IMPROVING YOUR CREDIT
Repairing Your Credit is as Easy as
1-2-3
by: Don Blackhurst
1. Review Your Credit Report For Errors.
After you have received a copy of your credit report,
you need to look through it very closely. If you do not
yet have a copy, TrimYourDebt.com has negotiated with
one of the credit bureaus to offer consumers a free look
at their credit report and credit score. It is a 30-day
free trial offer, so you get the information right up-front
and you can cancel free of charge within 30-days. To check
your credit report for free, visit http://www.TrimYourDebt.com/GetYourCreditScore.aspx?src=art
to find out now.
It is important to first review all the personal identifying
information in your credit report such as name, address,
social security number, birth date, and so on.
You should then evaluate each account that is reported
about you to the credit bureau. Determine whether any
of this information is in any way inaccurate, incorrect,
erroneous, misleading, or outdated. If you find that any
of the information in incorrect, then you should move
on to the next step.
2. Dispute the errors with the credit bureaus and your
creditors.
You should dispute inaccurate information with both the
consumer credit reporting agency and the furnisher (creditor).
Disputing with both allows you to cover all of your bases
to ensure that the corrections are consistently made by
both sources.
You should follow up with these companies to ensure that
the inaccurate or incomplete information is removed in
a timely manner. You should then continue to monitor your
credit information on a regular basis by ordering and
reviewing your consumer credit reports from the major
credit reporting agencies on a regular basis.
3. Repeat until satisfied.
It is very important that each questionable item, except
for erroneous personal data, is dealt with individually.
If you attempt to have the credit reporting agency correct
several items at once, it will be easier for the agency
to claim that your request is frivolous or irrelevant.
If they make this determination, then your requests to
correct inaccuracies will be discarded.
Make sure that you use a clear and concise statement indicating
that the accuracy or completeness of a specific item is
"disputed" or "challenged". Remember
that explanations of why an item might be derogatory will
not help you, only actual disputes of specific items will
get the results you need.
As soon as the credit reporting agency provides you with
an updated credit report indicating that the disputed
item has been removed from your report, you should send
another letter challenging the next most damaging item.
Repeat this process, until each and every disputed item
has been deleted from your credit report.
If you would like more detailed information about repairing
your credit history including sample dispute letters to
send to the credit reporting agencies, you will find more
details available at http://www.TrimYourDebt.com/CreditRepairGuide.aspx?src=art
About The Author
Don Blackhurst has been working in the banking and finance
industries for over 15 years and has an MBA with an emphasis
in Finance. He is the co-founder of TrimYourDebt.com (
http://www.TrimYourDebt.com ), which provides free budgeting
tools, debt planning, and credit help. |
