A bankruptcy on your credit report may disqualify you from some loans and will almost certainly increase the interest rates at which lenders provide financing to you. Because of this, removing old bankruptcies from your credit report is a major part of repairing your credit following a bankruptcy. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires credit reporting agencies to provide accurate information on your credit report and to delete legally removable information and inaccuracies from your record.
Innacurate Reports
If a report of a bankruptcy erroneously appears on your credit history, you may petition the credit reporting agency to remove the erroneous information from your file. Unless the credit reporting agency deems your request to be frivolous, it must investigate the claim within 30 days. In this case, the agency will contact the jurisdiction that reported your bankruptcy and check its records. If possible, obtain copies of court records in your state that show you haven't filed bankruptcy and mail the credit agency of copy of those records to aid the investigation.
Waiting Period
If you recently declared bankruptcy, you must complete a waiting period before you may expunge the bankruptcy from your record. Accurate information can't be prematurely deleted from your report, no matter how adversely it has an impact on your credit rating. You must wait 10 years following a Chapter 7 bankruptcy before the credit reporting agencies may remove it from your credit history. If you filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you must wait seven years before you may remove it from your record.
Contact Credit Agency with Proof of Discharge Date
Once you emerge from the period in which bankruptcies can't be removed from your credit history, you may petition the credit reporting agency to remove the bankruptcy from your record by contacting the agency in writing. Provide copies of your original bankruptcy discharge, listing the date of discharge, along with a request to purge the listing from your record, sent via certified mail to the credit reporting agency, as the FCRA requires all notifications sent in writing. If the agency agrees to strike the bankruptcy from your credit history, you will receive a free copy of your updated credit history.
Keep Detailed Records
It may take 30 days after the decision to remove the bankruptcy from your published credit history. If you communicate with an agency over the phone or by email, keep detailed records of the date, time, name of the customer service representative with whom you spoke and a summary of your conversation. These records will further strengthen your claim should the credit reporting agency deny your request, and you choose to seek civil action.
Litigation
If the credit reporting agency won't strike an outdated bankruptcy from your record, you may need to take the agency to civil court to force it to remove the entry. The FCRA requires that credit agencies be able to verify all information on your record, and it may take the decision of a judge for it to acknowledge a long-ago discharge.
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