A Credit Repair Tutorial

This tutorial contains a complete strategy that anyone can use to clean up their credit. It should be sufficient to for most credit repair situations. If you need more advanced strategies, or strategies to deal with debt collectors, read the information at this link: The Black Book Of Credit Repair And Eliminating Debt Collectors From Your Life

NOTE: read this tutorial all the way to the bottom, or you will miss some important details.

Here are the three simple steps you will use to repair your credit.

1. Obtain your three credit reports. Each credit bureau must furnish everyone with a credit report once a year, if it is requested.

2. Review the reports and locate the negative items. Reading a credit report takes a little getting used to, but it’s not hard. The credit bureaus usually include explanations for their format.

3. Dispute the items that you want removed or corrected.

The best letters are short, simple and direct. This point is very important, and I want you to remember it: “the best letters are short, simple and direct.”

When you have received and reviewed your credit report, follow these instructions for any negative entries. Send a very brief letter by certified mail with the following information.”I am disputing this item (or these items) on my credit report. (insert a sentence here which explains why you are disputing the items, such as “you are misreporting the information,” or “this account is not mine,” etc.) Please validate it (them).”

Never offer any further explanation whatsoever, unless you are giving an explanation of a negative entry in a credit bureau file that you have been unable to remove.

The credit bureau will ask the creditor. The credit bureau has only 30 days to properly validate the entry from the time they receive your certified letter. Again, The credit bureau has ONLY 30 DAYS to validate the entry.

If they don’t send the validation in time, send them another letter telling them to remove the entry from your file. If they do provide sufficient validation, it must be 100% accurate, or they must remove that information from your file.

If they do validate the entry on your credit report within the 30 day window, dispute it again. Keep disputing it until it gets deleted. Sooner or later, someone will not validate it within the proper time limit, or just get tired of having to validate it again and again, and quit doing it. There is a more advanced version of this strategy in The Black Book Of Credit Repair And Eliminating Debt Collectors From Your Life that will get the job done within 60 days.

Credit bureaus are merely giant filing cabinets that take in vast amounts of information every day. They don’t have the time or resources to check all of the information which comes in on a daily basis. Frequently, the information is wrong, and they never question it!

Here are some things that they would rather you don’t know.

• Credit reporting agencies are subject to The Federal Credit Reporting Act.

• Each item in your credit file must be proven or it cannot remain in the file. If the credit bureau cannot validate the item, it must be removed from your file, whether it’s true, or not. Validation is not simply, “yep, they said it’s yours.” It takes some actual effort.

• Every negative entry on your report can be denied or challenged at any time. The bureau must re-investigate and if that item cannot be verified within a “reasonable amount of time”, (30 days) it must be removed from the file. However, they do have an option to deem your request “frivolous” under certain conditions.

• Many times the creditor does not re-validate in the time allowed, or the credit bureau is busy and does not handle your dispute properly. The disputed entry must then be deleted.

• The older an item is, the more difficult validation is. It is possible it cannot be validated, because records may no longer exist after a year or two.

• As of September of 2005, all credit reporting agencies must provide one copy of each individual’s credit report every year, upon request. The three major nationwide consumer reporting companies have set up one central website and a toll-free telephone number, through which you can order your free annual report.

To order your free credit reports, go to annualcreditreport.com or call 877-322-8228. You must obtain copies of your credit report from all three of these major credit reporting agencies. You should do this every year.

NOTE: These companies ARE ALLOWED to charge you for your credit score. But, you DO NOT need your credit score. They don’t like doing anything for free. They have been known to try to get people to pay for this, and not even tell them what they are paying for.

A free report is all you need. You only need to see the entries that other people have put in your file. Repair your credit file, and your credit scores will automatically improve.

Experian
P.O. Box 9532
Allen, Texas 75103
1-888-397-3742 – http://www.experian.com

Equifax Inc.
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374
1-800-685-1111 – http://www.equifax.com

Trans Union Corporation
P.O. Box 6790
Fullerton, CA 92834
1-800-888-4213 – http://www.tuc.com

I don’t know why, but these credit reporting agencies seem to change their mailing addresses fairly often. So, you may have to get their current address. You can find the current information on the Internet, or most any business involved with credit. You can also call them for their current address.

You can get your reports online from www.annualcreditreport.com, but DO NOT contact the Credit Bureaus online at any time. You must use the US Postal Service to repair your credit files.

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS – only communicate with these people in writing by USPS mail. An old axiom is “if it isn’t written, it wasn’t said.” Credit bureaus and debt collectors often totally ignore letters that are not sent by certified mail.

1. Always send certified letters that make them sign a card when they receive your letter.
2. Always keep copies of everything in a special folder, just in case you ever need to go to court.
3. Always demand an updated copy of your file after the negative items have been removed.

About dispute letters:
You want to make your letters to look “unprofessional,” so that you don’t raise any Red Flags with the credit bureaus.
• Do not use dispute forms or file numbers provided by the bureau.
• Do not photocopy a “fill in the blanks” form letter.
• Do not use a letterhead.
• Instead, send a simple handwritten, or printed, letter from your computer.

WARNING: Do not dispute more than three (3) items on your credit report at any one time. Also, wait sixty (60) days before disputing any other items on your report. There are laws in place which allow the credit reporting agencies to regard your disputes as frivolous if they detect that you are trying to eliminate all negative information on your file.

There are more advanced techniques and even some, controversial techniques a person can use if their circumstances require it. Identity theft is a growing problem in our complicated society. Under certain circumstances, the use of “identity theft affidavits,” is a powerful strategy.

If a person feels they are being blocked or ignored by credit bureaus, there is a way to use Small Claims Court to get the results you want. This is also a very powerful strategy.

All of these strategies are explained in The Black Book Of Credit Repair And Eliminating Debt Collectors From Your Life.

A word about bankruptcy and other legal items in the public records on your credit report. These items are almost impossible to get off your report without using more advanced strategies, which are also explained in The Black Book Of Credit Repair And Eliminating Debt Collectors From Your Life.

Some of these are guerrilla strategies which no attorney or credit repair service would even consider doing for you. It’s strictly “do it yourself.” It’s not hard to do them, but they are quite effective.

It is unlikely that you will vastly improve your credit rating in thirty days as some people promise, but you should see some solid improvement in thirty days. Everyone’s situation is different. In some cases that need only two or three corrections, thirty days might do it. But, almost anyone can have good credit within six months.