If you found this blog post you are probably looking for information about how to fix your credit on your own. Well, you're in luck because you just found it. I am going to share 3 tools with you that you can easily obtain for under $5 and use to begin fixing your credit. Here they are in order:
Credit Report
The first thing that you are going to need is a credit report. You need to comb it for errors before you can do anything else. Credit reports are wrought with error, a full 79% nationwide. You really need to look closely because some of them are hard to spot if you're not looking. Look for things like misspellings of your name, incorrect past addresses, birth dates, middle initials, etc. Then analyze and identify every derogatory trade-line on your credit report. Make sure that you can match up the current creditor (ie: collection agency) with the original creditor and account. If you are unsure of any debt at all, carefully dispute it; in the reason for dispute insert "verification". A request for verification is a valid reason for a dispute as debt(s) that cannot be verified is therefore invalid per FCRA. There are also sometimes cases of mistaken (similar names) or stolen identity. Another thing to look out for are statutes of limitation on various forms of debt. Look up the statute of limitations on any items that may be on your credit report such as judgement's, liens, collections, charge offs, profit & loss, etc. If an item is obsolete it is considered invalid and that is a valid reason for a dispute. Take note of all of the errors on your credit report. There are a lot of ways to get a credit report but I highly recommend credit monitoring. We are not affiliated with any of them but out Secure Client Access Portal integrates with the majority of platforms out there. The one that I use personally and recommend to everyone is Privacy Guard. With Privacy Guard it is $19.99 per month and with that you get identity theft protection, credit monitoring, and an update tri-merge credit report each month. They off a 14 day trial for $1 that includes the credit monitoring with alerts and a full tr-merge credit report with scores from all three major credit bureaus. If you do not want to keep the credit monitoring you can cancel your subscription before the end of the 14 day period and you won't be billed but you get to keep the credit report. A full, easy to read, and very up to date tri-merge credit report for $1.
Dispute Letter
You will need to send a dispute letter to the credit bureaus to start an investigation. Each item that you dispute will be investigated by the credit bureaus for accuracy and items that they cannot verified are either permanently deleted or updated. An update usual occurs when the credit bureaus were unable to obtain verifiable evidence from a creditor, but were able to confirm the existence of the debt via public records. In those instances the item is usually updated on the credit report to reflect that it is in dispute. You need to be careful with the verbiage that you use when disputing an item, especially pertaining to the reason for the dispute. It is fraud to claim the incorrect reason for launching the dispute. As an example, you could get in trouble if you are disputing it because you do not recognize it if you were to say "The debt is not Mine" as opposed to "Request for Verification". So just be careful with it and you should be fine. One last thing that I will note is that I do not recommend template letters for effectiveness. Here at our company our processors actually hand craft and individual dispute letter for each round of disputes for each bureau. No two dispute letters being sent by our processing staff are the same and that is the best way to do it. Ocular recognition software and their the credit bureau's staff are trained to recognize what they call "form letters" or "templates". They do honor the requests but sometimes that will reply with a letter asking for additional information. They are also quicker to dismiss the disputes as being frivolous when you submit a lot of them within a month using a form letter, so try to keep it at under five per round (monthly). There are a lot of honed techniques that our credit repair experts use when crafting custom dispute letters and working with you to fix your credit. The template letters do work but as I've stated, there are some limitations. With that in mind I have a hand typed dispute letter template that I personally wrote. You can modify it to match each credit bureau and creditor information for each dispute. This dispute letter is completely free and you can get the download link by entering your email address below. So far we are still at $1 and you've got two powerful tools to help you fix your credit. Click here to enter your email address and download the FREE Credit Dispute Template.
Postage and Stationary
Statistically disputes that are filed with hard copy documents submitted to the credit bureaus has a higher rate of effectiveness. You should always mail your disputes in rather them submitting them electronically through the credit bureaus websites. When you submit the dispute letter to the credit bureaus it is best to also include copies of the following items in the package that you send: Drivers license, SSN Card, Proof of Address (ie: utility bill), copy of credit report with errors highlighted. You will have to print out a copy of each of these documents for each credit bureau, so that's 3 copies per document. Stamps are .49 cents each and I recently priced a pack of 20 envelopes for $1.25 and 200 sheets of computer paper for $2.50 on Amazon. That is a total of $6.22 for 3 powerful tools that you can use in your arsenal to fix your credit.
Summary
We do offer a paid service here at Credit Werx for people that would rather have an expert do the work. Our platform is designed to keep you informed every step of the way and we are always available for our clients. We also understand that there are some people that would rather do it themselves. We feel that whether we do the work or you do it on your own, it is best to be informed on the process. If you are going to do it on your own we wish you the best and still value your readership and involvement in the discussion on our blog. We will be releasing a lot of useful free information often so please check back regularly. For your of you that would like to work with us you can Sign Up Now or call us to get the ball rolling. Our toll free phone number is 1-888-328-4442.
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