By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2011-01-04 13:31:10 | Word Count: 664
The best ways to quickly improve your credit score often take time and demonstrated effort, however there is one technique that may help you, especially if there are any mistakes on your credit report. These few simple steps have helped many people improve their credit scores, sometimes in as little time as a month. Try them yourself and see!
Get a baseline
[ advertisement ]
You’ll need to know what your credit score is, and what’s in your credit report before you can do a whole lot. This involves contacting the three credit bureaus to request copies of your information. Each of the three reporting agencies – TransUnion (www.transunion.com), Equifax (www.equifax.com) and Experian (www.experian.com) – gather slightly different information and will produce a slightly different credit score. You can also get information from all three agencies from www.annualcreditreport.com.
There are certain instances where you won’t have to pay to get your credit report. They include:
* Unemployment
* Being denied a line of credit because of something within your credit report
* Suspecting credit card fraud or identity theft
* Loss of job as a result of information inside your credit report
* Requesting your credit report for the first time this year
If you are required to pay for your credit report, it won’t be more than $10, depending on what state you’re in. For example, Equifax stated their report would be $7.95 when a request was made from Miami, FL. That amount might be slightly different in New York, but will never be more than $10.
Scrutinize
Now the fun part. You have to go over all of your credit reports very carefully to make sure there aren’t any errors on it. You are only one of billions of consumers in the United States, and factual errors can easily occur. That’s why you need to take your credit into your own hands. Mistakes can happen in all aspects of your credit report, including:
* Documentation of old information. Make sure no late payments, accounts sent to collections, overdue child support, and other things like that are not still included in your credit report if they are more than 7 years old. Similarly, credit inquiries that are older than 2 years should also be removed.
* Within your financial history. Make sure you don’t have any undeserved late payments notated on your report. Additionally, verify that all the accounts you closed in the past are properly marked. Having too many open accounts can hurt your credit score, so it’s important to make sure accounts you no longer have open are properly documented.
One other thing you should have removed from your credit report is any accounts you don’t recognize. While this may not be a mistake, it is a major indication of credit card fraud, or even identity theft. If you are a victim of one or both of these things, make sure you have them removed from your credit report as quickly as possible.
Act
Once you find something you’d like to have removed, you’ll need to write a formal letter to the credit bureau reporting the error. A company like Creditelves can help you compile all your information, details about your case, proof you have that an error has occurred, and anything else that will help the bureau see your side of the case.
After you’ve filed, they have 30 days to respond. The credit bureau will either remove the entry from your report, or deny your claim. If your claim is denied, you can talk try to work with the original creditor, or add a notation to the entry in question explaining what happened.
If you are successful in removing a negative credit entry or an error using this method, it can often mean the difference between getting the home of your dreams, and renting for a while longer. The professionals at Creditelves have been helping people improve their credit using this method for years. Contact them today to quickly improve your credit score.
