Finance Literacy

Regardless of your record or history, there are a number of quick & easy steps you can take towards credit repair. It’s never too late, and costs nothing, yet the results can be huge!

You can begin by ordering a copy of your credit reports, going through them, and understanding them. There are three different credit reporting bureaus, and each one may have slightly different information.

By law, consumers are entitled to one free credit report from each of the these agencies, TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. You can get one from each agency, each year.

There is a website set up by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) specifically for this purpose: annualcreditreport.com. Be leery of any other sites claiming free credit reports - there will be strings & fees attached.

You can begin your credit repair efforts once you have your reports in hand. You will want to go through them carefully, line by line.

The reports will either include a “dispute” form, or give you a web address where you can download them. This is where you will begin fixing your credit score.

Make a note of every outdated, inaccurate, or incorrect entry - you will be disputing these. Fill out a dispute form and provide corrected information, or why it is inaccurate, such as debts that have already been paid but are still listed.

By federal law, the credit reporting bureaus have up to 30 days to verify each dispute. If they don’t do so, or don’t do it within the 30 days, they must remove those entries from your credit report.

This simple step can remove many of the negative strikes against you, and they will no longer count towards lowering your credit score. In many cases, this can lift your score by up to hundreds of points!