Three Ways to Fix Your Credit Reports

The credit score coined on your credit report is very important. It can be a great tool when you need financial assistance from banks and other lending investors. It is not a wonder why hundreds of agencies offer their services to help you improve your credit score, or fix your credit report.

Monitoring your credit by hiring professionals may be helpful, but they can cost you much as well. But if you have the patience, the desire to learn, and time, you can fix your own credit report.

Learning about the how the credit score is computed is a good start. If you know the factors that are considered, then you know which one to fix and how to fix it, and the next time you apply for a credit, it will not be denied to you. There are many consumers who suffered from bad credit score, but managed to fix it and succeed in applying for credit, whether loan or credit card.

There are three steps to do this.

1. Have a Copy of Your Credit Report

The first thing you need to do though is to get a copy of your own credit report. Every four months, each of the three largest credit monitoring offices (TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax) in the United States are mandated by the Free Credit Monitoring Act to issue for free a copy of credit report as requested by a consumer.

It is important that you get a copy of the three reports released every year by each credit monitoring office to get more information on where you need to work on.

2. Checking for Mistakes

Each monitoring credit agency is independent. They may have common sources but they differ on how to interpret and use the information from those sources, hence, the probability of errors somewhere on the credit report.

The errors can be very small, such as for example, a wrong, excessive or missing letter on either your first or last name. They may be complicated as well like having a wrong first name (one of two) or last name. Some would make an action for minor mistakes because if they let them as they are, they may start to accumulate in the future, and may pose real threats.

Major mistakes can be on the figures whether dates, time, interest rate, payments made, and the amount of loan, whether individual or total. These minors should be given appropriate action. Document these errors.

3. File a Dispute

After recording each of the major mistake (including the minor now that you will file a dispute about any information on your credit report), compose a letter to each of the credit monitoring agency, requesting them to make necessary changes on some data contained on your credit report.

In order for them to know which errors you are referring to, you need to attach the documents you prepared earlier. If you want to, you may also enclose a photocopy of your credit report/s. You also need to supply the correct information and of course, the proof or support for such fact you need to be recorded on the report. These supporting documents can be a copy of a loan contract, mortgage, receipts, and tenancy agreements.