suggest starting off with two or three secured credit cards. If you make your payments on these cards and keep your balances down for six months they will help to boost your score. Adding positive credit and removing negative items from your credit report is the one two punch needed to get back on your feet credit wise after bankruptcy.

For more information about fixing your credit after bankruptcy please visit my repair credit blog.