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Step 1
Get a print out of your credit score from the three major credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Transunion, and Experian. the best way to accomplish this is by going to www.annualcreditreport.com. This site will produce all three reports for free once a year for you, simply follow the instructions on the site.
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Step 2
Make every payment on time, every time. If that means you only pay the minimum balance, start there. Whenever you have extra money, pay down the card or loan that has the least bit of available credit on it first. I don't make this recommendation lightly. It is my belief you pay off your cards smallest to largest regardless of the balance or interest rate. However, if you are focusing on your credit score, carrying high balances is a bad sign to lenders.
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Step 3
Review your report. Each report should indicate which items are hurting your credit and which are helping. This is a good place to compromise with the right way to pay off debt mentioned above and list the amount due smallest to largest, focusing only on the items that negatively effect your credit.
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Step 4
Dispute any item that doesn't match what your records indicate. The burden to prove you owe the creditor is on them. For medical bills sent to a collector for instance, dispute the item claiming you have no record of this debt and in order to pay it you need the date of the actual occurance of debt, who you saw, what it was for and so on, to verify if it is attributable to you. The debt collector has a small window of time to return that information and prove you owe the debt. If they can't prove it, the debt is removed from your report.
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Step 5
Follow through on everything you do. Get follow up credit reports. If you dispute an item, the credit reporting agency is required to give you an updated report. Make sure they do.
Comments
Coach4U said
on 2/15/2009 Good and useful tips.
elyria said
on 2/9/2009 Great and very informative article. And I love additional tips section :) 5*