Healing Your Credit on Your Own
Though it is highly unlikely that you will be able to successfully negotiate your credit in the same way as a professional company, there are things you can do to improve your credit on your own. In fact, the following are steps that you are well-served to perform whether or not you utilize professional services to heal your credit.
- Get Your Credit Reports
- Review for Errors
- Protest to the Credit Agencies
The first step to repairing your credit on your own is to get your credit reports from the three major reporting agencies: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. You are entitled to one free copy of your report every year and can obtain it by visiting their websites or by writing to them and requesting it.
Your credit report should detail accurately all open and closed accounts you have dealt with for the past 7 years. Often there are errors on credit reports that detail debts you've never taken out, inaccurate dates, or accounts improperly listed, such as still open when they should be closed.
Once you've identified the various errors or mistakes in your credit you can write to the credit agencies and notify them of the errors you found. There are certain obligations that they must follow at that point by law, including contacting the companies behind the error and demanding that they provide proof of the debt within a certain period of time. If they don't provide proof of the debt in a timely manner, the credit reporting agency must remove the offending item from your credit report.
Persistence is Key
Self-repair of your credit is never an easy task or one that can be accomplished overnight. Working with the credit reporting agencies, your lenders and having persistence in talking with them truthfully and as often as possible is critically important to making sure that you don't end up in the same situation after all your work or even worse, making the situation harm your credit even further. If you are trying to increase your credit, or dont know if you should, take a look at some of the danger signs to indicate you really need to repair your credit.
