You can pay a credit repair company to fix your credit, but if you’re willing to invest your time instead of your cash then you can do it yourself without having to pay a professionalThe only questions you need to know before you get started are how much your time is worth to you, and how comfortable you are with initiating and managing multiple credit profile related contacts via phone and emailYou will also need to be comfortable with reading and writing quasi-legal documentsYou can find example correspondence online which can help you with this.
Step 1: Obtain Your Credit Reports
Your credit score is based on a combination of factors and information which is reported about you 3rd parties to the 3 major credit reporting agenciesThe major agencies we are concerned with are Experian, Equifax and TransUnionThese three companies are the ones who are responsible for publishing information about you onto your credit report, however they are not the ones responsible for generating the informationA creditor, a collection agency or another company (known as data furnishers) will tell Experian, Equifax and TransUnion what to publish about you, and then the credit bureaus will publish itThey do not perform a thorough investigation into the legitimacy of the information when they initially report itOnly when it is discovered and disputed you will it be investigated, at which point it may have been damaging your credit for months or yearsIt is also very common for information to be different on each of your three credit reports, which is like playing Russian roulette every time your credit is pulled if you don’t fix all three at the same timeThe reason is because you never know which report your potential landlord, employer or loan provider is going to pullLet me give you an example:
- You have never checked your credit reports or felt the need to do so, however 2 years ago a credit card account was fraudulently opened in your name, maxed out and never paid onYou have never heard anything about itThe credit card company which was defrauded only reports payment information to Equifax and TransUnion, not to ExperianYou have previously been approved for a car loan from your bank about 9 months ago, so you assume your score is good, however you are turned down in the final stages of your employment application and receive a form in the mail stating that a consumer report was used in the negative determination of your employment applicationThat means that even though your bank pulled your Experian information to verify your credit worthiness for your car loan, your potential employer used Equifax or Transunion and assumed the fraudulent negative credit card entry was valid.
Situations similar to the above are very common, and whether you are turned down for a loan, a credit card application, a job or an apartment it is a huge disruption to your plans and can be a major stress inducing eventGo and check your credit reports right now and then once a month from here on out in order to nip this potential problem in the bud.