The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA)
provides powerful benefits to members of the military, and their families, both when they are active duty and after they return home. Obviously, the “and their families” portion is very important because spouses and children bear serious burdens while the member is away. It’s the job of civilian advocates to stand up to fight for the active duty members and their families while these folks are off doing their job, or have returned home and are trying to re-integrate.
Members may not realize that adverse legal actions or improper reporting on their credit reports have occurred until they need to access credit or some other adverse incident has occurred….a traffic stop reveals a suspended license for an alleged failure to pay automobile insurance…inability to lease an apartment because a credit report shows an eviction….a low credit score due to a car repossession or cellular phone deactivation charges. These are just a few of the very real consequences of the failure to properly invoke the protections of the SCRA.
The good news is much of the adverse outcomes can be corrected quite quickly….if the servicemember invokes the protections of the SCRA. A key first step for every member (and frankly for every consumer) is to pull your individual credit report and inspect the negative reporting that occurs on the reports. If in fact there are errors on credit reports, these errors can often be corrected in a matter of a few days and with not much trouble….
Beware of scams, if you google “free credit report” you’ll be directed to page after page of commercial sites that are either for profit ventures or scams…stay away!
Instead, go directly to each website and request your report there:
https://www.experian.com/disputes/main.html
https://www.equifax.com/home/en_us
After you’ve got your reports, use the online dispute process to remove improper credit reports. But when that online dispute process does not work, it’s time to call a credit dispute and consumer rights attorney to fight to get the matters corrected.
My office provides free consultations to all members of the military on SCRA issues.
Email me directly at weidnerlaw@yahoo.com with details on your disputes, I’ll analyze your claims to see what rights you have that can be asserted!
