It is easy to clean your own credit report

December 6, 2006 | Credit | 30 comments

There are may companies that charge for disputing credit reported items on your behalf but this is not always necessary. The 3 bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) have made it much easier for consumers to handle this task themselves.

To initiate a dispute you must put your dispute in letter form and it must reference the exact account number shown on the credit report and should state the reason for the dispute (ie: not my account, incorrect balance, never was late etc). Keep the letter brief and without excess story. Only the information pertinent to the credit reporting should be discussed.

Some accounts report to all 3 bureaus and as a result the letter will need to be sent to each bureau individually. When looking at your credit report you will see which bureaus report on each account listed in that accounts details. You will see XP for Experian, TU for TransUnion, and EF for Equifax in each line item reported. This indicates the bureaus that show that information.

In the above record you can see that this account was reported 30 days late in 4/2005?to all 3 bureaus. It also indicates that it was late 30 days only once in the history of the loan. To dispute this information a letter would need to be sent to all 3 bureaus.

Each dispute letter requires that the bureaus addressed must investigate your claims. The law provides that this must happen in e timely manner. While it does not specify an exact time allotted it has become customary to see these resolve in about 30 days. If the bureau does not get an adequate response from the creditor they must adjust the report accordingly.

This can be easily accomplished on older derogatory info but newer accounts usually have account information more readily available. Take the time to do this BEFORE you need your credit. It can save you in interest rates and fees by helping you qualify for a better product.

Here are the addresses and phone numbers of the 3 bureaus:

Experian
P.O. Box 2104
Allen, TX 75013-2104
1-888-397-3742

Equifax
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
1-800-997-2493

Trans Union
P.O. Box 1000
Chester, PA 19022
1-800-888-4213

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Reader Comments

JAN on December 30, 2006 at 3:38 am

i WAS JUST WONDERING IF YOU COULD ANSWER A QUESTION. i HAVE 2 CHARGE ACCOUNTS THAT ARE BEING CHARGED OFF BY THE COMPANY. i OWN 1 HOUSE IN MY NAME AND MY HUSBANDS AND ALSO A SUV IN BOTH OF OUR NAMES. tHE CHARGE ACCOUNTS ARE IN MY NAME ONLY. cAN THEY PUT A LIEN ON MY HOUSE OR TAKE IT SINCE IT IS NOT JUST IN MY NAME? i HAVE TRIED TO REFINANCE BUT MOST COMPANYS DON’T WANT TO DO IT NOW BECAUSE LATE CHARGE PAYMENTS AND MEDICAL BILLS HAVE MADE OUR CREDIT SCORE BELOW 500. ANY SUGGESTIONS?? i KNOW THEY CAN GARNISHE MY WAGES. wHAT ELSE ARE THEY ALLOWED TO DO?

tom.voli on December 30, 2006 at 8:27 am

Yes, the creditor has the right to pursue litigation resulting in a judgment and a lien against the property because your name is on title. There are private money loans that may help. The private money would disregrad the score and allow cash out to pay the items that are driving the score down. Once the score rebounds you then refinance through standard conventional methods. You will need to contact me at (949) 290 1795 for further information.

Jorge M. Vega on February 24, 2007 at 8:24 pm

It doesn’t always happen that, while surfing the net, you come upon useful, practical advice. But, in this case, it did happen! Thanks so much for this discussion on the different variables that can adversely affect my credit score; it will really come in handy in the next few weeks when I go shopping for a new car.

It’s obvious, you can never learn too much about protecting your credit rating. Your blog about is a superb resource for anyone seeking valuable, well researched, comprehensive information on credit repair.

tom.voli on February 25, 2007 at 8:35 am

Thank you Jorge. That was my goal!

Maria on May 17, 2007 at 11:13 am

I found this information useful yes but I don’t think I see anything on my credit report to dispute. Is there any other way I can try to fix on my credit report. I’m actually under 500 points and I’m trying to figure out how I can improve my credit.

Tom Voli on May 17, 2007 at 11:58 am

Your score is an indication of past problems. As long as you pay on time it will come up over time. If you have little or no active accounts you should establish a secured credit card to have some positive information reported. Many times a score will not rebound simply because there is no positive activity to cause it to go up.

Maria on May 17, 2007 at 12:55 pm

I find this information very helpful, thank you so much. And if all the accounts are inactive but in collections, how am I able to pay them off in order to fix my credit for the long term?

Tom Voli on May 17, 2007 at 3:23 pm

I have no way of determining how much you make and how fast you can pay those back debts off. I can simply state that if all that you have is collection accounts you need to get some positive accounts on there to make an impact. Just paying the collections with no other positive reporting accounts will not make the difference you may expect.

Tanya on July 25, 2007 at 8:09 pm

My credit score in Oct of 06 was 720. My husband and I purchased a house - sold our old one. In the process we had a late payment to HomeDepot. We applied for a boat loan in Feb of 07′ and qualified barely as my score had dropped to 680. We were supposed to ‘close’ on our boat loan in early July, but found out I/we had been disqualified as my credit score had dropped again to 638. Our revolving balance has slightly increased, not by much and our mortage company is also the bank/lender and had to pull our credit only once. Why is this happening? There’s nothing on my credit report that looks wrong. Could it be that the boat loan people pulled my credit so much as to have it drop this far? I’m searching for answers where there doesn’t seem to be any. We lost a significant deposit on the boat and not one loan company will touch an app. by me due to my quickly dropping scores.

Tom Voli on July 26, 2007 at 7:31 am

Tanya,

When you established the new loan for the home there would be a slight negative impact on the scores for the new account with no payment history. This could easily explain the 680 score. My guess is that the late payment to HD was not yet on the report when the boat dealer first ran it.

Tanya on July 29, 2007 at 10:21 am

Thank you very much for your response. The late HD was reported on the Feb. inquiry for the boat. That’s, unfortunately, how I found out about it. How many points does a credit score drop if there’s inquiries, and who is authorized to make such inquiries other than people you’ve given consent? We’ve had about 10 inquries in the last eight months (home, boat- at least 3, Lowe’s, and others like Capital One that my husband has an account with, but no activity on it. They pull it once a month.) I’ve been told that inquries can pull 2 points up to 10 points. Do you know?

Thanks again for your time.

Tom Voli on July 30, 2007 at 7:26 am

Unfortunately, the bureaus do not provide a formula for us to exactly determine this but those who you do business with that check the report have the right to do so but it does not effect your score.

K on February 27, 2008 at 8:43 am

My son has just married and together they wanted to buy a car. They were declined because my daughter in-law’s mother had used her name (very simular) and social to open several credit cards, some dating back to when whe was 10 years old. They have all gone to collections and now they are beginning to pursue my daughter in-law to pay them back, even calling her at work. The main problem is she will not report her mother for commiting this fraud, but now my son is also involved in this mess, and it has damaged his report. Do you have any suggestions?

Tom Voli on May 29, 2008 at 7:20 am

This is sticky. I suggest contacting an attorney who can press the creditors for proof. Additionaly, your son can not marry into this mess but most creditors will surely try to make that the case and unless your son fights it it can definitely haunt him. It’s a mess for sure and your daughter in laws mother should be held responsible.

V on July 23, 2008 at 8:46 pm

I had some late payments about two years ago on several accounts. So my creditors lowered my credit limit on a few accounts and two accounts went to collections. Over the past year, I’ve been paying the accounts off one by one, including making payments on one collection. Even though, I have been making the effort, my credit score remains the same. What else can I do?

Tom Voli on July 24, 2008 at 6:45 am

Positive payment history on non collection accounts is necessary to improve scores. Also, negative accounts that update each month to reflect payments will impact the score negatively as this is imterpretted as negative activity.

Leatrice on March 5, 2009 at 10:20 pm

Hello me and my husband are trying to purchase a home and there are items on our credit report that we have no idela where they came from what happens if you dispute this issue but that have yet to be removed we have disputed them mutiple times but yet we keep getting the respone that they are corredt and it is pulling our scores down

Tom Voli on March 6, 2009 at 6:34 am

Leatrice,

Your message was somewhat difficult to read as it is 1 long run on sentence. From what I gather, you do not recognize the negative items yet when you dispute them the bureaus say they are correct. You are probably not disputing correctly. If these are not your accounts it may be a case of identity theft. I would try making them prove that it was you or your husband that opened the accounts. Sometimes this requires legal help.

tony on June 19, 2009 at 8:46 pm

I was wondering can disputed credit if I was trick in to buying a car that I could not afford and it got repo or should I take this to court please help

Tom Voli on June 22, 2009 at 7:00 am

Tony,

You are grasping at straws. You took the car, signed for the payments and now want to claim they misrepresented the contract. You will never prove that and no attorney will take the case…without a bunch of upfront cash.

Janet on July 11, 2009 at 4:08 pm

Tom - for some reason I thought that credit was only reported late if after 30 days (meaning day 30 was safe) - I gather from some of your previous answers that I’m wrong. Is there a law on this? Or is it up to each individual company as to if they report at 30 days? I currently have a Volvo car loan & was just reported to the credit bureau for making my payment on day 30. My first instinct was to fight Volvo on this to see if they would reverse it - I’m just very frustrated.

Have any advice? Is it worth me calling Volvo (six times I beleive was your recommendation to see if I get a sympathetic ear).

Thank you.
Janet

Tom Voli on July 13, 2009 at 7:04 am

This depends on the actual billing cycle. Most will consider it 30 days late as soon as the next billing cycle overlaps an unpaid one. Call persistently and get it handled that way. It’s your only option. If that doesn’t work you will have to pay an attorney to get it removed through a formal dispute. This will be costly though.

Stephanie on July 18, 2009 at 6:37 am

My husband (before we were married) missed 2 payments on his mortgage when there was a roof leak needing major repair. He completed a work-out plan with the loan servicer in May 2008. The loan servicing company told him that due to an error on their part, he would need to complete a new work-out plan. This was completed in October 2008, and he has been on time with his mortgage ever since. The bank is reporting him as late for every month since December 2007. What can they legally report if he was on-time with all of his payments under both work-out plans?

Tom Voli on July 18, 2009 at 8:37 pm

Stephanie,

I am not sure what you refer to as a work out plan. If you mean a payment plan to catch up then it is correct that they report it as late until the payments are not late. Unfortunately, just because you came to an agreement to catch up doesn’t remove the fact that each new monthly payment is late. They should mention this to you but probably didn’t. Nothing you can do about it.

kerri on July 28, 2009 at 11:09 am

Hi Tom,

I am in the same boat as Janet. I changed banks and my automatic payment to volvo car finance got all fouled up and as soon as it was past the due date, they reported 30 days late (TWICE). I am trying to get a home loan and this is of course adversely affected my socre. I am trying to call and dispute this to see if they will remove it, but not sure who to ask for. Janet, if you had any luck, please let me know! Thank you!

Tom Voli on July 28, 2009 at 12:27 pm

Kerri,

You may need to call multiple times to get the right person but ask for a manager each time. If that does not help you may need to have a credit restoration firm attack it. I know one that guarantees their work.

Paula on July 28, 2009 at 12:52 pm

Could you please give me the name and number for the credit restoration firm that you had mentioned in one of your responses? The one that guarantees their work? I have been trying to dispute items on my credit report online with all 3 credit agencies. I received notice that items would be removed but have not noticed any change on my credit score. Do you know how long it generally takes to see an increase in your score? Thanks!

Tom Voli on July 28, 2009 at 2:15 pm

Paula,

Time depends on how much there is on the report. The company to call is Credit Intelligence Agency (www.theciausa.com). I have listed myself with them as a representative. Give me a call at (949) 290-1795 and I will give you the details.

Temmy on September 6, 2009 at 3:04 am

Hi Tom:

I got in a big mess of divorce in 2005 and it caused me a lot on my credit report. I currently owe $3600 on credit cards and was able to pay some of the debts from the divorce that brought my score down. I am planning to buy a house next year August and my score as of today is 587. I am planning to pay off the $3600 on my credit cards by January 2010. Apart from this $3600, the major loans on my credit report are my school loan and car loan which I bought in March 2008. Do you think I can achieve enough score to enable me buy my own house by August 2010? Pls advice. Thanks.

Tom Voli on September 8, 2009 at 6:02 am

Temmy,

As long as you maintain on time payments your scores will rebound. You only need a 620 score to qualify for FHA financing.