I will be writing this guide in a series of steps/articles that will take you each step of the way towards greatly improving your credit rating. I will cover every detail in order to maximize your efforts. Check back frequently for new guide steps.
Before doing anything with your credit, you will need to get your credit reports from each of the three major credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. If you haven’t seen your credit report for more than a year, then you can get a copy of each free at annualcreditreport.com. I highly recommend doing it this way because it is totally free and you don’t have to subscribe to any service or make any sort of financial investment, plus you get the credit report instantly as opposed to having them mail it to your home. You can read more about getting your free triple credit reports in this post.
Once you get your free credit reports, the first thing you need to do is to print them all out on plain white printing paper. Depending on the quality of your credit, you could have a ton of pages or hardly any; either way you need to print them out for easy reference. Once you have them printed out, it would be even better for you if you could use a three-hole punch on the pages and insert them into a three-ring binder. This will make the task of flipping back and forth through the pages much easier. If you can do this then great, if not then that is fine also.
Spreadsheet Templates
I will create various documents to aid you in your credit repair quest along the way, most of which are just Excel spreadsheets customized for you to begin entering information into right away. The first template I have created for you is the “Erroneous Credit Report Entries Template”. This is just an Excel spreadsheet, designed by me, to aid you in keeping track of all the negative entries on your credit report that you will be requesting validation on. If you do not have Excel, then I recommend downloading Open Office, it is a totally free open source software suite that does everything Microsoft Office can do, without the $400.00 price tag. You can open Excel files with Open Office no problem.
**Click Here to download the spreadsheet template I created for you**
About This Spreadsheet
This spreadsheet has eight columns. Creditor Name is where you put the name of the company claiming the debt. Account Number is where you put the account number of the outstanding account. Type is where you put what type of debt it is, like medical, car, etc.. Past Due is where you enter the amount of money past due as listed on the report, if the amount is different with each report then you can put both amounts in here. Date Opened is when you originally opened the credit account.
The next three columns are columns for each credit bureau, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Sometimes the same debt will show up on one report and not the other two, or on all three, or on two of them. For each debt, check the other two reports to see if it is present there. These columns will show a drop down menu when you click on the arrow to the right of the cell. You will be presented with a list of options. Appears On Report means it is on this particular credit report. Not Present means it isn’t on this particular credit report. Letter Sent means you have sent a debt validation request (credit dispute) letter to this particular credit bureau. Removed means that this particular credit bureau has responded and were unable to validate the debt so it was removed. Validated means that this particular credit bureau responded and were able to validate the debt, so it remains on the report until paid off.
Let’s Begin!
Take each credit report, all three of them, and make sure that the “Personal Information” section information is accurate on all three reports. You would not believe how many people think that this isn’t an important factor when determining credit score. They couldn’t be more wrong. When a creditor runs your credit and asks for a FICO score, the first thing the software does is compare your personal information that you submitted to the creditor to the information contained in all three credit reports. If they differ, then your score goes down, it is that simple. Creditors love predictable, stable people who have had the same job for years and the same residence for years. They also like people who keep the same name for years, and so on. If you have had 10 different addresses in the last 2 years, then the software may think you are a higher risk and calculate your FICO score accordingly.
Make sure all of this information is correct, if not then you can dispute the information by mail, I recommend through the mail because there is a recorded timeline. If doing this by mail, then be sure to use the sample letter we have and submit it just like a creditor dispute, just change the wording and explain that you believe your personal information is inaccurate, be sure to provide the correct info for them in the letter. They will respond to you and either change it or keep the info unchanged.
Next Step
Now, look at each entry in the “Adverse Accounts” section and enter each item into the spreadsheet I provided for you. When entering each item, check the other two credit reports for the same item, then enter the proper selections on the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet I gave you has two example items entered into the sheet; these are for example only and can be deleted. You must enter every item from all three reports. I know it is tedious but tedious people have great credit, and that is what you want right?
You may be wondering why we are entering every single item into the Erroneous Entries spreadsheet. After all, some of them ARE accurate, and you know it, right? The answer is: who cares, even if the account was once legitimate, there is always a chance that your original applications were lost, or the original creditor is no longer in business, or the creditor is inundated with validation requests.
You have nothing to lose by disputing every negative item on your credit report. You can only gain by doing this. Nearly every time I tell someone to do this, there are always one or two entries that the creditor can’t validate, and then they MUST come off your report, even if they are legitimate debts. This is what I call the “Shotgun Approach”, and it always works to some degree. It is a great way to weed out all the debts that you will need to pay off, and the ones you won’t.
Once you have all of the adverse items listed in the spreadsheet, you need to send a dispute letter for each and every one of them. You do this through the mail to each credit bureau’s address. I would submit one letter to each credit bureau and put every item for that credit bureau in a detailed list. Make sure to specify a separate dispute reason for each item, and if this is the first time you are disputing these items, then make every reason “not my account/not my credit card”. This is the reason you should always use at first, if the item remains on your report then you can resubmit disputes as often as you want. You can use a different reason every time if you wish. If you do this, then the credit bureau is required by law to respond to each and every one within 30 days. NEVER SUBMIT ONLINE, you make it easy for them, plus you cannot dispute specific information in the Credit Reports.
Once you have submitted the disputes to each credit bureau, track the results using your spreadsheet. As each dispute is resolved in one way or another, enter the status in the spreadsheet column for the corresponding credit bureau. This process can take a few weeks; the creditor has 30 days to validate the debt. After that, it must be removed. If the debt is legitimate, then that creditor may re-report the debt to the credit bureau all over again. Chances are that if they didn’t validate it within 30 days, they won’t re-report it. It does happen though, so if it pops up again, then you know why. The objective is to get every item possible removed before we address the remaining ones, and that is what this initial process does.
Stay tuned for the next part of this guide, it will be posted in a few days. Give yourself a pat on the back for making a commitment to better your credit.
