#MoneyChat Credit Series: 5 Tips For Fixing Your Credit Report!

Did You KNOW?  When you pull a credit report – you don’t get your credit scores, you get a listing of your outstanding and paid off debts, credit inquiries, various addresses, etc. Credit scores used to come with your report in the olden days – now you have to pay for it separately. Yeah, I know… #racket. .. .now on to your tips!

1.      Watch for  credit repair scams

There are many scams out there claiming to help you ‘remove’ debts from your credit report – debts you actually owe. Don’t fall for it – the debts will remain and you will be out of a few hundred dollars.  There’s also no such thing as having a second credit ‘record’ create for you – don’t fall for it.

Anyone who’s promising to ‘wipe away your bad credit’, remove bankruptcies, etc. are going to take your money and run. Even if they aren’t promising the world, but claim to help improve your credit score for a fee – don’t do it. You can negotiate with your creditors yourself. It is a hassle, they can be rude and it can be emotionally draining – but you can do it. It won’t cost you an arm and a leg either.

2.      Check your credit report every 6 months.

It’s important to make sure you know what is on your credit report. You get one free per year from each of the reporting agencies. You could actually get three separate reports at different times of the year. They all basically have the same information – get one every 4 months from Transunion, Experian or Equifax. If you find incorrect information on one – you can send corrections to the others without paying for another report from that particular agency

Guess what - If you’d like to add an explanation for creditors you can do so by mailing a brief note to the credit bureaus. Keep it brief and to the point so it will actually be read.

3.      How do I dispute items that are incorrect?

Oftentimes they’ll get your name wrong, address, apartment number wrong. Better yet, the amount you owe may be reported as more than the actual amount or a bill that has been paid off, still listed as open.  Once, they listed one of my family members as my husband! Being that I’m not married, not sure where they pulled that information from.

Write each of the bureaus when you find an error on any of their report – so all three can correct if need be. Ask them to make the correction and send you confirmation of doing so. You may have to go to the lender first, get written proof of payment, then mail that to the credit reporting agencies.

4.      Confirmation, Confirmation, Confirmation!

I still like snail mail confirmations of payments. I don’t want any misunderstandings when it comes time to prove I paid a bill off. That said, there’s nothing wrong with an email confirmation if you are comfortable with it. Just make sure that once you pay off a bill –you ask for a WRITTEN confirmation of payment & that it’s reported to all 3 credit bureaus. If you do use email – make sure you have the employee/manager’s contact information in the body of the email in case you ever have to dipute the payment.

5.      Time is On Your Side.

If you have a low credit score – give yourself 2 years to see it make significant improvement. That’s 2 years of paying your current bills on time, making arrangements/paying off debt and not incurring new debt. After year 1 you will see great improvement and in 2 years, should be on track to the score you desire. Of course, if you have had a foreclosure, bankruptcy or other major financial emergency, it may take a little longer, but you will still make progress.

There’s no need to watch your score every month – it will be like watching paint dry. Set a timeline, stay on track and check a few times per year.

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