Get judgment off credit report?

[Patricia]

My husband has some bad information on his credit report, and we’re in the process of cleaning up his credit history.
Back in 2010, while we were trying to get a home loan, we found out that he had a judgment on his credit for a $1,200 loan he took out in 2006, before we got married.

The bank filed a judgment in Sep 2007 during which time my husband was in training for military purposes.

He never received a summons and again had no clue of the judgment until Dec 2010. I received a letter while he was in training requesting payment, but it said nothing about a judgment. I quickly called and set up payments. It was paid off in 5 months.

How can we get this off his credit without paying a credit counseling service $500+?

Any help is appreciated

[Ike]

Two things you can do

Patricia,
First you need to understand that as long as the information is true and correct it will continue to show on your husband’s credit report until the reporting time line expires. However – it should however show as paid with a $0 balance.

True and accurate information can not legally be removed. This is why it’s called credit history.

That doesn’t mean that there’s nothing to do about it.

What I would suggest is a two step course of action.

First – write a letter to the bank. Explain everything in details as you did here and ask them politely to remove the item from your husband’s credit report. Assuming that it is paid, the may agree to do it as a courtesy to you.

If they take it of – great. if not – dispute the item with the credit bureau, and ask them to take it off. As I explained previously – they would probably reject your request to delete it. BUT – once they refuse to remove it, you have a right to add a 100-word statement to the report explaining your position, and they must include this statement in all future reports, as long as the item is being reported.

Good luck.

P.S. You may need to repeat the process with each of the credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian & TransUnion. I assume the item shows up on all 3 reports.

[Author]

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