This question came in recently from Janice and I started to send a reply to you but decided I’d address this in the blog for all to read.  Janice, I thank you for sending in this question as many people wonder the same thing.   Of course, you can insert foreclosure, tax lien, judgment, collections, slow pays, repossession, and the whole list of bad credit issues one might face to the question “Can you legally take a bankruptcy off a credit report?”.

The short reality is every single entry on your credit report is suspect. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and law that states you as a consumer have the right to challenge the credit reporting agencies (CRA’s) and demand removal of any trade lines that are reported inaccurately, that cannot be validated or simply outdated.

The law requires the credit bureaus perform their own credit repair by advising that a bankruptcy can remain on your credit report for up to 10 years.  Most other items must be removed at the 7 year mark.  Now a bankruptcy CAN remain on your credit for up to 10 years.  No where in the FCRA or any other law for that matter does it say that it MUST be on your report.  As a matter of fact, there is nothing in the law that says it HAS to be on your credit for 10 mins, 10 days  or 10 months let alone the 10 years.

Now, let me point out the law says nothing about this, that is if the bankruptcy actually happened you can’t do anything about it.   Certainly, you would never want to form your dispute by denying the bankruptcy is yours if you really did file a chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy.   I mean truth be told, if it happened it happened, but that’s not the issue here.  During the credit repair process, a challenge to the CRA’s is simply a demand for investigation to validate the case, to verify that every single thing reported is accurate.

The FCRA says that if certain time lines are not met and if proper validation and verification of accuracy of the bankruptcy are not met then the item must be deleted from your credit report.   Not to kill you with all the dirty little details but a large percent of all trade lines have mistakes and simply cannot or will not be validated.

The trick is to know what you’re looking for and how to prepare the disputes going to the credit bureaus.  If you’re interested in reading more about this you may want to dig into the FCRA so make sure to check this out…CLICK HERE. The actual section you can review is 611 (click here).

I hope this gives a bit more clarity to this question.  Let me know your thoughts…

Be Bold!

Herschel