Julian Credit Management is a non-profit, nationwide
debt consolidation and credit counseling organization, located in Central Florida.
Our dedicated counselors can help you restructure your bills
and make a payment plan that can cut years and thousands
of dollars off your long-term debts like credit cards, mortgages, and other loans.
Our debt management program can help you repay your debts:
We help you establish a spending plan, determine your financial options,
save money on interest and late fees, get your creditors off your back,
and provide you with useful information.
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As consumers, we have been trained by the credit industry to equate the contents of our credit report with our credit worthiness. The two are not the same. A credit report may show that you have faithfully made every payment on time for your entire life and still you are not worthy of more credit because you can't ever pay off the credit you have.
A credit report is a history. Under federal law, you are entitled to an accurate history, but not to a re writing of truthful history. That history can properly include delinquencies or bankruptcy.
A bankruptcy discharge will not erase discharged creditors or your pre bankruptcy payment history. After a bankruptcy discharge, the amount outstanding for each discharged account should be shown as zero. Your credit report is not a reliable guide to everyone you may owe money to. Not all creditor report to credit reporting agencies; your credit report lists only those that do report the contents of the public record.
The notion that a debt is discharged off does not necessarily mean it is not legally enforced. "Charge off" is essentially an accounting term that the creditors does not expect to collect the debt; a charge off alters the creditor's income for tax purposes. It does not relieve the debtor of legal liability for its payment.
Your bankruptcy can be reported on your credit for 10 years from the filing of the case. If you file a bankruptcy and voluntarily dismiss it before the discharge, the credit reporting agency must report the dismissal as well as the bankruptcy filing. Assuming you have income, you should be more credit worthy after a bankruptcy than you were before, since your old debts no longer have a claim on your future income.
After the discharge, you are entitled to have the balances of each discharged debt reported as "0". The history of delinquencies can be reported, but the balances must be zero. If it is not so reported, dispute the debt. Negative history on your credit report is just that: history. It does not doom you to credit rejection. It does not challenge you to strengthen your financial present by saving and using credit carefully.
Under the fair Credit Reporting Act, you can challenge information that you believe is inaccurate. If the reporting agency can't verify the accuracy of the information, they must remove it. If you have received a discharge in bankruptcy, it is in your best interest to have the discharge noted on your report, since it is proof that the old debt is no longer legally enforceable.
Julian Credit Management is a firm that practices exclusively in the area of Bankruptcy and Debt Consolidation and has offices in Clearwater (Pinellas County), Port Richey (Pasco County), Tampa (Hillsborough County), Lakeland (Polk County) and Orlando (Orange County). We represent persons throughout the State of Florida.
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