subject: Credit Repair - Taking the Mystery Out of Improving Your Credit Score [print this page] Credit Repair - Taking the Mystery Out of Improving Your Credit Score
You can easily improve your credit worthiness by taking a few simple steps that make use of low or no-cost help available to everyone. Over time, following basic credit repair strategies, plus sticking with a personal debt repayment plan, are the only legal ways to improve your credit rating.
Your Rights
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, if you have been denied credit within the last 60 days you are entitled to a free copy of your credit report. The company that denied your credit, insurance, or employment application due to information supplied by a credit bureau must supply you the name and contact information of that credit bureau.
Your Responsibility
Contact the credit bureau and ask for a dispute form if you identify false, outdated, or incomplete information on your credit report. Submit the details of your dispute in writing, along with any documentation to back up your claims.
It is up to you to clearly identify each disputed item in your report and the reasons why, then request the reinvestigation. If the reinvestigation reveals an error in your favor, ask for the corrections to be made and an updated copy of your credit report be sent to anyone who requested it within the last six months. In addition, job applicants can have corrected reports sent out to potential employers who received a report within the last two years as part of an employment application.
Your Alternatives
If the reinvestigation is not resolved in your favor, you still have the right to have your version of the dispute attached to your file and included in future reports. Again, this costs you nothing and is relatively easy to achieve on your own.
Valid information - either positive or negative - can stay on your credit report for seven years or more in some cases. But you have the legal right to have inaccurate information removed from your file. You can also mitigate the damage from accurate negative information by having your version of the dispute added to your file.
Credit bureaus do not always do a great job at maintaining up-to-date and accurate information. They often will not recognize when there is an issue on their own. It is your obligation and right to review your credit report at least once a year, and more often if you have been turned down for credit, for potential errors and omissions. Making this a habit can help you avoid a negative outcome the next time you look for credit while building your credit score to the levels you need to accomplish your financial goals.
