Today on the Clark Howard Show, one of our callers is having a problem. He shares the name with an unsavory character who has bad credit, and even has bagged out on paying child care. Some of this negative information has erronerously made its way onto his credit report. He wanted to know how to get rid of the unpaid child care notices in particular.

I told him to write a 100-word statement about this problem to be attached to his credit file, to alert lenders that this problem is ongoing. But he might want to buy a credit monitoring service so he knows instantly when his credit changes.

Another listener wrote in this suggestion:

Comment on your caller regarding the child support issue out of VA…he should also contact the child support division in that state,(search web) speak with an Ombudsman individual regarding this matter…this is a very effective way to clear up such issue(s)to avoid the matter in the future…they will usually document the ‘complaint’ over the phone, send copy of complaint to individual, and usually are very quick to remove such from credit report(s) through a system (sometimes called Eoscar)…Good luck!

July 12, 2006.