Here are some sample letters you might find useful:

debt validation sample letter-for listings placed on your report by third-party debt collectors
nutcase letter-for fully paid derogatory accounts
HIPAA dispute letter series-for fully paid medical collections
pay for delete agreements-for valid, outstanding derogatory debt listings

6. Get organized. Create a file to keep copies of all correspondence between you and the credit bureaus, creditors, collection agencies, etc. Keep all your certified mail return receipts paper-clipped to their corresponding documents. I don’t recommend you communicate over the phone during the course of your credit repair efforts, but if you must, at least keep documentation of all your telephone conversations in your file.

7. Wait for the results of your disputes and follow up as needed. Unfortunately, not every dispute will be successful the first time around. But persistence often pays off!

Whenever a disputed item comes back from a credit bureau as “verified”, you should write them and ask for the contact information of whoever verified the item. Once you receive it, write to the creditor/collector/courthouse and ask them how they verified the listing with the credit bureau. What documentation do they have that proves the accuracy of the disputed item? Frequently, they won’t be able to comply with your request and will be forced to delete the item from your credit reports.

Sometimes the credit bureaus will not be able to verify a disputed listing within the 30-day timeframe required by the FCRA, and they will temporarily delete the item from your report and reinsert the item once it is verified later. This is legal assuming the item was verified properly and provided the credit bureau notifies you in writing that the item is being reinserted.

Also keep in mind that you can dispute the same accounts again at a later time, as long as your disputes are not exactly the same as the ones you’ve submitted previously. Remember, there are many possible disputes; you can dispute an account in its entirety, or you can dispute one or more of the details of the account listing, such as the date of last activity, the credit limit, the high balance, etc. I recommend waiting at least 2 or 3 months in between disputes for the same account, otherwise the credit bureau may choose to treat your dispute as frivolous (meaning they will ignore it).

Just continue repeating this step until you’re satisfied with your credit reports.

I hope you found this series of articles on how to repair your own credit report helpful; if you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment!

Post from: Credit Repair and Debt Solutions

How To Repair Your Own Credit Report – Part 3

Related posts:

1. How To Repair Your Own Credit Report – Part 1
2. How To Remove Public Records From Your Credit Report
3. How to Dispute a Listing on Your Credit Report

Here are the items you’re looking for:

-late payments
-charge-offs
-collections
-bankruptcy
-judgments
-repossessions
-foreclosures
-tax liens
-inquiries that you don’t recognize as belonging on your report

4. Stop! It’s time to do some homework! I bet that’s not what many of you wanted to hear. I’m sure you’re anxious to dive right in and start attacking the negative items on your credit reports, and I don’t blame you a bit. But the task you’re about to undertake is not cut-and-dry; credit repair is complex and there is often not a one-size-fits-all solution for every individual and every credit report. The approaches you’ll take to challenge the derogatory listings on your reports may vary depending upon your specific circumstances. You need to know what you’re doing beforehand to keep from making mistakes during the credit repair process. You also need to understand the laws that you’re going to use to your advantage in order to clean up your credit. Remember, if you don’t feel you have the time or patience to tackle this yourself, you can always seek the assistance of a credit repair organization (YES, there are good ones out there!).

Here is your pre-credit repair reading homework. It will help you understand the credit laws, and also to understand which approaches are appropriate for which types of listings:

Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)
debt validation (Pay special attention to the second-to-last paragraph!)
how to dispute a listing on your credit report
HIPAA and credit repair (You can skip this one if you don’t have any medical items listed on your reports)
disputing a judgment, tax lien, or bankruptcy (Again, skip if it doesn’t apply to you)
disputing unauthorized/questionable inquiries

Next==> How To Repair Your Own Credit Report – Part 3

Post from: Credit Repair and Debt Solutions

How To Repair Your Own Credit Report – Part 2

Related posts:

1. Inquiries On Your Credit Report
2. How To Repair Your Own Credit Report – Part 1
3. How To Repair Your Own Credit Report – Part 3

Before we begin, I need to remind you that I am not a lawyer, and what you are about to read is not, and should not be substituted for, legal advice. Also, do not make false statements at any point in the credit repair process (i.e., don’t dispute an account as ‘not mine’ when in fact you know it is yours). OK, so without further ado…

1. Get copies of all 3 of your credit reports (Equifax, Experian, and Transunion), along with your credit scores. Make a copy of each credit report and keep a copy of the clean originals for your records (you’re going to be writing on the copies).

You are probably aware that you’re entitled to one free credit report each year, but I recommend that you do not get the free report if you’re planning to use it for credit repair purposes. Here’s why: Under normal circumstances, once a credit bureau receives notification that you are disputing an item on your credit report, they have 30 days to investigate your dispute. If they fail to complete the investigation within 30 days, they are required by law to remove the disputed item from your report, regardless of its accuracy (although if it’s proven to be accurate later it might be re-inserted onto your report, which we’ll discuss later). However, if you file a dispute after receiving the free credit report, the credit bureau’s deadline to conclude their investigation is extended from 30 days to 45. Fifteen days may not sound like much, but the fact of the matter is that 15 days could mean the difference between getting your disputed item deleted, or not.

As for your credit scores, the credit bureaus are not required to give those to you for free (no, not even once a year). I suggest subscribing to an online service that allows you to monitor your scores for a monthly fee. This will help you to gauge how successful your efforts are as you go through the credit repair process.

2. Dispute the “low-hanging fruit”. Check your reports for inaccurate or outdated personal information. This is the first information you should dispute–you’re looking for misspellings and variations of your name, addresses where you never lived, wrong social security numbers, etc. Also be sure to dispute your former addresses. You can use any means of dispute you want for this (online, phone, mail, etc.). The reason I suggest that you do this first, is because it’s not unheard of for an old derogatory item associated with a former address, to “fall off” your report after the address is disputed and removed! Plus, removing old addresses from your report can help protect you from identity theft.

This is also a good time to dispute any debts listed on your report that are older than 7 years old because these should be very easy to get deleted. (Please note that the 7 year reporting period does not apply to bankruptcies or tax liens; those can stay on your report for up to 10 and 15 years, respectively.)

At this point you should also dispute any duplicate items on your reports.

Next==> How To Repair Your Own Credit Report – Part 2

Post from: Credit Repair and Debt Solutions

How To Repair Your Own Credit Report – Part 1

Related posts:

1. How To Repair Your Own Credit Report – Part 3
2. How To Repair Your Own Credit Report – Part 2
3. How to Dispute a Listing on Your Credit Report

The major advantage of DIY credit repair is its affordability. The only costs to you would be for postage for any correspondence you mail to credit bureaus, creditors, and collectors; and costs to obtain copies of your credit reports. You may also choose to subscribe to one of the online services which monitor your credit scores on a monthly basis, but this is optional. If you opt to hire a credit repair company, most of them do charge monthly fees, which can vary among different companies but are generally less than $100 per month.

However, repairing your own credit can also be very time-consuming and frustrating. In order to fix your credit yourself, you must first become knowledgeable about the laws that protect your rights as a consumer so that you will have a solid understanding of how to use these laws to your advantage. These laws are the only reason that legal credit repair is possible, so you must know them forwards and backwards before doing anything else. This in itself can require hours of reading and research, which not everyone has the time or patience for.

Also bear in mind that do-it-yourself credit repair can be tricky for most consumers simply because they are not accustomed to dealing with credit bureaus and creditors. It is not unheard of for them to reject legitimate disputes, sometimes more than once. There are many possible reasons for a dispute to be rejected, and a good credit repair company deals with this issue all the time and knows the best way to handle it. This is not to say that you couldn’t handle this yourself with the proper research, but it can be very frustrating and discouraging when your efforts are squashed repeatedly by creditors and credit reporting agencies.

In case you’re curious to know my personal opinion on all this, here it is: Suppose I’m having car trouble. I jump onto the internet and type the symptoms of the problem into the search engine, and the results tell me what is most likely wrong with my car. Now that I know what’s wrong, I could probably do some further research and fix it myself if I choose to–it would certainly cost me less money than if I were to take it to a repair shop. But, it just so happens that I am not a mechanic and have no prior experience repairing cars. Is it still possible for me to fix the car myself? Yes, of course. It is technically possible for anyone to learn to do anything by reading and doing research. But I personally would not feel comfortable attempting this repair myself; it would take me too long to research how to fix the problem, and since I am inexperienced I could break something else or take too long to fix it, leaving me without a car for who knows how long. Since I do have the money to take the car to a shop, I decide to leave the repairs to an experienced mechanic. (Now, maybe my neighbor has more patience than I do, or maybe he truly can’t afford to pay someone else to repair his car if it breaks down. For him, fixing it himself is probably his better, and maybe his only, option.)

The point I am trying to make here is that there really is no solution that is always best for every person under all circumstances. Each option has its pros and cons which you should weigh carefully in order to decide what is best for you. If you have the patience necessary, or if you can’t afford to hire someone else to fix your credit for you, you may want to have a go at doing it yourself. But if you can afford the monthly fees and don’t mind paying for convenience, you might be better off utilizing a credit repair company (just be sure to choose one carefully).

Post from: Credit Repair and Debt Solutions

Do-It-Yourself Credit Repair vs. Credit Repair Services

Related posts:

1. How To Repair Your Own Credit Report – Part 2