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 Determine whether any of this information is in any way inaccurate, incorrect, erroneous, misleading, or outdated.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.
1. 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.
2. 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.
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