Raise Your Credit Score - Repair Your Credit Reports

Credit repair is best managed by you. Raise your credit score by following the D.I.Y Credit Repair Hints. You need to commit to a long term plan and follow it through.

Many credit problems are caused by mismanaging your money, lost employment, and health care costs. You can not do much about health care costs when you are seriously ill, but you can manage your money properly afterwards. Let"s assume you have found yourself with a poor credit rating and are willing to take the steps to repair your credit. What can you do?

1. You can do nothing except not make any more credit problems. Time to solution about two to seven years.

2. Take the steps outlined here and improve your credit. Time to solution about six months to two years.

The first thing you need to do is obtain your credit report by writing the three main bureaus for your credit report.

Write a letter addressed to the addresses listed below, and use the following format:

Equifax
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374
1-800-685-1111

Experian
P.O. Box 2002
Allen, TX 75013
1 888 397 3742

Trans Union
P.O. Box 1000
Chester, PA 19022
1-800-888-4213

Be sure to use your full name, provide your birth date, and social security number.

This is to request a copy of my credit report. I am requesting this information because I was turned down for credit based upon information provided my creditor from your data base. This request is made pursuant to federal and state laws and regulations protecting consumer rights.

You should receive your credit report in the mail within 30 days from each of the bureaus. Go over your report and make notes of each creditor listed and any mistakes. For any errors you can simply request the bureau delete the item based on it is faulty information.

You will need to write each bureau that has the negative report and specifically request line by line removals. The bureau has to contact the creditor and the creditor has to affirm the negative item. Often the creditor is to busy and will not respond. If the bureau does not get a confirmation of the debt they must delete it from your file.

Any defense may be claimed to any credit file entry based upon several theories of error.

a. The debt belongs to another person and entered in error.
b. The debt item is over 5 years old and is stale dated.
c. The debt item is stated in error.
d. The debt item was paid and is reported in error.

Limit number of items you are contesting in each letter to two or three items. If you list all items as in error the bureau can deny the validity of your request. Sometimes the bureau will not remove an item even though you know it should be removed because it is wrong. Don"t let this stop you. Request again within a couple of months they remove the item. Often a second request will get the item removed.

Help yourself by contacting the creditors listed on your credit report who are reporting negative items. Often a creditor will agree to remove a negative credit reported item if you agree to a new debt payment plan. You may call the creditor and talk to a representative. You need to have a genuine desire to repay and the ability to tell the creditor you want to pay, but you need their help with a new payment plan and the removal of the negative credit reported item. Often a creditor will agree to these plans.

If the debt is over four years old and there has been no payment for four years you cam offer to make a partial payment in settlement of the debt conditioned upon the creditor removing the stated item. This is easily performed by writing a letter to any creditor and submitting a payment under restricted endorsement. How this works is you write a check to the creditor for the amount you are willing to settle for and on the back of the check where the creditor must endorse the check to get paid you write:
If paid, in full settlement of disputed debt and subject to conditions of Settlement Offer dated xx-xx-2007.

You will need to send a letter of settlement to the creditor and attach the check to the letter. Assume it is to Ford Credit use the following basic format:

xx-xx-2007
Ford Credit
RE: account # 1000676 Sam Jones, SS# 555-55-5555

This letter is an offer of settlement and full satisfaction of all amounts claimed by Ford Credit. I dispute the validity of the debt amount claimed and offer to pay you $xxx.00 in settlement of this disputed debt. I make this offer conditioned upon your promise to remove any negative report to any credit bureau for this account #1000676. You may accept this offer by presenting my attached check for the settlement amount.

Writing letters to your creditors with checks attached is a very good way to get what you want. If the debt is not old and not performing the creditor will most often accept payment and remove the negative report. Sometimes a creditor will not follow up on their promise to remove the item. In this instance you need to request them to again take action based upon your prior agreement. Attach a copy of the letter and the cancelled check. Write a letter to the bureau and ask to have the item removed based upon error. Do not mention settlement to the credit bureau or you may have that appear on your bureau report.

You will need to write many letters and keep a file of the creditors you are attempting to clean out of your credit bureau reports. Also you should save your credit reports to see how well you are doing. You can make this much simpler if you use your computer to write and save your letters to a file named after each creditor. You will have the basic letters and can cut and paste much of the information.

If you elect to pay to get your bureau reports online you will receive a file from which you can save the information and then you will not need to write any of the line item information. Merely copy and paste the lines from the bureau reports into your letter to the bureau.

Keep at it and pay your debts on time from here on.

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