A judgment is when a creditor takes a debt or collection to court.

This is to get a decision by a judge so that a debt can be judged or determined to be yours; this gives a stamp of approval by the court to have it displayed on your credit report as a Public Record.

The creditor or collection company can ask the judge for court costs, attorneys fees, miscellaneous fees, as well as an interest rate to charge interest daily until the debt is paid in full.

Ouch!

I suggest going to a judgment hearing to fight against such things as this will cause the judge to consider your side of the story (if nothing else) and possibly reduce the debt, the terms, interests or even throw it out altogether.

Solution?

Well, don’t let a collection go to court! Pay it off first, or negotiate a payment to the creditor or collection company; otherwise, have a good case to show you have extenuating circumstances that have kept you from affording payments; these should be circumstances such as medical, health, divorce, loss of job, or any other reason that is plausible and could sway the judge to throw out the debt or act in your favor.

Think it through, thoroughly.Would you believe you if you were the judge?

It can work, so give it a try and without arrogance or pride.

Always be confident before a judge.

“It is imperative that we make consumers more aware of the long-term effects of their financial decisions, particularly in managing their credit card debt, so that they can avoid financial pitfalls that may lead to bankruptcy.”

- Daniel Akaka -

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Tax Liens are a hard hit on a credit report as they are reported as a Public Record report for 10 years.

A tax lien has to be paid off for it to be reduced in cost of points on your credit scores. However, it will remain on your credit report for 10 years to cause embarrassment and financial and credit pain, needlessly.

A reputable credit repair company as described below could remove it.

Previously, I mentioned that old collections may or may not be touched depending upon their age and what you are trying to do with your credit right now.

If you have time, then paying off the collection would be good by negotiating and then getting the collection removed. Your credit scores will gyrate wildly with:

• Your collection “last activity date” being updated.
• The balance being reduced.
• The account settled or satisfied being reported.
• The collection being removed from your credit file.

Up and down, then up again.

Eventually this all turns good, but know that getting this done takes time and money and you still may not get the collection removed because it is a public record and the collection company may be tenacious in keeping it on the credit file. You could need a professional credit repair company to get it removed.

I will give some guidelines for a good credit repair company further in this reading.