Common Credit Questions
If you are confused about how credit works then you should read this article. We will be discussing three of the most common questions people have about credit. After reading this article you should be clear on any misconceptions that you may have and be ready to begin credit report repair on your own.
What can I do about changing the information in my credit file?
While there is no guaranteed way to get derogatory credit out of your credit file, you do have the right to dispute any information that you feel is questionable. To do this you’ll first need to get a copy of each of your three credit reports. You can do this at http://www.annualcreditreport.com.
Once you have your credit reports you will need to identify the items you wish to dispute. It is important not to dispute more than two or three items at a time or your disputes could be disregarded as being frivolous. You can dispute either online or via certified mail. Disputing is an easy process. You simply inform the credit bureau of the inaccurate items and request that they investigate.
Once you have filed your dispute, the credit bureaus will notify your creditors and give them 30 days to respond. Unless they are able to verify that the information they are reporting is inaccurate, the credit bureaus must remove the information from your credit file.
I have older collection accounts. Is paying them off the best thing I can do to improve my credit score?
No, it isn’t. If you are attempting credit repair, this is one of the worst things you can do. Because any activity on an account renews the date of last activity, you never want to pay off an older collection account in the traditional way. What you want to do is call the creditors and set up a pay for delete. Make sure you get everything in writing before you make a payment.
I have pretty good credit with no derogatory information. Beyond paying my bills on time what else can I do to ensure that my credit score is as high as possible?
One of the most common misconceptions that people have is that simply paying the credit card on the due date will result in the best possible score. This simply isn’t the case. The reason for this is that when credit card companies generate your statement they also report to the credit bureaus. If you simply pay on the due date, the balance before you made a payment is what will be reported to the credit bureaus.
