Dispute Errors

One of the easiest ways to clean your credit report is to dispute errors.  Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act the credit bureaus must remove any items that information providers cannot or do not verify as being accurate within 30 days of a dispute.

Pay for Delete

If you have collection accounts in your credit file, you do not simply want to pay them off.  Doing so can cause a sharp decline in your credit score, especially if the accounts are older.  What you want to do is what is called a pay for delete.  You will want to call the creditors up and tell them that you are willing to pay off the account in full, but only if they agree to delete all negative information from your credit file.  You will want to get everything in writing prior to making payment.  Just make sure that the letter does not state that they will report the account as being current but rather that they will delete all negative history.

Debt Validation

Debt validation is a little known method of credit repair.   If you have an account that has been charged off and transferred to a collection agency, this method can help you get the item removed from your credit file.  After disputing the item with the credit bureaus, you will want to write to the creditors and request validation of the debt.  (This is different than verification.) Request that they send you a copy of the original contract, an accounting of how they derived what they claim that you owe and proof that they own the debt.  You also want to ask for a copy of the license that gives them the right to collect in your state.

Very often, a creditor cannot provide you with this information because they do not have it.  If they can’t, they must remove the item from your credit file.

By implementing these easy strategies, you should be well on your way to credit restoration!