Repair Your Own Credit

The first step you need to take to repair your own credit is to get a copy of your current credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. You are, by law, allowed to get one free copy of your credit report from each of the three major reporting agencies per year. You can get your report in one of two ways, either by contacting each reporting agency individually (they each have websites) or by going to freecreditreport.com, which is endorsed by the federal government. At freecreditreport.com, you can get your reports from all three agencies at the same time. Most of these companies will allow you to access your reports for anywhere from a week to a month without incurring any further charges. Make sure you keep your information for this on file somewhere, because you might end up needing it.

Print out your credit reports. Now, sit down and go over them. Go over them very carefully. Make sure that all of the information contained in the report is accurate. Make sure the account numbers are correct, that your billing information is right and that each account listed in the report matches your records. Mark down any mistakes you find, no matter how trivial they might seem.

The next step to repair your own credit is to challenge each and every one of the mistakes you have found in your credit reports. The easiest way to do this is through the websites for each of the major credit reporting agencies. The best way is to send your disputes in writing. Most of the websites will have a form you can print out and use. When you send it in, make sure that you send it via certified mail with delivery confirmation. Keep the postcards with the recipients' signatures. By law, the credit reporting agencies must respond to you within thirty days to let you know where your disputes stand and they will send you written confirmation of any corrections that have been made. They are also required to tell you why corrections do not get made, in the event that an account is not corrected. Repeat this step until your credit report is one hundred percent accurate.

Sometimes the agencies get their information confused and sometimes there are glitches in the computer. The time it takes to repair your own credit will vary, but if you are diligent, you will get your credit score up to where it should be.

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