Whatever your background or record, you can take some simple and quick steps to begin your own credit repair. It costs nothing and you can begin right away - but the results can be tremendous!
You can begin by ordering a copy of your credit reports, going through them, and understanding them. There are three different credit reporting bureaus, and each one may have slightly different information.
The law now provides consumers the right to one free credit report from each of the bureaus, Experian, TransUnion, and Equfax. You are entitled to one from each company every year.
There is a website set up by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) specifically for this purpose: annualcreditreport.com. Be leery of any other sites claiming free credit reports - there will be strings & fees attached.
You’ll start your credit repair efforts as soon as you get your reports. To begin with, you want to read each report line by line.
These reports will either include a “dispute” form, or give you a web address to get them. This is the key where you will begin to fix your credit.
For every entry that is incorrect, inaccurate, or outdated, you will be filing a dispute. Provide the correct information, or why it is incorrect, such as a debt that has been paid but not removed.
By law, the credit reporting agencies have 30 days to verify the information being disputed. If they cannot verify it, or don’t do so within the allotted 30 days, those entries must be removed from your credit report.
This simple step can remove many of the negative strikes against you, and they will no longer count towards lowering your credit score. In many cases, this can lift your score by up to hundreds of points!
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