Dispute and Remove Judgements On Your Credit Report
You most likely got a judgement from a creditor or debt collector suing you for payment of an unsecured debt. The judgement gives the creditor or debt collector several years to try and recover payment. In Pennsylvania it is about 4 years and in Ohio it is 21 years. So the length of time is dependent on your State’s statute of limitations for judgements. If no payment is recovered after the statute of limitations, then the creditor or debt collector can file a renewal in court and they can be allowed to try to collect payment for another few years again.
It is very important for you to know that having unpaid judgements will negatively impact your credit report. Even if you eventually decide to pay the judgement, it most likely will still leave a negative dent on your credit report because the status of the judgement in your credit report will show as “satisfied judgement” but that in itself is not enough. The whole listing needs to be completely off your credit report for your credit score to improve.
What I would suggest you do if you have a listing of a judgement on your credit report is to dispute the full listing. You will have to do this by disputing with all the credit bureaus that show that judgement in your credit report.
The dispute letter disputing the judgement should directly dispute the validity and/or the accuracy of the judgement in the credit report. If the credit bureau is unable to verify the listing, then it must be removed completely from your credit report by law.
Write a letter disputing the judgement on your credit report and send it by certified or registered mail. Make sure you make copies of all correspondence. Persist on disputing until the listing is removed. Make sure you allow at least 60 days before re-disputing judgement if you do not hear from the credit bureau. Sometimes the credit bureau may ignore an initial dispute letter because it costs the credit bureau money to investigate disputes sent to them.
Another option is to contact the creditor directly, especially if the judgement has been verified by the credit bureau, and try to settle the judgement in exchange for the creditor removing the judgement from your credit report. Use your payment as leverage to get the creditor to remove the judgement listing completely from your credit report. Make sure that any deals or agreements are all in writing, signed on official letterhead, before sending any payment.
Posted under credit repair, credit report, delete judgements, fix bad credit
This post was written by fixbadcredit
