Remove Bankruptcy From Your Credit Report

If you want to know how to remove bankruptcy from your credit report, you’ll need to prove that the bankruptcy is being reported inaccurately, in some form or fashion. Otherwise, it will only disappear after seven to ten years, depending on the type of bankruptcy you filed.

Many lenders see declaring bankruptcy as a consumer hitting financial rock bottom. If that is the case, they’re surely in good company. More than 752,160 consumers filed for personal bankruptcy in 2019.

In addition to the stress, despair, and inconvenience that comes with filing for bankruptcy, your credit score is one of the greatest parts of your life impacted.

Luckily, that adverse impact to your credit can be mitigated with the right help from a credit repair service.

How Long Does a Bankruptcy Linger on Credit Reports?

Based on the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a Chapter 7 bankruptcy will stay on a person’s credit reports for up to ten years from the bankruptcy filing date, and a Chapter 13 bankruptcy can remain on your credit for a max of seven years.

The FCRA asserts the maximum legal amount of time bankruptcies can remain on your credit report but not the minimum amount of time. This means a bankruptcy can be removed from your credit reports earlier than the stated legal max time, but you must demonstrate that it is unsubstantiated or otherwise found inaccurate. A bankruptcy cannot be deleted from your credit report simply because you do not want it there.

How Does Bankruptcy Harm My Credit Score?

The consequence of bankruptcy on a credit report can be disastrous and ultimately depends on your credit score previous to filing.

FICO’s published Damage Points states that a Bankruptcy effect on your credit report ranges from -120 to a -250 point drop. For example:

• A person with a 685 credit score would drop between 135 and 155 points.
• A person with a 790 credit score would drop between 230 and 250 points.

So, if your credit score was extraordinary, a bankruptcy would drop it instantly to the poor status. Starting out with a good score, you also end up with a poor score, but your score does not plunge nearly as far.

The end result is still adverse — your credit score is terrible, and it will keep you from getting approved for new credit. The lower your initial score, the less dramatic the impact.

Can I Repair My Credit After Bankruptcy?

You can repair your credit after bankruptcy, but it is often a long process. Your opportunities will be limited at the start, but it is essential not to get discouraged. As time passes, if you consistently seek a credit rebuilding strategy, your reports and credit scores can increase.

Here are a few recommendations to begin with:

• Know the cause: Recognize, accept, and learn from the circumstances of your bankruptcy so you won’t find yourself in the same position in the future.
• Follow a budget: Evaluate your finances and see where you can trim expenses and save more money if you can.
• Re-establish credit history: No, this does not mean using an alias (something unethical credit repair companies sometimes recommend). It means starting new with whatever credit lines you can acquire.
• This may involve settling for a remarkably high-interest rate, bringing on a co-signer, placing cash into a secure credit card account, or other options that have been explicitly intended to help you re-establish a positive credit record.
• Use these credit choices sparingly and never charge more on a credit card than you can pay off by the end of each month, so your credit improves more quickly over time.

When Can a Bankruptcy Be Removed From My Credit Report?

A legal bankruptcy cannot be deleted from your credit report just because you don’t want it on there. However, a bankruptcy can removed off your credit report if it is inaccurately reported or otherwise incorrect.

The FCRA has guidelines for disputing anything on your credit report that is inaccurate, has remained on your credit report beyond the max time allowed, or cannot be verified by the creditor who is reporting it.

With bankruptcies — mostly because they remain on your credit reports for so many years — it’s not unusual for mistakes to sneak in.

Some of the most frequent inaccuracies we find include:

• Discharged debts from the bankruptcy are still displaying a balance.
• Accounts included in your bankruptcy are still appearing on your credit report after seven years. In Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcies, the included accounts can only remain on your credit report for seven years beginning from the initial delinquency date, not the filing date of the bankruptcy in which they were discharged.
• The bankruptcy is still appearing on a credit report more than ten years after the filing date.
• Any material mistake in how the bankruptcy was reported, including misspelling of names to inaccurate addresses, phone numbers, and dates.

If any of these mistakes appear on your credit reports, you have the right to dispute those mistakes. The credit reporting agency must delete them if the reporting agency cannot validate the items.

These include administrative errors, identity theft, or mistaken identities, resulting in a bankruptcy appearing on your credit report when it doesn’t belong there.

Your first step is contacting the U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee’s Office to file a report if there is an error. A fraudulent bankruptcy case is typically referred to the F.B.I. and reopened. You will have to defend your claim in court to prove that the bankruptcy is fraudulent.

While the government is often quick to help and understand those in a fraudulent bankruptcy predicament, the lawful process for removing it from your credit records can be long and tedious. The assistance of an experienced credit repair advocate can be essential.

Can I Personally Remove a Bankruptcy from my Credit Report?

It is possible to attempt to remove a bankruptcy from your credit report without hiring a credit repair agency, and some people have succeeded in doing so. However, it is a labor-intensive, time-consuming process that most consumers find complex, confusing, and frustrating.

We urge you to learn about the credit report disputing and credit repair processes as much as you can.

Consumers who have needed to delete a bankruptcy from their credit reports have realized success by hiring a credit repair services provider like CreditStryke. If other questionable negative items on your credit report affect your credit score, we can help you challenge those as well.

Contact us today for a free personal credit repair consultation to find out how we can help you through your fraud crisis so that you can move on to a financially stress-free future.