Credit Repair Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Answered by Joeziel Vazquez, CEO & Founder - Credlocity Business Group LLC
FCRA Certified · BCCC · CCSC · CCRS · 17 Years · 79,000+ Clients · Philadelphia, PA

These are the questions Credlocity's FCRA-certified consultants answer most frequently - from first-time clients who have never been through the credit repair process to consumers who have tried other companies and want to understand what Credlocity does differently. The answers below reflect 17 years of hands-on FCRA practice serving 79,000+ clients from our office at 1500 Chestnut Street, Suite 2, Philadelphia, PA 19102. Nothing here is a legal guarantee - credit repair results depend on the specific items on each client's report and the responses of bureaus and furnishers. But these answers represent the most accurate, legally grounded information we know how to provide.

FAQs About Credit Repair Services

What is credit repair?

Credit repair is the process of reviewing your credit reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion for inaccurate, incomplete, unverifiable, and obsolete information; disputing that information under the legal rights established by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA); and simultaneously building positive credit history to improve your overall credit profile. Credit repair does not mean removing accurate, complete, and verifiable negative information before the statutory reporting period expires. That is impossible under the FCRA and anyone who promises it is misleading you. What credit repair does mean is using every legal right the FCRA provides to ensure that the negative information on your report is accurate and can actually be verified - and removing anything that fails that test.

How long does credit repair take?

Most clients see initial results within 30 to 45 days of the first dispute cycle - the time it takes for the bureaus to complete their reinvestigation under FCRA § 1681i and report results. Significant credit score improvement typically occurs over 3 to 6 months as multiple dispute rounds are completed, deleted items stop depressing the score, and positive account history from new secured credit or credit-builder loan accounts accumulates. Cases involving Chapter 7 bankruptcy, multiple collection accounts from several different creditors, or complex identity theft scenarios may require 6 to 12 months of sustained dispute management before reaching maximum improvement. There is no honest answer that promises a specific timeline, because it depends entirely on what is on the report, how many items are disputable, and how responsive the bureaus and furnishers are to disputes.

What can credit repair actually remove?

Credit repair can remove any item that is inaccurate, incomplete, unverifiable, or past the FCRA statutory reporting period. This includes: collection accounts with wrong balances, wrong dates of first delinquency, wrong original creditors, duplicate reporting, or accounts that cannot be verified because the debt buyer's records are incomplete; late payments reported when you actually paid on time; charge-offs with inflated balances or incorrect dates; bankruptcies that cannot be verified because of documentation limitations under Bankruptcy Rule 9037(a); repossessions with inaccurate deficiency balances; medical debt reported in violation of the No Surprises Act or with inaccurate amounts; identity theft accounts that resulted from unauthorized use of your personal information; unauthorized hard inquiries from entities that lacked permissible purpose under FCRA § 604; and any item that has passed the seven-year reporting limit under FCRA § 1681c or the ten-year limit for Chapter 7 bankruptcies. What credit repair cannot do is remove accurate, complete, verifiable information that is within the statutory reporting period - that information belongs on the report until the statutory clock expires.

How much does credit repair cost?

Credlocity offers three plans: the Fraud Intervention Plan at $99.95 per month for consumers with targeted negative items; the Aggressive Repair Plan at $179.95 per month for consumers with complex profiles involving ten or more negative items, bankruptcies, or multiple collection accounts; and the Family Plan at $279.95 per month covering two household members with full Aggressive Repair service. All plans include a 30-day free trial - you pay nothing for your first 30 days of service. This is required by CROA (15 U.S.C. § 1679b), which prohibits any credit repair company from charging before services are performed. There are no enrollment fees, no cancellation fees, and no per-deletion charges. Before any work begins, you receive a written service agreement and a Consumer Credit File Rights disclosure as required by CROA.

FAQs About Your FCRA Rights

What is the Fair Credit Reporting Act?

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), codified at 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq., is the federal law governing consumer credit reporting in the United States. It was enacted in 1970 and has been substantially amended, most significantly by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) of 2003. The FCRA establishes: the rights of consumers to access their credit files; the right to dispute inaccurate or unverifiable information and require reinvestigation; the maximum reporting periods for negative information; the permissible purposes for which lenders and others may access your credit report; the accuracy standards that consumer reporting agencies and furnishers must follow; and the civil remedies available to consumers when these standards are violated. The three major consumer reporting agencies - Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion - are subject to the FCRA. So are furnishers: the banks, credit card companies, collection agencies, debt buyers, and any other entity that regularly reports information to the bureaus.

How long do negative items stay on my credit report?

Under FCRA § 1681c, most negative items - collections, late payments, charge-offs, repossessions, and other derogatory tradelines - may be reported for seven years from the date of first delinquency with the original creditor. Chapter 7 bankruptcy may be reported for ten years from the filing date. Chapter 13 bankruptcy stays seven years under industry policy. Civil judgments and tax liens were voluntarily removed from all three major bureau reports in 2018. Hard inquiries remain visible for two years but have minimal scoring impact after twelve months. The seven-year clock on collections and charge-offs runs from the date of first delinquency with the original creditor - not from when the debt was sold, not from when a collector first attempted to collect, and not from any partial payment you may have made. Re-aging an account to make it appear more recent than it actually is violates FCRA § 1681c and is separately disputable.

What is the difference between the FCRA and the FDCPA?

The FCRA and the FDCPA are two distinct federal consumer protection laws that often apply simultaneously to credit repair situations. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA, 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq.) governs what can appear on your credit report, how long it can be reported, and your rights to dispute inaccurate or unverifiable information with credit bureaus and furnishers. It applies to credit reporting agencies and any entity that furnishes information to them. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA, 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq.) governs how third-party debt collectors conduct collection activities - including what they can say, when they can call, what they must disclose, and how disputes of debt validity must be handled. The FDCPA applies to third-party collectors only, not to original creditors collecting their own debts. When a collection account appears on your credit report, both laws apply simultaneously: the FCRA governs the accuracy of the reporting and your right to dispute it, while the FDCPA governs the collector's conduct in attempting to collect the debt.

FAQs About Disputing Items on Your Credit Report

How do I dispute an item on my credit report?

Write a formal dispute letter to each credit bureau where the item appears - Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion must each be disputed separately because they maintain independent files. In the letter, identify the specific account by name and account number as it appears on your report. State the precise nature of the inaccuracy - wrong balance, wrong date of first delinquency, account does not belong to you, duplicate reporting, unauthorized inquiry, obsolete item past the seven-year reporting period, or whatever the specific error is. Cite FCRA § 1681i and state that you expect a response within 30 days. Attach copies (never originals) of any supporting documentation. Send by certified mail with return receipt requested. The bureau must investigate within 30 days and delete any item it cannot verify. Simultaneously, consider sending a direct furnisher dispute to the creditor or collection agency under FCRA § 1681s-2(b), which creates an independent investigation obligation on the furnisher separate from the bureau-level reinvestigation.

What happens if the bureau says the item is verified?

If a bureau verifies a disputed item as accurate after reinvestigation, you have several escalation options. First, request the method of verification under FCRA § 1681i(a)(6) within 15 days of receiving the bureau's response - the bureau must tell you what furnisher was contacted and what process was used. If the method of verification reveals an inadequate investigation, that is evidence for escalation. Second, file a direct furnisher dispute under FCRA § 1681s-2(b) with the specific entity that reported the item, demanding that the furnisher investigate independently. Third, file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) at ConsumerFinance.gov/complaint - CFPB complaints trigger responses from bureaus and furnishers that are documented in a federal database. Fourth, consult an FCRA attorney about potential litigation under § 1681n for willful violations - statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 per violation plus attorney fees are available for willful bureau failures to properly reinvestigate.

How does a collection dispute work?

Disputing a collection account starts with identifying the specific inaccuracy or the basis for claiming the account is unverifiable. Common grounds include: wrong balance (collection agencies frequently add fees that were not authorized by the original agreement); wrong date of first delinquency (the clock controlling the seven-year reporting period is frequently set incorrectly, particularly by debt buyers who use the purchase date rather than the actual delinquency date); duplicate reporting (both the original creditor and the collection agency reporting the same debt); account not mine (identity theft, mixed file error, or genuine mistake); and unverifiable (the debt buyer cannot produce original documentation because it was not transferred with the portfolio). Write a § 1681i dispute to each bureau and a § 1681s-2(b) direct dispute to the collection agency simultaneously. Include an FDCPA § 1692g validation demand to the collector if you have been contacted within the last 30 days. The dual-track FCRA plus FDCPA approach is the methodology Credlocity uses for collection disputes after 17 years of FCRA practice.

FAQs About Credlocity

What does Credlocity actually do for me?

Credlocity's FCRA-certified consultants pull your credit reports from all three bureaus, conduct a comprehensive audit identifying every disputable item, categorize each item by the type of legal argument that applies, prepare custom FCRA-compliant dispute letters citing the specific statutory provisions relevant to each item, send those letters by certified mail to each bureau and relevant furnishers, track the 30-day investigation timelines, review bureau responses, prepare follow-up disputes and escalation letters, and advise on credit rebuild strategy. For complex items - bankruptcies, identity theft accounts, furnishers who refuse to investigate - Credlocity escalates to CFPB complaints, state AG complaints, and referral to FCRA litigation attorneys with whom we have established relationships. Clients are assigned a dedicated consultant who is personally responsible for their case from start to finish.

Is Credlocity compliant with CROA?

Yes, fully. Credlocity has operated in compliance with the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1679-1679j) since our founding in 2008. Before any work begins and before any contract is signed, every Credlocity client receives: a written service agreement describing all services to be performed and all fees; a separate Consumer Credit File Rights disclosure as required by CROA § 1679c; and a clear statement of the three-day right of cancellation under CROA § 1679c without any penalty. Credlocity charges nothing for the first 30 days of service. There are no setup fees, enrollment fees, or other advance charges of any kind. No credit repair company may legally charge before performing services, and Credlocity never does. The founding of Credlocity was directly motivated by Joey Vazquez's personal experience of being defrauded by a credit repair company that charged fees and did nothing - which is why CROA compliance is not a legal box to check at Credlocity, it is a foundational commitment to operating the way we wished someone had operated when he needed help.

FAQs About Credit Scores and Credit Reports

What factors affect my credit score?

The FICO scoring model - the most widely used credit scoring model in US lending decisions - calculates scores based on five primary factors. Payment history constitutes 35 percent of the score and is the most heavily weighted factor - a single 30-day late payment on a mortgage can drop a score by 60 to 110 points. Amounts owed (credit utilization) constitutes 30 percent - high balances relative to credit limits signal financial stress. Length of credit history is 15 percent - older accounts with long positive histories are more valuable. Credit mix is 10 percent - having both revolving (credit cards) and installment (loans) accounts is better than having only one type. New credit inquiries account for 10 percent - multiple hard inquiries in a short period signal risk-seeking behavior. Understanding these factors tells you what the most impactful credit repair strategies are: removing major derogatory items (payment history impact), reducing utilization (amounts owed impact), and building positive history through secured cards and credit-builder loans.

How do I get a free copy of my credit report?

Under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) amendment to the FCRA, every US consumer is entitled to one free credit report per year from each of the three major bureaus - Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. The only federally authorized source for these free annual reports is AnnualCreditReport.com. Avoid any other website that claims to offer free credit reports, as many of these sites either charge hidden fees, enroll you in subscription services, or are outright fraudulent. In addition to the annual free report, consumers are entitled to free reports when they are victims of fraud, are on public assistance, are unemployed and seeking employment within 60 days, or have been denied credit based on information in the report. Many credit card companies and financial institutions also offer free credit score access (typically FICO Score 8) as a card benefit. These scores are useful for tracking progress but may not match the specific score a mortgage lender pulls, which may use an older FICO model such as FICO 2, 4, or 5 depending on the bureau. Start your free Credlocity consultation and our FCRA-certified team will review your reports at no charge as part of your 30-day free trial.