If you have a problem with merchandise or services that you charged to a credit card, and you have made a good faith effort to work out the problem with the seller, you have the right to withhold from the card issuer payment for the goods or services.
You can withhold payment up to the amount of credit outstanding or the purchase, plus any finance or related charges. If the card you used is a bank card, a travel and entertainment card, or another card not issued by the seller of the defective goods,
you can withhold payment only if the purchase exceeded $50 and ccurred in your home state or within 100 miles of your billing address.
If these conditions do not apply to you, you may want to consider filing an action in small claims court — an informal legal proceeding that can be used to settle disputes.
While the maximum amounts that can be claimed or awarded differ from state to state, most small claims courts hear cases involving amounts ranging from $25 to $2,000.
Some states have recently raised their limits to $5,000. Check your local telephone book under your municipal, county, or state government headings for small claims court listings.
You have the right to place a security alert on your credit file, which will warn anyone
who receives your credit file that your identity have been used without your consent and being advised to verify your identify before issuing any credit.
This security alert may prevent credit, loans, mortgage and financial service from being approved in your name without your consent.
However, it may delay or interfere with with timely approval of any application you make that involves access to your credit file such as a new loan, credit mortgage insurance, rental, empolyment, utilities, cellular phone,and other financial services.
This security alert will remain on your credit report for not less than 45 days after the date the security alert is place on the your file. You have the right to obtain a free copy of credit report every 45 days while the security alert is in effect.
You may call credit bureaus requsting a security alert on your credit file. Experian 1-888-397-3742, TransUnio 1-800-680-7289 and Equifax 1-800-525-628
After you have gone through the process of ordering your credit report and correcting any incorrect information, you will need to focus on rebuilding yourcredit history.
You’ll need to update your existing file and start working toward establishing a strong, newcredit history that proves you have changed poor repayment habits, if those were in fact part of your old history.
• Provide the credit bureaus with any positive information which is not appear on your reports but definately help boost your credit rating.
• Make sure the status of all accounts on the report is accurately reflected.
• Close any open accounts you’re not using.
• Work with your creditors to delete derogatory information that is not yours. For detail, see my article posted on last year - How To Dispute And Fix Your Credit Report Errors
• Clear up any erroneous student loan matters.
• Clear up any incorrect public record information.
