I was denied credit and asked for a copy of my credit file from all 3 companies. I have gotten one back and boy is it huge! There's stuff on it duplicated, sold to collection companies, not listed as charged off in bankruptcy, some things that are not mine, which I intend to dispute, and it's a general mess. FTR, I do not want a cc but wanted to get my credit report. Is there a form letter or something I can do to straighten this mess out? Some of the charges are really old too, 7-10 years! How do I rebuild my credit and how do I stop the continued harassment from creditors? I told one that he was listed in BK and he sold it to a collector!

Also had my car run into and was denied getting it fixed (other person's company). I complained about the company and have been threatened with a lawsuit for "defamation" because I named the company on the Internet. Can they do this? I have no money, no job, no property and a car that I can't afford to fix! Can they put me in jail? Can they take my husband's property or small paycheck? I am losing my hair and sleep over this but can't afford a doctor...not a good year. They told me to remove my comments in 5 days but it isn't my website and I can't do it. I did not know that it was against the law to complain about a company if you told the truth.

Answer:

You can get your credit file cleaned up by yourself. I wouldn't recommend some of these "credit cleaning" places that advertise. There is nothing they can do that you can't by yourself. Remember, there is the Fair Credit Reporting Act that has to be adhered to which is a great help to consumers. It takes a lot of work but is worth it in the end. A huge chunk of people have no idea that credit files generally have a lot of errors until something causes he/she to order one. There is an excellent credit message board where the folks will guide you to do this on your own without resorting to anything illegal, like I've seen elsewhere. It's at www.creditboards.com You have to join to post (naturally) and then go to the credit forum and simply state what kind of errors you found. Also they have a forum about collections and what cannot be done to a consumer, as well as what you can do about it. You will get extremely helpful advice from folks who have been there, so to speak. We did what they said and raised our scores over 100 points after a BK.

As for naming a company, always used a disclaimer like "allegedly" or "it seems that". There are sites like Rip Off Report And Consumer Complaints where daily people post their problems and thoughts about all kinds of businesses.

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