Repairing Your Credit Score On Your Own

Credit scores and their computation are big business. Credit bureaus profit from their compilations of the credit worthiness of individuals due to the ever present hunger for personal credit information by members of the credit industry, including banks, lenders, and credit card companies.

In a world that reveres the philosophy of plastic money, buy now and pay later, developing a bad credit score is neither difficult nor uncommon. Fortunately, restoring a credit score to a positive level is not only possible, but also, it is possible on an individual or personal level. Consumers, who are willing to do the investigative research, contact the proper companies, and follow up the details of the repair process, are more than capable of repairing their own credit scores.

What You Need To Know

• A lawyer is not necessary to dispute information on a credit report.
• Using a legitimate credit repair company or lawyer to dispute the negative aspects of your credit report is easier, less time consuming for the consumer, and more costly than doing it on your own.
• Repairing your credit score will require persistence and time.
• Disputing information on your credit report is free.
• Credit bureaus have thirty days during which to investigate the disputed information.
• Credit bureaus may ignore any claims they believe to be inaccurate or frivolous in nature.
• Credit bureaus must contact the original source of any disputed claims to verify the information. If the information is not verified within thirty days of the request, the information will be deleted.
• Certain types of negative information can only be deleted after a specified number of years have passed.

What You Need To Do

• Obtain a copy of your credit report.
• Review the report for inaccuracies.
• Dispute inaccurate information.
• Dispute misleading information.
• Dispute unverifiable information.
• Dispute specific items rather than the report in general.
• Provide accurate details.
• Keep a record of any requests or claims of dispute that you make.
• Follow through until all of the disputes have been handled.

What Resources Are Available To Help You

• Laws exist to protect the consumer from being taken advantage of by credit bureaus.
• The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) sets guidelines by which the consumer may dispute items and the credit bureaus must investigate the disputes.
• By law, consumers may obtain one free credit report a year.
• Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union, nationwide consumer reporting companies, must provide a free copy of a consumer's credit report at the consumer's request once every twelve months.
• Federal law allows consumer to obtain a free credit report if any of the following circumstances occur: denial of credit application, denial for insurance, or denial for employment. The consumer must request the report within sixty days of the denied application.

What You Cannot Do

• Do not dispute accurate information.
• Do not dispute negative credit scores due to life circumstances, such as unemployment, death in the family, or high medical expenses.
• Do not provide false information of any type.

Repairing negative credit scores is not as daunting a task as it may initially appear. Once the individual makes the decision to move forward with the process, the ease with which it is done becomes apparent. While the repair of a negative credit score may take longer than it took to create it, the process is much more rewarding.