Fix Your Credit Report

The following tasks are things you can do yourself to fix errors in your credit report. Keep in mind that no one can legally remove accurate negative information from a credit report, but the law does allow you to request a reinvestigation of information in your file that you dispute as inaccurate or incomplete. There is no charge for this. Also, if the credit bureaus cannot verify information on your credit report they must remove it. For instance, if a credit bureau cannot contact a collection agency which is reporting a collection on your report, they cannot verify the information, and the credit bureau must delete the entry.

But first of all, what if it’s true?
When derogatory information in your report is accurate, only the passage of time can assure its removal. Accurate derogatory information generally can stay on your report for seven years. There are certain exceptions:

• Bankruptcy information may be reported for 10 years.
• Credit information reported in response to an application for a job with a salary of more than $75,000 has no time limit.
• Information about criminal convictions has no time limit.
• Credit information reported because of an application for more than $150,000 worth of credit or life insurance has no time limit.
• Default information concerning U.S. Government insured or guaranteed student loans can be reported for seven years after certain guarantor actions.
• Information about a lawsuit or an unpaid judgment against you can be reported for seven years or until the statute of limitations runs out, whichever is longer.

Now, back to if there are errors or issues...

Examples of billing error are:
A charge for something you didn’t buy.
A bill for an amount different from the actual amount you charged.
A charge for something that you did not accept when it was delivered.
A charge for something that was not delivered according to agreement.
Math errors.
Payments not credited to your account.
A charge by someone who does not have permission to use your credit card.

1. First, you must get a copy of your credit report.
You are entitled to a free copy of your credit report (click for a sample letter) if you've been denied credit within the last 30 days (this law has changed and you now have other ways to get a free report, go here). If your application for credit, insurance, or employment is denied because of information supplied by a credit bureau, the company you applied to must provide you with that credit bureau's name and address.

2. Next, carefully review your credit report.
After reviewing your credit report, make copies, then highlight every negative listing.

3. Third, rank questionable/negative items
Rank each item according to the amount of damage they are doing to your overall credit picture. Rank the most damaging information first, followed by the next most damaging information, followed by those items which are neutral. Do this for each credit report, as remember, they may not all have the same information on them. They may even have duplicate information. If this is the case, you will need to write to each credit agency individually for each duplicate item.

The items here are listed in order of descending importance with the first item being the "most damaging" to your credit.

• Bankruptcy
• Foreclosure
• Repossession
• Loan Default
• Court Judgments
• Collections
• Past due payments
• Late Payments
• Credit Rejections
• Credit Inquiries

4. Requesting Corrections and Disputing Your Credit (go to next page)