Credit Myth #5 of 10 (Series 1)

This might be an eye opener if you declare bankruptcy!

Q: If I declare bankruptcy, I can begin my credit report all over with a clean slate.

A: Many bankruptcy attorneys do not adequately understand or explain the effects of bankruptcy to their clients. Stated simply, bankruptcy is to the credit rating what the nuclear bomb is to war. When you file for bankruptcy, every credit account that you decide to include in bankruptcy will become an “included in bankruptcy” account. Additionally, a bankruptcy filing and bankruptcy discharge listing will appear in the court records section of your credit report under“public records”.

Because so many negative items are attached to the bankruptcy, it may take a little more time and persistency but you will eventually be able to remove all traces of the bad credit. If at all possible, you should avoid bankruptcy. (If you already have filed, you can eliminate the negative items by challenging the bankruptcy and the items included with the credit bureaus.)

You may want to wait at least 6-9 months to dispute this type of entry. The fact is, if an account was just recently reported on a credit report and you are trying to challenge the accuracy of it, in most cases it may be verified as accurate as those account files have not been moved to archives. You will have to just wait a little for the account to age and then attempt to dispute the negative or incorrect data.