Your rights
Most of what you need, you already have.
Four federal statutes do most of the work in this field, and every one of them gives you something you can use today without paying anybody. This page is the plain-English version, with the section numbers if you want to go and read the real thing.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act
The FCRA governs what may be collected about you, who may look at it, how long it stays, and what happens when it is wrong. It is the statute behind almost everything on this site.
You can see your file, free
One free report from each of the three nationwide bureaus every twelve months, from annualcreditreport.com and nowhere else. Since 2020 the bureaus have also offered free weekly online reports, and that offer has been made permanent. You get an additional free report if you have been denied credit, employment, insurance or a rental in the previous sixty days, if you are unemployed and intend to apply for work within sixty days, if you are on public assistance, or if you have reason to believe your file contains fraudulent information.
You can dispute anything inaccurate, free
Under §611 you may dispute an item directly with the bureau, and it must conduct a reasonable reinvestigation, generally within 30 days — 45 if you supply additional information during the window. Anything that cannot be verified must be deleted or modified. You must be sent the results in writing, plus a free copy of the report if anything changed.
Under §623 you may also dispute directly with the furnisher — the bank, the hospital, the collection agency. This matters. The furnisher has its own duty to investigate and must not resume reporting an item it found to be inaccurate. Disputing with both, rather than just the bureau, is the single biggest practical difference between a dispute that works and one that gets a form letter.
Things fall off, on a schedule
| Entry | How long | Counted from |
|---|---|---|
| Late payments, charge-offs, collections | 7 years | Date of first delinquency |
| Chapter 7 bankruptcy | 10 years | Date of filing |
| Chapter 13 bankruptcy | 7 years | Date of filing |
| Civil judgments and tax liens | Generally not reported at all since 2017 | — |
| Hard inquiries | 2 years on the report, ~12 months of score effect | Date of inquiry |
| Paid medical collections | Not reported at all since 2022 | — |
| Unpaid medical collections under $500 | Not reported at all since 2023 | — |
| Unpaid medical collections of $500 or more | 7 years, and not reported for the first 12 months | Date of first delinquency |
| Closed accounts in good standing | Up to 10 years | Date closed |
The seven-year clock runs from the date of first delinquency on the original account — not from when it was sold, not from when a collector bought it, and not from the last time you made a payment on it. Restarting that clock is unlawful, and it is one of the most common errors we find. If a debt from 2019 shows a first delinquency of 2023, that is worth disputing on its own.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
The FDCPA governs third-party collectors — the people who bought the debt or were hired to chase it, not usually the original creditor.
Make them prove it
Within 30 days of a collector’s first written communication you may send a written request for validation. Do it, and the collector must stop collection activity until it sends you verification of the debt and the name of the original creditor. Old debts that have been sold two or three times frequently cannot be validated at all, because the paperwork did not travel with the balance.
They cannot behave like this
- Call before 8am or after 9pm in your time zone.
- Call you at work once you have told them, orally or in writing, that you may not take calls there.
- Discuss the debt with your employer, your neighbours or your family.
- Threaten arrest, or a lawsuit they do not intend to file.
- Continue contacting you at all, once you have sent a written request that they stop — with narrow exceptions for telling you what they intend to do next.
A violation gives you a private right of action, with statutory damages, and you can complain to the CFPB and the Ohio Attorney General. Keep every voicemail and note the date and time of every call; it costs nothing and it is the whole case.
Making a payment, or even acknowledging a debt in writing, can restart the statute of limitations on a time-barred debt in some circumstances. Ohio’s limitation period for most written contracts is six years. A debt can be too old to sue on while still being reportable, or reportable while too old to sue on — the two clocks are different and they do not start at the same time. If a collector is suing you, get a lawyer.
The Credit Repair Organizations Act
The CROA governs us, and it exists because this industry earned it. The short version:
- No advance fees. No payment of any kind may be charged or accepted until the promised services have been fully performed.
- A written contract naming the services, the expected timeframe, the total cost and the company’s address.
- A separate written statement of your rights, given to you before the contract is signed.
- Three business days to cancel, without penalty or reason, using a form supplied with the contract.
- No untrue or misleading representations — which is what makes a promised score increase unlawful rather than merely dishonest.
- No advising anyone to make a false statement to a bureau or a creditor, which is what a "credit sweep" or a CPN amounts to.
Waivers are void. A contract clause saying you give up any of this has no effect. And you have a private right of action, so a company that breaks these rules can be sued by the person it did it to.
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act
A creditor may not discriminate on race, colour, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age, or because your income comes from public assistance. Two consequences worth knowing after a divorce or a bereavement:
- You cannot be required to reapply, or have an account closed or its terms changed, purely because your marital status changed.
- If you are denied credit you are entitled to a written statement of the specific reasons, on request, within 60 days. That letter is often more informative than the score itself.
It is worth saying plainly, because people ask: your report contains no record of your race, your religion, your marital status, your medical conditions, your income, or your bank balance. It is duller and narrower than most people fear.
Before you sign anything
Three things the law gives you, whoever you use.
No fee before the work is done
A credit repair organisation may not charge or accept payment until the services it promised have been fully performed. Not a deposit, not a setup fee, not a “file activation” charge, not a first month in advance. If anyone asks, that is your answer.
A written contract, before any work starts
It must say what will be done, how long it is expected to take, the total cost, and it must come with a separate written statement of your rights under state and federal law. You get a copy of everything you sign, and you get time to read it at home.
Three business days to cancel, no reason needed
You may cancel without penalty or obligation at any time before midnight of the third business day after signing. The cancellation form comes attached to the contract; you post it or hand it back, and that is the end of it. Nobody will call to talk you out of it.
You can use all of that without us.
If reading the above is enough, take the guide and go. If you would rather have somebody sit with you while you do it, that is what we are for, and the first conversation costs nothing.
Not ready to talk to anyone? Take the guide and do it yourself. It is the same method, it costs nothing, and you never have to tell us you used it.