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Bankruptcy & Your Credit Report
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
The Bankruptcy Court does not control the actions of credit reporting agencies. The Bankruptcy Court does not report information to any of the credit reporting agencies. The credit reporting agencies collect information about bankruptcy cases directly from the court’s public records. The bankruptcy petitions, schedules, and other documents filed in a case are part of those public records.The Bankruptcy Court is not able to assist you with removing or correcting information listed on your credit report.
1. How long does a bankruptcy remain on my credit report?
2. How do I get a free copy of my credit report?
3. How do I remove inaccurate information from my credit report?
1. How long does a bankruptcy remain on my credit report?
The Fair Credit Reporting Act, Section 605, governs the actions of credit reporting agencies. The law states that credit reporting agencies may not report a bankruptcy case on a person’s credit report after ten (10) years from the date the bankruptcy case is filed. Other bad credit information is generally removed after seven (7) years.
Debtors must directly contact credit reporting agencies to discuss information on a credit report, including bankruptcy case filings. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the credit reporting agency (and the creditor) are required to correct inaccurate or incomplete information on a credit report.
For more information about credit reports and resolving issues on your credit report, there are a number of educational publications on Federal Trade Commission's website (www.ftc.gov)
2. How do I get a free copy of my credit report?
The three nationwide credit reporting companies have set up a central website, a toll-free telephone number, and a mailing address through which you can order your free annual report.
To order, visit annualcreditreport.com, call 1-877-322-8228, or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to:
Annual Credit Report Request Service
P.O. Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281
More information about access to free credit reports can be found on the Federal Trade Commission’s website at: http://www.ftc.gov/freereports.
3. How do I remove inaccurate information from my credit report?
If you believe information on your credit report is inaccurate, you must contact the credit reporting agency to initiate a dispute. You can ask for an investigation — at no charge to you — of the information in your file that you dispute as inaccurate or incomplete.
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