If you have inaccuracies or sticky listings on your credit report, you may have considered the credit repair decision. The Fair Credit Reporting Act or the FCRA was enacted back in'79 to "promote the fairness, accuracy and privacy of personal information on credit reports". This law also allows consumers to dispute information on their credit reports, which is crucial because it is expected that as many as 75% of all credit reports hold inaccuracies and flawed credit.

You have the right to dispute the errors on your account and if the credit bureaus and lenders cannot confirm the truth of the information it must be removed from your record. You can do credit repair on your own or you can also engage a professional service to assist you.

Yet, it is important to note that the Federal Trade Commission has stated very plainly "No one can legally remove accurate and timely information from a credit report. The law allows you to ask for an investigation of information in your file that you dispute as inaccurate or incomplete".

On the surface, this statement seems pretty straightforward. This is one cause why the critics of credit repair and credit repair services try to tell you that there is little that you can do about your bad credit and any attempts to repair your credit may be fruitless. The fact is that you can do quite a bit when it comes to repairing your credit.

Even thought the FTC statement seems quite simple, there is quite a bit of ambiguity in the quote when it comes to real credit reports and real situations. Up to 75% of all credit reports are deemed to hold mistakes. Since this is the case, credit repair companies in fact offer a useful service. Of course, you can do it yourself and you may want to think about that but it does take time and energy and if you already have a busy life you may not want to undertake a major endeavor like that on your own.

And then again, while you are not supposed to be able to get rid of accurate and timely information from a credit report, who determines exactly what is "accurate and timely". Mistakes and miscommunications occur regularly between lenders and consumers. In many instances, something that is considered to be "correct" may not be absolutely so.

Also, many credit reports have listings that go to someone else, duplicate entries, listings that have been on the report for longer than 7 years and even listings that are the consequence of identity theft. These things need to be removed from your credit before they cause you unnecessary tribulations.

You also have the right to dispute any item that you feel may be deceptive, ambiguous, unverifiable, biased or questionable. There may even be some things that the lender may have felt were true but you were never able to defend yourself with your own side of the tale. Lenders are not always fair and equitable any more than consumers are always right. There are always at least two sides to every story and that is one basis why it is such a great benefit to be able to dispute the inaccurate, untimely, misleading, incomplete, ambiguous and questionable items on your credit report, either on your own or with specialized aid.

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