I recently completed payments on a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. I would like to improve my credit. Is credit repair an appropriate option?
Credit repair may very well offer a way to accelerate the restoration of your credit reports and improvement of your scores. The potential benefit of credit report repair depends on the number of reporting errors that have occurred as the result of the bankruptcy. Reporting errors associated with Chapter 13 bankruptcies are quite common, an occurrence made even more likely by the three to five year duration of the repayment plan.
Chapter 13 Overview
A Chapter 13 bankruptcy, also known as a Wage Earners Plan, allows for the orderly repayment of otherwise unmanageable debts. Chapter 13 can also provide several legal benefits including a stopping of foreclosure and the protection of cosigners. It also functions in a similar manner to a consolidation loan in that it requires a single monthly payment to be made to a trustee who distributes allotments of the payments to the creditors. Unlike a Chapter 7 which is normally concluded all at once a Chapter 13 is spread out over time. The ongoing nature of the process can be a contributor to reporting errors which give rise to the need for credit repair.
The Role of Credit Repair
Now that your Chapter 13 is completed you should definitely have a trained credit repair expert proofread all three of your credit reports to identify any issues that need to be rectified. There are many cases where creditors have reported late payments or past due balances where they should not. During the course of the bankruptcy collection efforts are not permitted. If there are any erroneous collection accounts they should be disputed as part of your credit repair program as well. And lastly, it is imperative that you rebuild and manage your credit in a manner that will allow your scores to be their best. In answer to your question, credit repair may be an appropriate option and one that will help clean up your credit and improve your scores far more quickly that you think.