609 Credit Repair Letter- Is it real?
Okay, so, many people are talking about the 609-credit repair letters, and whether they are legit or not. In this blog post, I shall tell you everything you need to know about these letters.
Let's dive into it.
The 609 Credit repair secret (as they are commonly called), claim that there is a federal law loophole that can help remove all negative items from your credit report every time you use them. It is one of the latest internet repair “secrets.”
They can even remove some accurate information based on this “loophole.”
Now, if you have some items on your credit report, – negative or positive, and you wish to dispute them, Section 609 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act does not care whether the items are accurate or not. It only cares whether they can be proved or not.
The 609 letters dispute the Credit Reporting Agencies' legal right to report any item without giving adequate proof as to their legitimacy. This is where the loophole is.
I will explain this further.
But first;
What is the responsibility of credit bureaus?
One major responsibility of all credit bureaus is to ensure that they report verified and accurate information on their customers credit reports.
They normally collect information from many different sources such as banks, and other lenders, and then they resell this information to businesses that evaluate their customer's credit in terms of their credit score.
This, therefore, means that credit bureaus originate all of the information on your credit report. They are governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), that normally dictate the specific information that reporting agencies and the information furnishers can and cannot do when reporting about the consumer information.
Where is the problem?
You have the right to access error-free and accurate credit reports. It is your federal right. But many consumers still reported numerous errors on their reports, despite the credit bureaus efforts to keep the reports accurate.
According to a recently completed study by the Federal Trade Commission, one in every five people have found mistakes on their credit reports. This means that 20% of Americans are faced with this problem, which is quite alarming.
Other studies, in fact, estimate that it is much higher than that.
The fact remains that when there are errors on your report, it is a big deal. This is because these errors will affect your credit score.
Read more about credit scores on this article – https://expertbeacon.com/credit-score/
Errors on your credit report should never be ignored. But what should you do when you notice errors?
Everyone has different answers to this question.
The most popular online survey shows that most people trust the use of the 609 letters for disputes. These are letters that can be used to dispute credit information.
But what is a credit dispute anyway?
A credit dispute is a right you are afforded by the FCRA. You are allowed to challenge the accuracy of the credit report information.
Here are some key points to note when it comes to disputes:
- You are allowed to report any disputes to the companies that created your credit report. These are Equifax, TransUnion, or Experian.
- You are allowed to send all disputes to your creditors as well directly – This includes banks, the credit card companies, and debt collectors.
- You can initiate disputes online – for credit bureaus, or by telephone, or even using a snail mail.
- You have a right to handle all credit disputes by yourself.
- You can also pay a credit repair company to do this on your behalf.
Related:Â Best Credit Repair Companies
So, how do the 609 dispute letters work?
The 609-dispute letter has been gaining popularity of late.
As mentioned above, these are templates of letters that allow you to manipulate the available loophole in section 609 of the disputes act. It provides a secretive way of getting rid of all the negative items on your report.
These are normally purchased, and they offer a wide variety of solutions to your problems.
Now, essentially, a 609 letter is simply a debt validation letter, which means that you are simply asking for the debt to be verified and not necessarily having it expunged from the record.
Ironically, section 609 doesn’t offer you the right to dispute this information; this is covered in sections 623 and 611.
Section 609 gives you the right to request a further investigation of the information on your credit report.
I hope you are slowly getting to the point of understanding how this works, and why it is very popular. Since you request the originators of the credit information to investigate further, it is not always possible, and it leads to many potential problems.
Do they really work?
Absolutely. The reason why this works is the fact that the credit bureaus cannot be able to verify all of the information, and hence, they end up removing it.
But there are times you may send the dispute letter asking for specific items to be verified, and they verify them, which means that they will not be removed from your report.
The 609 letters make lots of sense for someone with bad credit, but here is an analysis of the benefits and limitation of using this approach to improve your credit status;
Benefits
They take advantage of your right as a consumer to request the credit bureaus to provide more information concerning the items on your credit report. When writing this letter, it is advisable that you state that it is your right to request this information.
It asserts your right as a citizen to legally receive only accurate information on your credit report. This includes complete and verifiable information. This is where the loophole lies. The fact that the information on the credit report should be verifiable and accurate makes it difficult for the bureaus to prove.
According to the FCRA's rules and regulations, Credit bureaus can remove outdated and erroneous information that cannot be verified from your report. As a result of this, your credit score can increase with a few points, making it easy to access credit that you may not have qualified to before.
Limitations
The removed items on the credit report can actually be added back later if the creditor can be able to verify their authenticity, which is not always a good thing, especially after your credit score has already increased. This means that it may go down a few points.
Any new credit collection agencies have a right to add more information to your credit report at any time, which may be as a result of investigations done.
You cannot get rid of your obligation to repay debts that are legit, even if the 609 letters have caused such a debt to be eliminated from your report.
Can you purchase the 609 letters online?
Yes. There are so many companies offering this service online.
These templates are available online, and some companies will charge you thousands of dollars to access them, and even offer you some advice on how to use them.
You should consult with the credit bureaus personally, and ensure that you fill out the templates by yourself and send this through mail to the credit agencies. You should never give a third-party access to your credit information.
Draft the letters on your own and ensure to include correct and accurate information concerning any disputes you may have.
Conclusion
That is all the information you need to know about the 609 letters. It is, however, important to note that; contrary to popular belief, these letters do not completely delete a record from your credit report. No. They will only remove an item if it cannot be verified.
Since it is your legal right to have verified information on your credit report, it becomes quite challenging to verify the data, and as such, the consumer can have many different items removed from their reports, which inadvertently raises their credit scores.
You should, however, note that, if the information is verified, later on, the credit bureaus have every right to add back that information on your credit report.
The bottom line here is that. There isn’t a surefire way of removing information on a credit report unless the law requires its removal. This is true, whether you use the 609 letters, send letters that you have drafted yourself, or use a credit repair company.
What I'm trying to say is that the law is the law, and using any of the above methods to remove items on your report will yield the same results as they all work the same way. The law will only allow certain items to be removed if they are not verifiable, and therefore, it is not true that the 609 letters are the best.
