If you have ever tried to dispute items on your credit report, you may have received a response from the credit bureaus stating they performed their “investigation.” The bureaus may also tell you that they “verified” whatever item you disputed. This means that negative item will remain on your credit report.

In paragraph number two of a credit bureau dispute response the bureaus encourage you to add a 100-word consumer statement to your report. This is where many people add a short essay on why they deserve credit.

It may be difficult to resist the urge to proclaim your innocence by way of a consumer statement. You may feel the need to explain that the bad credit simply was not your fault or beyond your control.

Do not fall into the trap of adding a consumer statement to your credit. It is almost never a good thing.

Do not mistake the 100-word statement for good faith on the part of the credit bureaus. As you will see, such a statement is usually used against your best interests.

Let’s assume that you were to attach a statement like this: “I was only late on my credit cards because I was laid off from work. Once I found another job I caught up on all my bills and have never been late since.”

Losing her job due to no fault of her own seems like a rotten reason to give her bad credit.

However, the credit bureaus and creditors read such a consumer statement entirely different. They don’t see a good person who went through some brief and unexpected hard times.

Her inability to make payments is seen as a sign of weakness and/or irresponsibility. They believe that she should have emergency money to pay bills during times of emergency.

The 100-word statement also has additional hidden dangers. For instance, adding such a statement confirms your guilt. It is direct proof that you were late on those payments. Moreover, you put yourself on perilous footing should you decide to hire a credit correction law firm in the future. The credit bureaus will ignore any future disputes on your behalf because you have already admitted guilt. There is no reason for them to conduct an investigation. Finally, you have put yourself into a category of consumers that potential creditors avoid. Any potential creditor may avoid giving you credit out of fear that you will likewise default on payment should you run into a rough financial patch in the future.

Nowadays applications for new credit such as a credit card or car loan are based upon your score - not your statement. Therefore, the statement is only a weapon that the bureaus can use to ignore your credit report disputes.

Briefly, the 100-word statement is dangerous to your credit file. It serves no good purpose for the consumer whatsoever.

When there is a charge off on your credit history it will dramatically lower your credit score. This will make getting new credit very hard.

On occasions when you do get approved, you will pay much higher interest rates or have to make a large down payment. This is the penalty the credit system imposes on people when they can not pay their debts.

This system does not recognize that catastrophic events occur. When someone is faced with the decision of feeding their family or making a payment, the choice is obvious.

Credit bureaus have caused a false belief that when a charge off happens there is no recourse for the individual. That person will have to pay the high interest rates and large deposits for 7 or more years. This is not true.

Fair Credit Reporting Act says that any unverifiable or inaccurate credit listing must be removed by the credit bureau. Typically lenders will not spend the money or time to verify an uncollectible debt.

Thus, when an investigation is granted the negative listing is often deleted regardless of accuracy. The difficulty we hear of comes in getting the investigation started.

This happens because the credit bureaus only motive to conduct an investigation is to be compliant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The bureaus don’t earn any extra money from conducting an investigation and instead spend money that would otherwise be profit.

Thus credit bureaus are very resistant to granting an investigation. They have a formula in place to discourage and frustrate an individual when they request an investigation. This is the common reason people will hire a professional credit repair firm.