Credit restoration is a multi-faceted process that involves developing a clean credit profile and establishing good new credit. But what is the process to clean up credit report issues? Let’s take a look!
Strategies for Clean Credit!
It goes without saying that the best and easiest way to have a clean credit report is simply to pay your bills on time in the first place. But, if you are reading this, chances are that it is too late for that. No worries – I have had to clean up my credit before too! In fact, in this economy, more people than not have some sort of credit issue.
To get started, you will need to get a copy of each of your three credit reports. See your Credit Score for $0 at CreditReport.com. It’s Free and available in seconds.
Next, you need to review your report very carefully. What I like to do when I am helping someone clean bad credit is to make an extra copy of the report. Then I take a highlighter and highlight anything that needs attention. First, you want to look carefully at any errors in your report. Note them, no longer how insignificant they seem. Something like your name spelled incorrectly can give you a lot of leverage later on. Take a look at each account make sure the date opened, account balance, account limit, and payment date are correct. You should also highlight anything derogatory that is correct because you will still want to address these issues.
After you have reviewed your credit report, it is time to decide which items that you are going to focus on first. You want to consider which items are dragging your credit score down the most. If you have something that is incorrect that is negatively impacting your score, obviously that will be easy to get removed. On items more questionable, you want to focus on accounts that are between two and five years old. Anything newer is going to be at the foremost of the lenders mind and very difficult to get removed. Older items probably aren’t impacting your score all that much, so save them for later. Anything negative, such as a 60+ day late payment or collection account is a good place to start.
Once you have selected your targets, it is time to draft a dispute letter to each of the three major credit bureaus. You will want to send these letters via certified mail. Once the credit bureaus have your letters, they will notify your creditors who will then have thirty days in which to respond.
If the creditor fails to verify the account or fails to meet the deadline, the account must be removed from your credit file. The information may not be added back unless you are first notified in writing.
Once you have your results, you will want to analyze your progress and decide on your next round of disputes. And, if you were not successful, don’t get discouraged. You can always dispute again or more on to advanced techniques like debt validation.
Keep up the hard work and you will have clean credit in no time!
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