Credit Repair Techniques

As you peruse this blog, you’ll find multiple strategies for repairing your credit and I will share all of them that I know.

The oldest and most common method that you will read about is probably the “Dispute Process”.

You see, according to the FCRA (the Fair Credit Reporting Act), you have the legal right to dispute negative entries on your credit report and fix your own credit — and the big 3 credit bureaus are OBLIGATED to investigate your disputes.

Not only that, but they are required by the FCRA to complete their investigation within 30 days and report back to you on their findings, letting you know what the results are.

Basically what you’ll be doing here (after you have attained your Free Credit Report) is researching your 3 credit reports and doing a side by side comparison to see what negative entries you have in all 3 reports.

You should list these negative entries down for yourself — or even use a spreadsheet with a column for each of the big 3 credit bureaus, such as this one so that it is easy to keep track of which negative entries each bureau has on you.

You might be surprised to find that one bureau reports no negative entries whereas the other 2 DO report them.  Trust me when I tell you that these companies are by no means perfect!

Using a spreadsheet will help you keep track of those entries, and you can even add a couple columns to track when you do your disputes(this will be important later).

So, once you have all your negatives entries listed out it’s time to begin disputing those entries.

Some pointers here…

1) Disputing entire accounts could weaken your credit score so if you have an account with one 30 day late, rather than dispute the entire account (or tradeline) just dispute the 30 day late entry

2) Don’t dispute using the online dispute process at any of the bureaus — use a physical letter so you can send it certified mail for tracking purposed and make sure you get your reply back from the bureaus within the required 30 days.

3) You CAN dispute ANY negative entry on your credit report to fix your credit.

4) Don’t dispute all of your negative entries at one time.  To do that might be considered frivolous by the credit bureaus and will likely result in a standard ‘frivolous’ letter back from the bureaus with no actions taken.

5) Provide a reason for your dispute of each negative entry but don’t be very specific.  If you have a collection account with a specific amount showing as owed and you paid it off, don’t say, “I only owed X dollars and I paid this.”  Instead, try something along the lines of “This entry is not accurate.”

This should help get you started with the standard Dispute Process.  If you don’t have a dispute letter you can send them, try using this text below:

Today’s Date

Name of Bureau
Address
City, State, Zip Code

To Whom It May Concern:

I recently obtained a copy of my credit report, which contains inaccurate or outdated information reported by your company.

I request that you investigate the following items and respond to me within 30 days of your receipt of this letter, in accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 USC section 1681i. For your reference, I am enclosing a copy of my recently obtained report and other documentation that supports my request.

*Fill in the appropriate information indicated in parentheses below*

The following account does not belong on my credit report:
(creditor name, account#, reason why the account should be removed)

The following account is described erroneously and needs to be corrected:
(creditor name, account#, description of what is wrong and how it should be corrected)

When your company has corrected the inaccurate information described above, please send a corrected report to me and to anyone else who has requested a copy of my credit file within the last six months.

In the event that your company does not respond to my request within 30 days, I will assume that you are unable to verify the information, which means you must immediately remove or correct the items in question.

Sincerely,

Sign Here

Your Printed Name

And yes… if the bureau cannot verify the negative information within 30 days they MUST delete it.  So, make sure you’re keeping track of when you send those letters:)

I’ll share more tips for improving your credit soon — but this should be a great start for you.

To your good credit!

Amanda Layne