How to Remove Repossessions From Your Credit Report

Nearly everyone falls into financial difficulty once or twice in their lives. The circumstances that can lead to a tough money situation are many and varied, ranging from a contentious divorce, serious illness, or the loss of a job to a natural disaster. When money troubles arise, it's hard enough finding the funds to pay for the basic necessities of life, let alone major expenses such as car and house payments. If circumstances force you to fall too far behind on payments, you can find yourself getting a visit from the repo man. This is a tough blow to your credit report, but it can be rectified.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Obtain a copy of your credit report from all three credit reporting bureaus to see whether the repossession is, in fact, on the report. While this is a rare occurrence, loan companies do sometimes neglect to report repossessions to the credit bureaus, especially small or independent loan providers.

2. Write a dispute letter to each credit bureau which shows a repossession on your record. There's no need to go into details. Just tell them the account name and number and let them know you dispute its accuracy.

3. Wait at least a month while the credit bureaus verify the accuracy of the repossession. If the accuracy can not be verified, the bureaus must remove the repossession from your record. This means if the loan company does not respond to the bureaus in a specified period of time, the item gets removed.

4. Call the loan company directly if the item is verified and attempt to negotiate. You can often get the company to agree to remove the negative item if you pay off whatever you still owe them.

5. Hire a credit attorney to assist you if all else fails. Attorneys know of loopholes in the law that can allow you to get negative items legally removed from your credit report. Be prepared to spend several hundred dollars if you go for this option, however.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't fall for credit repair scams. These disreputable companies promise to remove negative items, such as repossessions, from your credit report for a fee. They do this by either negotiating with your creditors for you (something you can do yourself) or by creating a new credit report for you (a practice that falls into very shady legal territory). With legal and free means of removing repossessions at your disposal, you don't need to waste your money on scams like these.