Frequently Asked Questions

You will indicate to us which items you wish to dispute, and how you want us to dispute them. Once we receive your credit reports, we will draft letters to dispute negative items on your behalf. According to federal law, a disputed credit listing must be accurate and verifiable for it to remain on the credit report. The reinvestigation must be completed within 30 days or the listing must be removed — which is why properly disputed credit listings are removed with remarkable frequency.

Although the credit bureaus would like to have you think otherwise, there is absolutely nothing illegal about disputing items on your credit report. In fact, it is your explicit right by law to do so under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Credit report repair is as legal as pleading "not guilty" in a court of law.

It is inappropriate for any company to promise a particular result within a certain time frame. If credit reports are received promptly, many clients see excellent progress within the first 60 days. Statistically, participating clients have received, on average, 10.77 deletions by their third month, 15.15 deletions by the sixth month, and 25.8 deletions by the end of nine months.

It is important to understand there are no guarantees involved when working with credit repair. We can only guarantee to do everything in our power to work for you in removing any inaccurate and unverifiable information from your credit report.

Your initial payment is $75.00, and your monthly retainer fee is a fixed $35.00 — it will never exceed that amount. There are no hidden fees, and our service is backed by a refund warranty. Learn more about what it costs.

Whenever you apply for credit or financing, a credit report is pulled from at least one of the three major credit bureaus: Experian, Trans Union, or Equifax. These for-profit corporations collect and maintain information on the vast majority of Americans, and they sell that information to credit grantors. Reports are not just a record of how you are currently managing your accounts — they are histories of everything you are doing with your credit now and in the past.

Merchant Trade Lines — regular credit lines such as department store cards, auto loans, mortgages, and credit cards.

Collection Accounts — accounts referred to collections due to delinquency; any type of collection account is considered very negative.

Court Records — bankruptcies, judgments, liens, divorce records, and satisfied liens.

Inquiries — every time a potential credit grantor looks at your file, an inquiry appears on your report.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires that most negative credit items be deleted from your file in no more than seven years, except for bankruptcy, which can be reported for up to ten years. Inquiries may remain on the report for up to two years.

When you become very delinquent on an account, the creditor will probably charge it off. This means they have written the debt off as a loss for tax purposes. This does not mean they have given up collecting — the creditor is now likely to either sell the debt or send it to collections.

In credit ratings, "R" refers to a revolving account, "I" to an installment account, and "M" to a mortgage account. A rating of "1" is good and "0" means there isn't enough history to rate you. Every other rating, "2" through "9," is negative and indicates problems with the account.

Prospective creditors review your credit before granting you credit. It is also increasingly common for insurance companies to review your credit before extending auto or health insurance, for employers to check credit before considering a candidate, and for landlords to run a credit check on potential renters.

Negative credit listings are deleted from people's credit reports every day. The right to challenge and improve your credit is yours, and you can restore bad credit in much less time than seven years. It's not necessarily easy or foolproof, but the right to challenge inaccurate or unverifiable items is protected by law.

There is not one type of negative listing that cannot be removed from a credit report. While negative items such as bankruptcy or unpaid debts are more difficult to remove, this has more to do with the operational systems of the credit bureaus than with the severity of the item. Judgments and tax liens, for example, are severely negative listings yet are considerably easier to remove.

It is a myth that a large amount of positive credit can outweigh some negative credit. Any negative credit whatsoever can become a substantial credit obstacle and often triggers automatic denial by a computer scoring model.

If there are delinquent accounts on your credit reports, the actual debt behind the listing remains the same even if we delete the account from your credit report. You still owe the money. If you don't pay the debt, the creditor or collection agency could always re-report the item, so removing the listing without addressing the debt is only a temporary solution.

Not necessarily. When you pay an old debt, the negative credit listing doesn't disappear, and the seven-year clock can reset with a new date of last activity. You won't get much further by paying the old debt unless you also work to restore your credit at the same time.

It is not necessary to know exactly what is on your credit report before we begin work — it is only necessary to know that there is a credit problem which needs to be addressed. Almost any small amount of bad credit can trigger universal credit denial, so even a couple of negative listings can be worth addressing.

Given some experience and study, you could do some of what our staff does. But disputing successfully requires substantial time, follow-up, and knowledge of the system. One On One Credit Repair has systematized the dispute process through a trained staff and custom-designed software. We encourage consumers to dispute their own credit if they have the time and knowledge.

Disputing the credit report is easy; getting results from the credit bureaus is difficult, complex, and infuriating. Restoring your own credit is like repairing your own transmission or representing yourself in court — it is possible, but you must decide if you're willing to take the time and assume the risks.

No. The act of paying off a debt can actually hurt your credit by resetting the date of last activity and starting the seven-year clock over again. When you have outstanding debt, it is almost always prudent to seek professional help so you can settle debts without further damaging your credit.

Consumer Credit Counseling Service (CCCS) is a nonprofit debt counseling service funded and controlled by the credit grantors and bureaus. It can provide a beneficial debt management service, but it does not help restore your credit. Paying off your debts is a step in the right direction, but it does not restore your credit.

If at the completion of your retainer you have done your part by mailing credit reports to us and we have made no progress, your money will be refunded. Otherwise, at the end of 12 months, we pro-rate the success of your case by placing a $50.00 value on each deleted or improved listing, deducting that from your retainer fees, and refunding you the difference. See full warranty details and examples.

Yes. You can cancel your retainer at any time — there's no contractual obligation. To qualify for our warranty, however, you must work with us for the entire year.

Occasionally a negative listing that was deleted is later verified by the creditor. The FCRA requires the credit bureau to inform you before re-reporting a previously deleted listing, so it is fairly rare for listings to come back. If an item is re-reported, it is a simple matter to challenge the listing again to press for permanent deletion.

While some credit repair companies are outright frauds, others use the dispute process to obtain impressive results. No reputable company can guarantee a specific outcome — guarantees are a sure sign of fraud. A warranty, where a company promises a refund if certain results don't occur, is a better, more realistic claim. Do your research before choosing a provider.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) allows a consumer to challenge the information on their credit report on the basis of "completeness and accuracy." If, after a reinvestigation, the disputed information is found to be inaccurate or can no longer be verified, the credit bureau must promptly delete it. Investigations must be completed within a reasonable period (set at thirty days).