Don't Pay Someone to Repair Your Credit, Do It Yourself for Free (cont.)
Contributed by Arlene Mason
Repair your free credit report.
Once you have obtained the credit report, you need to examine the records it contains. Sometimes there are erroneous entries. These are easy to repair; simply send a letter to the agency indicating the wrong entries and the reason they are wrong. For instance, not my account, or I have never done business with this company, are all good reasons. Wrong information is required to be removed promptly and for free. This in itself should go along way toward repair of your credit.
But don't count on it. There are some items found on your credit report that cannot be removed so easily, such as bankruptcy. Sadly, you are stuck with bankruptcy for seven to ten years, after that time it is required to be removed.
You may have some derogatory items removed from your credit report for free, simply by asking to have them investigated. Companies are required to respond to a request for investigation within 30 days, if they don't respond, then the item is removed. Don't ask to have too many investigated at one time, however, since it takes time and energy to do this, ask for a couple at a time. Then ask for a few more and so on until you have gone through your entire credit report. This could add to the time it takes to repair your credit, but in the long run, it will be well worth it.
Lastly, be sure to ask for a fresh copy of your credit report to check on how well the repair went. Most companies will provide this to you for free. You will find that all your efforts were not in vain, when you can finally apply for and be approved for credit.
