Credit Report Repairing: Follow These Tips

Your credit report will determine whether you are approved for a loan, credit card, line of credit and sometimes even job positions. That is why it is so important to keep a clean credit history but sometimes even if you have an impeccable financial behavior, lenders and credit bureaus make mistakes and inaccuracies are recorded into your credit statement. By following these tips you will learn how to correct inconsistencies on your report without hassles.

Get A Free Copy Of Your Report

Your credit information is used by lending institutions to assess your creditworthiness, thus, if you want to know why you are getting declined, it is imperative that you obtain a copy of your credit history. Each lender may use a different source to obtain your credit history and thus, you should get a copy of your credit statement from each bureau and not from a single one. Each credit bureau is obliged to provide you with a free copy of your report at your request at least once a year.

Knowing About The Responsibilities

Both the credit bureau and lending institution that provides information to the bureau are responsible for any wrongful information that appears on your debt history. Thus, you should know that if you find any inconsistencies on your statement you should contact both the credit bureau and the financial institution reporting the incorrect information in order to be able to held them both responsible if they do not solve the problem and remove the negative info within a reasonable period of time.

Contacting The Credit Bureaus

To contact the credit agencies, you should do so in written. You must include the exact information that you believe to be incorrect, inaccurate, incomplete or inconsistent. You should also attach copies of backing up documentation such as payment receipts, credit card balance payment stubs, etc. The letter should include all identity and contact information you can provide (name, address, etc.) and the exact information you are disputing with the action you pretend the bureau to take (correct, remove, amend, etc.).

Make sure to send your letter by certified mail so you can prove later (if legal actions become necessary) that you have tried to dispute the items if the credit agency does not respond accordingly. The bureau has 30 days to resolve your request even if they need to forward the information to the information issuer (financial institution). If within this period of time the agency cannot verify the information or the verification shows that you where right, the negative input must be removed immediately and a copy of the new version of the credit statement will be sent to you.

Notifying The Issuer That You Are Disputing Information

Also, remember to contact the information issuer (creditor, lender, credit card issuer, etc.) and notify them of the dispute you are starting. Provide them with the necessary information and documentation that you sent to the credit assessment company. This usually speeds up the process because when the agency contacts the creditor or information issuer regarding the subject, they will be already working on it and will resolve in a quicker way.