Reading Time 3min 25 sec
No Skimming Allowed
The biggest reason people don't clean up their credit report is they have been made to feel bad about 'Credit Repair' by the credit bureaus–the Gatekeepers who sell your personal information for profit. Consumers think it is unlawful to remove information when they know it belongs to them.
First and foremost, do you really know that the information is yours and that it's accurate? Have you kept records of your payment history on each account? Can you say for sure that you were 30, 60, 90, 120 days late? How do you know that account belongs to you and not someone else that had a similar account with the same creditor? There are 40 million mistakes on consumer reports–1 out of every 5 consumers have a mistake on their credit report.
The information could have been shared and transmitted several times from various sources and there's a good possibility of error.
So what's wrong with verifying every piece of negative information for accuracy?
Make the Credit Bureaus prove it or remove it It's the law. It's your American right to take charge and repair your credit.
"Credit Repair" those two words alone carry a negative connotation and has been less than kind to the American consumer.
In fact, the phrase is oftentimes been referred to as fraud.
The bad reputation of credit repair, created by the industry to mislead consumers has many of you questioning the ethics pertaining to the cleaning up of your credit report.
Despite this image, which taints the process, one must realize that credit repair is no different than the services of any defense attorney.
A credit report is a mere ALLEGATION made by an institution against an individual.
Most people don't perceive it as an allegation and never challenge that claim.
In a court of law if you entered a plea of not guilty, then the credit bureaus would have to prove their position.
Most of these allegations are not sustainable in a court of law and the bureaus are forced to remove the negative information.
So disputing and challenging a credit bureau's accuracy on a claim that did actually exist, is ethically and morally sound.
"The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest."
~Wall Street (1987) 'Greed is Good'.
The credit bureaus in all their greed, capitalize on consumer information–they exist because you exist and prey on the gross misunderstanding and lack of knowledge of American people.
Unlike the Federal government, and other State licensed professions, like doctors and lawyers, the credit bureaus take no oath to truth, equity, and goodwill toward men.
No person in their right mind has the moral obligation to support an institution or individual whose sole purpose is to profit at the expense of another, which may well destroy their reputation and financial well- being.
Though their motives are well hidden, the information frequented by the credit bureaus is ethically "anything goes." If it wasn't for the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which makes them remove items after seven years, the credit bureaus would retain your personal credit information until the birds MOO and the cows CROW.
But there is a point in the operations of credit bureaus when they also practice credit repair; to uphold the law. If the law requires to update credit records after a certain amount of time–then it is also by principle, and right to do so before this time elapses, if the information is inaccurate or can not be verified.
The credit bureaus are not empathetic of the impact their reports have on consumers and the economic system. The harm they cause by labeling individuals as "Deadbeats" and removing them from mainstream society and placing them in 'credit prison' for seven years is unconscionable and punishes the debtor unjustly.
One of the common errors that credit bureaus make across the board is merging files belonging to other individuals. For most corporations, an opportunity to clean up consumer errors is expedient and taken gladly, but this is not the case with credit bureaus because they make money from maintaining the information.
Unfortunately, for American citizens there is an outright resistance to correction of obvious and blatant errors that exists within credit reports which prompt many to seek redress.
The credit report business is a 4 billion dollar industry and only a small portion of revenue come from credit reporting. They gather a plethora of consumer information than any other company on the planet and sell it to marketers, employers, insurance companies, and mortgage companies around the world.
You can read about the heart wrenching stories on the Internet of individuals whose lives have been shattered because of the greed, negligence and unconscionable acts by the credit bureaus.
Privacy, a freedom once cherished is now, a thing of the past–there is none. Your life is an open book for anyone and everyone who is willing to pay for information that's deemed personal and private–thanks to the secret society of the good 'Ole Boys.'
Many countries in the world utilize consumer credit as a tool for measuring the credit worthiness of an individual without dire consequences, and their economy is moving along just fine.
So an overhaul of the entire credit reporting system would not throw the US economy into longterm-unemployment, soup lines, and high-interest rates as the credit bureaus would have Congress to believe.
Law vs. Ethics
The removal of bad credit at 7 years is completely random. According to Dr. Bonnie Gution, adviser to President Bush–
"It is our understanding that computer models that predict credit worthiness find most information that is more than two years old nonessential."
It can also be said that most consumers recover in 2 years from a layoff or a major downturn in their lives. They're ready to regroup, get themselves together, and move forward, but instead, they find themselves left sidelined, living a life of a second class citizen for another 5 years.
Conclusion
The battle to do what is right lies deep within one's own conscious. The only loyalty you have is to God, and your family to recover from a catastrophe or setback as quickly as you can. So, as far as I'm concerned, based on what I've seen and experienced, the removal of negative credit information before seven-years isn't unlawful, it's not unfair and it's not unethical. It's the right thing to do.
If you want to learn how to clean up your credit, I'll be holding a free Credit Repair Work Shop Live on Twitter in a few weeks or you can buy my new book, IT IS TIME! How To Remove Bad Credit Legally.