Step by step plan to clean up your credit report.

Step 1. Ordering your Credit Repair You could get one free copy of your credit repair per year from each Bureau. Experian, Equifax or Transunion. Just Google “Annual credit report” and log on to the site, once on the site you will have to request the reports one by one. Or you could order your credit report directly from each of these agencies. Each of these agencies have a 3-in-1 credit report with credit score, and it will run you about $30 bucks for it. However you do it, its important to have all 3 credit reports, if you order just one you are doing things half a$$, all the 3 credit reports will contain different information. And you want to make sure you are the one inquiring this information, if you ask your buddy at the bank to pull the credit report for you, you will be losing points on your score. Check your report throughly for inaccurate information, and since you are looking to repair your credit and improve your credit score, is good to know what your credit score is, so spent the extra buck to get your score.

Step 2. While fixing your credit, stop damaging it! You are trying to repair your credit, then stop damaging. How? Stop inquiring (applying for credit) for a while. Every time you apply for credit you lose 1-2 points from you score, and if you credit score is already pretty bad, those few points will make a difference. Also start paying your bills on time. Even if you cannot make the minimum payment, make an effort to not pay your bills late! According to the Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO scored) one late payment can lower your score as much as 60 points!!!

Step 3. Identifying inaccurate information Your credit report is divided into four sections: identifying information, credit history, public records and inquiries.
Identifying information: This is your basic information (name, addresses, Social security) Is very common to see your name, social security more than once, or spelled incorrectly. This is the way someone reported your information to the credit bureaus and it will stay there, this does not affect you.
Credit History: This is your credit history, in this section you will see your creditors, past and actual. You will see the name of the creditor, account number, when the credit was open, what type of credit (installment, or revolving) Total amount of credit or loan, high credit limit, status of account (open, closed, collection) and how well you maintain your credit.
Public Records: This is a section better off blank, here the credit agencies will list bankrupticies, judgments and tax liens.
Inquires: Inquires are divided in two scetions. Hard inquires are ones you initiated by filling out a credit application or taking a loan. Soft inquires are from companies that want to send out information to a pre-qualifed group or current creditors that are monitoring your account to make sure you are not going belly up! Hard inquires are the ones that you want to stay away while fixing your credit.

Step 4. Sending dispute letters to the credit bureaus. Now you identified some of the errors, some of the negative items might be correct but you don’t “remember” here is how to dispute these items and start fixing your credit. When sending a credit dispute letter you want to be very professional when writing the letter, sample of dispute letter or just Google it for more examples - You should also request the Credit Bureau to reply in writing with the results of the dispute. - The credit Bureaus will have 30 days from the receipt of the letter to respond to your inquire. ( when they respond here is your options) Option 1 – If they reply stating that the verified the accuracy of the account, then you send a letter disputing “their process” and demanding that they provide original documentation including a written contract with the creditor, or remove the item (changes are neither they or the creditor have the original documentation) In many cases it will only take 2 letters to get the account corrected or deleted. And everytime you send a new letter the Credit Bureau has 30 days to reply to you or they have to delete the account if they do not replied your letter with 30 days. Option 2 – The Credit Bureau did not replied with the 30 days, then simply send another letter demanding them to erase the item, state that they did not replied within the 30 days as required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act and that they are required to delete the account. In this scenario the Credit Bureau has only 15 days to remove the item or they are in violation of federal law.

REMEMBER: what make a credit repair agency successuful is just repetition, they will repete this process over and over, and the advantage to use a Credit Repair Agency is that they have trained staff that will make sure the letters are done correctly and timely, also some of these Credit repair agencies have attorneys and legal language that may get better results.
TIP: Look very throughly over your credit report, any inaccuracy will give you grounds to dispute, and remember, all items disputed must be verified by the Credit Bureau, even if is a legit negative item, Credit Bureaus must verify the information or else they must delete it!