Thank you.

First of all, you do not need an attorney. While you can certainty use one, this is something that you can do yourself.

The credit reporting bureau can be petitioned to delete the record via a letter. See here for a sample:

http://www.debt-n-credit-letters.com/Report-Dispute/credit-report-dispute-letter-1.html

It would really help if you can get a letter of satisfaction from the creditor, that you can send along with the letter to illustrate that the debt is wiped. Once this is done, then the credit bureau should take off the report. You can do this with all three credit bureaus.

If you cannot get such a letter, the bureau will contact the creditor and the creditor will have 30 days to file an answer or to ignore the request. If the creditor does not reply or replies that the debt is indeed paid, the report is dropped.

If the creditor replies for some reason that it is still owned, then the credit bureau makes a decision based off your letter and their response. So it may be wise to show proof of payment when you send in the dispute letter, if you cannot get the creditor to give you a confirmation letter to send along with the dispute letter.

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