A fairly quick way to raise your credit score is to review your credit report, note any mistakes and have them corrected or removed. Around 80% of all credit reports contain some kinds of errors which can include name misspellings, inaccurate addresses (yours or an employer’s), wrong amounts owed and even outright information which is not yours.
A credit report might also contain owed amounts which are past their statute of limitation periods of 7 years for common credit items, 10 years for bankruptcies and 15 years for tax liens. These items should be reported and removed as quickly as possible as they will drag down your credit score.
Obtain Your Credit Reports
The first step to disputing credit report errors is to identify them. To do this, you should request a copy of your credit report from all three major credit reporting companies of Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. The reason you need all three is that each one could contain information which the others do not have.
By law, you are allowed to request one free credit report from each bureau every 12 months. You should also receive a credit report if you have recently applied and been turned down for a loan. If you have already received a credit report within a 12 month period, you will need to pay a small fee to acquire another copy.
Contact Credit Bureaus
Once you have identified all known errors, the next step is to write a letter notifying each bureau whose report contains errors. A simple letter which contains corrected information is sufficient to change incorrect spellings, addresses, etc.
However, if you have identified incorrect or wrongful charges, a Letter of Dispute must be sent contesting the charges. You should explain why you believe the charges to be in error and provide copies of any validating documentation which show the correct data.
The Process
Once the bureaus receive your Letter of Dispute, they will notify the creditors. The creditors must then provide validating documentation to the bureaus of the charges and status. Creditors have 30 days in which to validate contested information. If they fail to do so then, by law, the credit bureaus must remove the items from your report.
You should receive a letter from any credit bureau which you’ve sent correspondence as to the outcome of your information change request or negative item dispute within 30 to 45 days. If you do not receive a letter, contact them again requesting notification of the outcome.
It is also advisable to request another copy of your credit report after any changes have been made to verify that information has been changed or removed.