Credit Bureau Report - Know Your Status

Here’s a simple, all-important fact about Credit Bureau Report.

People often think that bad credit is a curse that will follow them forever. But the truth is that you can solve most consumer credit problems within six months to a year. Even better? You don’t need professional credit help to do it. You can complete the repair process and rebuild your score without incurring any additional costs to make it happen.

Here’s a quick overview of how do-it-yourself free credit help works:

• Obtain your credit reports for free – once a year
• Review your reports to identify errors
• Dispute those errors to clean up your profile
• Take the right steps to fix your score
• Avoid actions that slow down or stop your progress

Step 1: Obtain your Free Credit Report once a year

The first step to fix your credit is to get a copy of your credit report. Try and obtain the your Free Reports from ITC, Experian, XDS and Compuscan.

By law, you can download your reports for free once every twelve months through www.transunion.co.za, www.experian.co.za, www.xds.co.za, www.compuscan.co.za . This is the different Credit Bureau websites where you can get your reports with really no strings attached. Just answer a few security questions and you can access your reports from all 4 bureaus.

If you want to fix your credit score following a period of financial distress, you should download all your reports.

Step 2: Check your Credit Reports for errors

Fact: 1 in 20 credit reports contains an error that would decrease a consumer’s credit score by 25 points or more.

Credit report errors often contribute to a lower score, particularly following a period of financial hardship. There may be issues like mistakes in your payment history or outdated account statuses that could impact your score.

So, you want to read through each copy of your credit report carefully to identify mistakes or errors. Look for:

• ·       Why you need to challenge your Credit Report
• ·       Most of the time the information on the credit bureaus is incorrect.
• ·       Missed payments that you made on time
• ·       Duplicate accounts, which throw off your debt-to-income ratio
• ·       Outdated account statuses, such as charge-offs
• ·       Collection accounts that are either paid or not really your debts
• ·       Judgements and Garnishee orders could be filed incorrectly
• ·       Accounts balances on the Credit Bureaus are inflated
• ·       Accounts has reached Induplum - Despite any provision of the common law or a credit agreement to the contrary, the amounts contemplated in s 101(1)(b) to (g) that accrue during the time that a consumer is in default under the credit agreement may not, in aggregate, exceed the unpaid balance of the principal debt under that credit agreement as at the time that the default occurs. Once the amounts referred to in s101(1)(b) – (g) that accrue during the period of default, whether or not they are paid, equal in aggregate the unpaid balance of the principal debt at the time the default occurs, no further charges may be levied.
• ·       Section 101 – Interest, initiation fee, service fee, credit insurance, default administration charges, and collection costs.
• ·       Debt has prescribed- 3 YEAR PRESCRIPTION PERIOD APPLIES TO In short, according to the Prescription Act, if, in the past three years you have not made any payment towards settling a debt, acknowledged owing the debt in any way – including over the phone – agreed to pay it, or been summonsed in respect of it, it has prescribed, and you can raise this as a defense when asked to pay it. NOT ALL DEBT PRESCIBES IN THREE YEARS
• ·       Judgements are incorrect
• ·       Wrong credit scoring
• ·       And many more

Any of these types of errors can contribute to a lower score. Simply asking the credit bureaus to correct these mistakes can help you achieve the score you want.

You can find more information in section 70 -73 of the National Credit Act how to lodge a dispute

Step 3: Dispute the mistakes on your Credit Report

What does the NCA Act do?

The Act stipulates that each credit bureau must register with the National Credit Regulator in order to conduct business legally; It sets out the purposes for which consumer credit information may be used, and the companies to which the credit bureau may provide the information; It sets out standards for data accuracy to ensure that information kept by a credit bureau on your record is always accurate;

It ensures that each consumer has the right to check his or her record, and that any mistakes are corrected.

To complete the repair process on your own, follow these steps:

• Decide how you want to dispute the mistakes you identified
• Each bureau has an online portal you can use to make disputes for free. This option is less hassle and it’s free.
• Detail each dispute clearly and concisely. Make sure to include your name, the account and the specific issue that you wish to have verified.
• The credit bureaus have 20 days to verify the information. They’ll check with the original credit or lender to provide verification; they may also ask you to provide documentation – always send them copies and keep your originals.
• If they can’t verify the item, they must remove it from your report. Once the bureau removes the item, they should provide another free report so you can confirm it’s gone.
• That’s all the credit repair does. So, you can do all of that on your own and avoid paying a company fees to do it for you.

Step 4: How to avoid any actions that would hurt your score

The key to building credit is that you don’t want to take any action that incurs a negative item now. It’s easy to offset negative items in the past with positive actions now. If you incur a negative item now, it will be bad for your score.

That means you should be extremely vigilant to avoid actions which would result in more negative items in your report:

• ·       Don’t miss any payments by more than 30 days
• ·       If you have financial problems speak to your creditors
• ·       Try pay your accounts before the 7^th of every month
• ·       Stay on top of things like out-of-pocket medical bills to avoid new collection accounts
• ·       Never run up your account balances to their credit limit
• ·       Avoid opening multiple new accounts within a six-month period
• ·       Don’t close your oldest accounts
• ·       Stay away from high risk credit providers, such as payday loans

Step5:How long does it take to fix my credit score?

Section of the National Credit Act

(3) If a person has challenged the accuracy of information proposed to be reported to a credit bureau or to the national credit register, or held by a credit bureau or the national credit register, the credit provider, credit bureau or national credit register, as the case may be, must take reasonable steps to seek evidence in support of the challenged information, and within the prescribed time after the filing of the challenge must-

(a) provide a copy of any such credible evidence to the person who filed the

(b) remove the information, and all record of it, from its files, if it is unable to find credible evidence in support of the information, challenge, or subject to subsection (6).

(4) Within 20 business days after receiving a copy of evidence in terms of subsection (3)(a), the person who challenged the information held by a credit provider, credit bureau or national credit register may apply in the prescribed manner and form to the National Credit Regulator to investigate the disputed information as a complaint under section 136.

(5) A credit bureau or the National Credit Register may not report information that is challenged until the challenge has been resolved in terms of subsection (3)(a) or (b).

(6) On application by a credit provider, credit bureau or the National Credit Regulator, as the case may be, the Tribunal may make an order limiting the applicant’s obligations  to a consumer in terms of this section if the Tribunal is satisfied that the consumer’s-

(a) particular request or requirement is frivolous, unfounded or wholly unreasonable;

or (6) history and pattern of such requests or requirements are frivolous or vexatious.

(7) Failure by a credit bureau to comply with a notice issued in terms of section 55,  in relation to this section, is an offence.

Remember You Have Rights

There Is Life After Debt