What is the best way to repair your credit report?

Answer 1

1) Get the facts about how they come up with your credit score : http://financialbasics.blogspot.com/2006/11/credit-reports-and-credit-reporting.html

2) Get copies of your credit reports and review them thoroughly :
http://financialbasics.blogspot.com/2006/11/its-your-credit-take-care-of-it.html

3) Protect yourself against identity theft:
http://financialbasics.blogspot.com/2006/12/5-tips-for-identity-theft-protection.html

4) Manage your credit wisely:
http://financialbasics.blogspot.com/2006/11/use-your-credit-card-sensibly.html

Credit is a numbers game. The more educated you get about it, the better off you are when it comes to managing it well.

Answer 2

This is the way to correct (dispute) items in your credit on your own. You are entitled to a free credit report from each credit bureau, once every 12 month. Go to www.annualcreditreport.com to get this, since you'll need the INDIVIDUAL credit report numbers. Request the FREE copies of your credit report. Print those reports out (Equifax, Experian, Trans Union) so you can go through each item on each report - a lot of times there are accounts or tradelines in one report that are not in another. Thats why its important to look at all three. Once you have each report, go to the individual bureau sites and begin an online investigation/dispute for each item with which you disagree. Those sites are: www.equifax.com, www.experian.com, and www.transunion.com. Remember to go back and check the status periodically to ensure the dispute is being processed and to find out the ultimate result.

Answer 3

The factors that have the most negative impact on your report are late payments, collections, and too many inquiries (request for new credit). It took me 5 yrs to repair mine, I went from 540 to 720. Pay everything on time, if you dont' have enough money for the minimum payments then consider using a debt management agency (e.g. American Debt Management). These agencies work closely with your creditors and come to some kind of agreement where they will lower your minimum payments considerably. Sometimes they will even charge 0% interest on these payments. The only donwside is that you will have to close the accounts under the debt management plan. You cannot do these plans directly with the creditor. Creditors only work with such agencies. These organizations will charge you a small fee (look for non-profit organizations). Finally, join a credit watch program with score so you can monitor your progress. Good luck

Answer 4

Start paying the bills on time. Pick the lowest balance of the bills you have and pay more to that one, while still making the min payments on the rest. Once you have one paid off move to the next and so forth. Do not open any more lines of credit and within 1 yr of doing this your score should come up considerably.