More and more people are finding themselves asking questions like these. Poor credit scores affect millions of Americans and in an economy where even people with average credit scores are having a hard time getting credit, people with bad credit are finding themselves being left out of the credit game entirely. Naturally, they begin inquiring about what they can do about it other than biding their time for years waiting for the negative credit listings in their credit files to age and eventually disappear.

The answers people get in response to these questions are typically discouraging. Most of the time, they are simply told they will have to wait 7 long years for most negative listings and a decade or more for a bankruptcy. And as if that wasn't enough, the people answering these questions also tend to throw in unnecessary jabs like, "that's what you get for being careless" or "you should have thought of that before you acted irresponsibly".

This is sad because what most people don't realize is that so many people with poor credit don't deserve it. They are simply a victim of circumstance and in many cases, a circumstance that is practically unavoidable.

The number one cause of bankruptcy in America is fallout from a medical emergency or illness and while you can argue that insurance and preventative care will keep these situations from destroying a person's finances, that is not always the case. Complications from unforeseen gaps in insurance coverage and billing errors can end up making you have to pay much more out of pocket than expected. When coupled with the loss of wages or sometimes loss of job that can go along with an illness or injury, these expenses can lead even the most responsible people down the road to bankruptcy.

Fortunately, even if you have no choice but to declare bankruptcy, not all hope is lost. Regardless of what most people believe, it is possible to dispute and permanently remove any type of item from a credit report, including a bankruptcy. The law gives consumers the right to dispute any item on their credit file that they feel is inaccurate or misleading. The law gives people who are being unfairly labeled as a a credit risk the opportunity to work to correct their credit score.

This process of working to remove questionable negative items from credit reports has become known as credit repair. Using credit repair, hundreds of thousands of people have been able to legally and permanently delete negative items from their credit reports including late payments, charge offs, collections accounts and bankruptcies.