This is particularly so given that bad credit can affect almost every aspect of your life. You may find it hard to secure loans, credit cards, mortgages, rental applications, and much more. Of course, people with bad credit are willing to try almost anything to repair their credit rating as soon as possible.
Such desperation makes consumers fall easily for all sorts of cons and scams that may be put forward in the marketplace. The 609 credit repair method is relatively new; many firms claim that they can legally delete the negative information from your credit reports using 609 dispute letters. However, is 609 credit repair real? Or is this another credit repair scam?
In this blog post, we will explore section 609 of the FCRA and whether the touted 609 credit repair approach does more harm than good.
What is Section 609?
To begin, let us first define what section 609 is in the first place is all about. It is only a small subsection known as section 609 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act that allows consumers to request the removal of information that is inaccurate or unverifiable on their credit reports.
609 dispute letters are letters that the consumers can write to the credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) to challenge credit items that have a negative impact. These letters use section 609 to justify the erasure of the disputed information if the credit bureaus fail to authenticate it.
Based on 609 disputes, the main aim is to ensure that credit reporting agencies remove negative details and consequently, increase the credit rating. Some of the most frequently reported 609 disputes are late payments, charge-offs, collections accounts, bankruptcies, and foreclosures among others.
Is It True That Section 609 of the Credit Repair Act Can Help You?
But the most important question arises – do you really need 609 credit repair to make your credit report and scores look better? Is there any evidence that supports the allegations of 609 disputes resulting to deletion of negative items?
The short answer is maybe. The credit bureaus have no legal right to continue reporting items that you have disputed and they have been unable to verify through information contained in section 609. But this will not be always or even generally true.
Majority of negative information held in credit reports is actually true and can be proven. The bureaus receive information from creditors and lenders on consumers’ repayment behavior. Thus that they can without any difficulties provide proof in case there is a dispute under 609.
With that said, some situations where 609 disputes may lead to removal of negative items include:
- Incorrect personal details such as name or address.
- Accounts that were marked late that were actually paid on time
- Cycling of the same item in different episodes
- Any debt that is incurred solely for the benefit of the ex-spouse
- Debt that has taken a certain period of time to be paid
In other words, if there are some facts or some shortcomings in what is being reported, 609 disputes in and out alone can have them expunged.
How Effective Are 609 Credit Repair Companies?
You have probably noticed the commercials for 609 credit repair agency firms saying they can delete bankruptcies, judgements, liens and so on. However, can such companies really increase credit scores by hundreds of points, as the ads suggest?
As we have seen, there are many credit repair companies out there, and not all of them are legit. It is also important to note that quality companies have prior experience handling the common practices in such 609 related conflicts. The first is where they go through clients’ reports and analyze areas that contain discrepancies that can be effectively challenged. If there are negative items that are actually true, they will not mislead a client by promising to delete the facts.
On the other hand, scam agencies may flood the credit bureaus with as many disputes as possible, in the hope that at least one of the disputes will work. When few or none do, they keep on charging high monthly fees and give very poor services.
Thus, in conclusion – there are 609 credit repair services that can be indeed helpful if being used in a legal perspective and only for the reasonable disputes. However, offers such as free copies of the credit report and quick and simple solutions must be avoided.
Is the 609 Credit Repair Method Legal?
Many people wonder whether 609 disputes are violations of the law in the first place. Besides, if the credit bureates reveal proper information, isn’t attempting to eliminate it some sort of fraud?
But as explained above, 609 credit disputes themselves are not unlawful when there is a ground that certain information may be inaccurate or unverifiable as stated in the law.
Interestingly enough, the FCRA actually mandates credit bureaus to perform reasonable investigations whenever consumers directly dispute items on their credit profiles. It also requires erasing anything that cannot be taken down after an investigation has been conducted.
609 repair only becomes questionable when consumers go about the process with an intend to challenge information that they are well aware of as being accurate. To contest without sufficient evidence also falls squarely in violation of the federal law under the FCIA and can lead to civil fines or even criminal charges.
Thus, although 609 credit repair itself is legal and consumers need every right to fix report mistakes, they may be prosecuted for abusing the dispute rights.
The Bottom Line
While disputing with the credit bureaus using 609 disputes is legal and sometimes necessary, it should only be done to challenge inaccurate or unsubstantiated report entries after proper consideration. However, such potentiality of positive item elimination processes that make negative items vanish into thin air should not be believed.
If you have poor credit and are thinking about credit repair services, you should always be wary of scams. Do your homework on research companies, read other people’s experiences, look into the Better Business Bureau, and know what specific approaches a company takes before you pay monthly dollars.
609 disputes are most effective when utilized in conjunction with other legal credit repair strategies such as paying bills on time, utilization of credit responsibly, and avoiding high balances.
In the end, it is my hope that this post offered a fair and reasonable representation of what 609 credit disputes are capable of delivering. It is correct that any mistake made needs to be reported and should definitely get corrected but to raise the credit score significantly overnight is not possible with 609 credit repair alone. However, when used in a strategic credits repair plan, 609 disputes may at times assist in the removal of specific negative entries.
Call now for expert credit repair services: (888) 803-7889
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