Plead Not Guilty to Bad Credit

Posted 2/2/2010 8:14:42 AM in Bad Credit
How well would this go over? Imagine you have been falsely accused of stealing a car and the minimum sentence you will end up serving if you are convicted is seven years. Naturally, you hire a lawyer to represent you in court. You sit down with your lawyer to discuss your options and the advice he gives you is this: "There is nothing I can do so just plead guilty, go to jail and if you make sure not to steal any more cars in the next seven years, you'll be free again!"

I'm thinking that you just might start looking for another lawyer at that point.

So how does this relate to credit repair? It relates because the idiotic advice being supplied by the lawyer in the example is the same advice people frequently give about fixing bad credit: "There is nothing you can do to fix your credit except wait seven years for the negative items to fall off your credit reports and make sure to pay all of your bills on time."

This sort of thinking is all too common and is linked to a popular misconception about credit reporting. Many people believe that their credit reports have legal status and the credit bureaus who maintain them are official entities. This could not be further from the truth. Your credit report is a collection of information about you and accusations made against you. The credit bureaus are for-profit corporations who make money from maintaining and selling your credit reports.

A negative item on your credit report has no legal status. It is simply an accusation made against you by a creditor and just like if you were falsely accused of stealing a car, you have the right to plead not guilty to the negative items on your credit reports.