DON'T Dispute These Items On Your Credit Report!

Daniel Rosen  0:00  

Hey, Credit Heroes. Have you ever disputed the wrong thing and wrecked your credit score? Well, today, I'm going to help you avoid one of the biggest mistakes in all of credit repair, so you better stick around. So the big question is this: how can we take our passion for helping people with their credit and turn it into a successful business without taking loans and spending a fortune by bootstrapping it from nothing? So we can help the most people and still become highly profitable? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Daniel Rosen, and welcome to credit repair business secrets. If this is your first time listening to my podcast every week, I give credit repair tips and advice on bootstrapping your business from nothing. So be sure to click subscribe now and get ready to start changing lives. 

Okay, let's get into this. In the 20 years since releasing my first credit repair software, I have helped 1000s of people repair their credit and file millions of credit repair disputes. And during that time, I learned which disputes work and which disputes don't and why. But it wasn't always easy. When I was starting. There weren't free courses that taught you how to read credit reports. There wasn't a community of Credit Heroes to answer questions or software to speed up the process. No, I had to learn by trial and error. And the most common mistake that I saw was people disputing and removing everything from their reports. They thought it would wipe the slate clean, but it backfired big time. They realized not all disputes lead to credit repair success.  I learned not to dispute and remove items from credit reports unless I knew exactly how it would impact the credit scores. And today, I'm going to share the secrets to effectively disputing what to dispute and what not to dispute. 

Here's how this relates to us. For those of you who are new to credit repair, quality disputing is an art form. You can't fix a credit report with a wrecking ball. It takes focus and precision. Knowing what to dispute and what not to dispute is the difference between long-term financial health and a major setback for credit repair business owners. Disputing correctly can make or break your client's trust in you. So, dispute with care. And you'll have happier clients and more referrals. 

Here's the thing to remember: the Fair Credit Reporting Act ensures that you have the legal right to an accurate credit report. And it gives you the power to dispute any errors that you find. But just because you can dispute doesn't always mean that you should. Here's why this is important. If you're trying to repair your credit, or you're knee-deep and claim credit reports, it's easy to get trigger-happy and want to dispute everything. But here's the thing. If the credit bureaus believe that you are disputing everything all at once, including legitimate items, they often use this as an excuse to throw out all your disputes, mark them all as frivolous, and stall the process. But the stakes are even higher than that. 

If you dispute the wrong negative item, it can actually do more harm than good to your credit score. Here's what you need to know. The key to fast and effective credit repair is knowing which items to dispute and which to leave alone. And in my experience. The negative items you need to be most cautious about are the ones tied to open accounts, and I'll explain why in a minute. First, if you have access to your credit reports, I recommend opening them and following along with me because I will walk you through each section. If you don't have access to your credit reports, you can request free copies at annualcreditreport.com. 

Okay, let's dive in. As always, your first step in any dispute is to review the personal information section and make sure that everything is accurate across all three credit bureaus. A huge percentage of reporting errors are found in the personal information section. They're easy to spot and simple to dispute, and they result in quick credit score boosts. I call these low-hanging fruit disputes. 

But as you move beyond the personal information section, this is where the disputing gets a little more complicated. When you review the account history section, don't dispute anything that's marked as positive in good standing or paid as agreed if the account is positive in good standing or paid as agreed. It's usually considered good debt, and the good Debt is extremely valuable. It's how we build our credit history and improve our credit utilization, which makes up two-thirds of our credit score calculation. If you dispute accounts that are in good standing, you risk wiping out your good debt and causing serious damage to your credit score. 

The only situation where you would want to dispute these types of accounts is if you don't recognize them. In those cases, they may be a sign of fraud or identity theft, so you want to prioritize their removal over anything else. Now, if an item in your account history is reported as negative or not in good standing or delinquent, like collections or charge-offs, these items are fair game to dispute. You can send basic round one letters to the Bureau requesting verification of the debts and the removal of any unverified items from your credit report. If you don't have a Credit Repair Cloud account and you need round one letters, I'm going to put the link over there in the show notes, and you can download them for free still with me. Great. 

One of the most common questions that I get from people new to credit repair is how to handle disputes for opened and closed accounts. Well, let's say that one of your accounts has a history of late payments. Those late payments will live on your credit reports for seven years, so getting the account in good standing is a priority. So you may want to either dispute the late payments with the credit bureaus or work with the creditor to update the account from late to current or paid as agreed. Simple. Closed accounts are handled differently. Let's say one of your closed accounts has a good payment record showing you have a positive credit history. These accounts improve credit scores, help your chances of getting approved for loans, and live on your reports for seven to 10 years. So don't dispute or remove them. 

Next, let's talk about inquiries. You might think that inquiries mean quick dispute winds and credit score boosts. And that's usually true. But if you dispute an inquiry that's tied to an open account, that can be a secret recipe for disaster. Soft inquiries don't impact credit scores. Hard inquiries have the smallest effect of any negative item, and they only impact scores for two years. But most people don't realize that if you dispute and remove a hard inquiry that's tied to an open account, it can cause that entire open account to be removed from your report. For example, the last time credit repair expert Bruce Paula Tonto was here, he shared a story about a client who disputed an inquiry that was tied to an open account, and it totally tanked their credit score. The inquiry was tied to the client's oldest credit card account. So when the client successfully removed the inquiry, they unintentionally caused the entire credit card account to be shut down, shrinking the client's credit history and credit utilization. The client's credit was eventually rebuilt, but it was a big step back instead of a giant leap forward. Ultimately, a credit report with no negative items is way better than one with negative items. But removing the wrong ones can do more harm than good. If a negative item shows up on your credit report and its impact is low, it's about to fall off, or it can be updated to a positive account, then don't remove it. If you want access to our advanced disputing courses and six months of software for free. Go to creditrepaircloud.com/freetraining and sign up for our masterclass. 

Here's my final point. Not all disputes end in success; knowing what to dispute and what not to dispute is the difference between long-term financial health and a major setback. And now, for my favorite part of the episode. Every week, I feature one of our Credit Heroes inside our Credit Repair Cloud Facebook community so that you can see firsthand what real people are doing as they run and grow their businesses. And today's spotlight is on Michelle Clement. Michelle posted an inspiring message about her progress since taking our challenge. She said I just finished the 14-day challenge. And I already have 11 prospects, three leads, and one client, and it's only Tuesday. She added that it's so gratifying to offer help. Most folks don't even know where to start. And she ended with a hint that will help just about anyone starting out in credit repair. She said to get an affiliate to join groups in related fields. Congratulations Michelle. You are 100% right. Write about affiliates and groups. And I'm so glad you joined our community. I'm happy you took the challenge. And I'm thrilled that your hard work is already paying off. Keep those wins coming. 

And I'll end by saying if you still need a Credit Repair Cloud account, check it out. It's the software that most credit repair businesses in America run on. Just sign up for a 30-day free trial at creditrepaircloud.com/freetrial. And if you'd like to change lives and grow your very own credit repair business, check out our Credit Hero Challenge. It's a live experience that has helped tonnes of Credit Heroes to get certified in disputing and gain confidence as they run their credit repair business on a solid foundation. So they can change a whole lot of lives and make a great living in the process. We're starting the next challenge very soon. So you want to join before the doors close. Are you gonna have a long wait until the next one? So, sign up right now at creditherochallenge.com. 

If you're finding value in the things that I share on this podcast, click below to subscribe and follow. Also, do me a favor and give me a five-star review, or share the show and help me to change more lives. If you'd like to read the show notes that are posted on my blog. If you have a question or a comment, drop it down below because I read each and every one of them, I would love to hear from you. And I'll respond as fast as I can. If you want to learn how to spot errors and dispute them even faster, check out my episode credit report 101. So take care of Credit Hero and keep changing lives. 

Hey everybody, it's Daniel again. And really quick, I'd like to invite you to join what I believe is the best thing we have ever created inside the Credit Repair Cloud community. It is a challenge that we call the Credit Hero Challenge if you're just planning out your business, or you're just getting started, and you dream of having a successful business of your own. So you can quit your nine-to-five and fire your boss and have financial freedom, or you can add another revenue stream to your existing business. If that's your dream, you need to get into this challenge. We created this challenge to help you create and launch your very own credit repair business to build a proper foundation for a really successful business. This challenge is going to help you understand the strategy, the tactics, and all the things you need to be successful at credit repair. It really is the greatest thing we have ever built, and it will change your life. So I recommend you do it right now. Stop everything, pause this audio, go online, and go to creditherochallenge.com That's creditherochallenge.com and join the next challenge, and there's a challenge that starts in just a few days. So go get started right now at creditherochallenge.com