Improve your credit score by disputing items on your credit report

If your credit score is low, you can do something about it. Its a common misconception today that if you have bad credit, you have to wait a long time (up to 7-10 years) for the negative marks to come off your credit. It's been said that "no one" can remove a negative mark if it's accurate.

However, the truth is, you don't have to wait that long. It's not necessarily an easy process, nor is it foolproof, but you have the right to challenge negative entries and improve your credit. And you may be surprised at the results.

First off, you need to be following basic, common practices to keep your score as high as possible.

Background
As a general rule, most lenders will be comfortable extending credit to you at a competitive rate if your score is above 660. The best rates are offered with a score above 750. Of course there are other factors they consider, but your credit score is the primary one.

To achieve this level of creditworthiness, there are several methods you can use. The first and most important one is to dispute negative items that you feel are inaccurate, unverifiable, or wrong in any way.

There are two ways to approach the negative entry removal process. You can do it by yourself, or hire a competent and reputable credit repair company.

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Examples of items that can be removed are: - Items older than 2 years - Discharged bankruptcies - Charge-offs - Inquiries - Repossessions - Late payments - Late accounts now paid off
Some more damaging negative marks will be more difficult to remove, but still possible: - Accounts that are currently past due - Recent Bankruptcies - Judgments - IRS or State Tax Liens - Current collection accounts

Dispute Negative and Erroneous Items

After getting your credit report in hand, you need to scour it for inaccurate items. Given the statistics, you probably have several items that are wrong in some way, shape or form.

Statistics show that the most effective way to clean up your credit report is to dispute negative items that are inaccurate, misleading or unverifiable.

With patience and persistence, you can remove almost
every negative and inaccurate mark on your credit!

The Fair Credit Reporting Act of 2002 requires the credit reporting agencies to follow a strict set of rules when gathering information about your creditworthiness and when handling disputes from you or a credit repair agency. These rules put you on an even playing field when it comes to fixing your credit.

The FCRA explicitly gives you the right to dispute items on your credit report.

If you don't think you have the time or energy to do it on your own, you can hire a reputable credit restoration company to do this for you. Do your homework and you will find that these companies can be very successful in repairing and restoring your credit.

Be aware of credit repair scams out there that promise to "erase your bad credit" or "start over again with fresh credit." These are from credit repair companies that use illegal ways to get you new credit, like applying for a new Social Security number or a new Tax ID. Of course, they don't tell you that it's illegal, but you will get into big trouble. There ARE legitimate credit repair agencies out there, who have had a great deal of success in helping their clients restore their credit.