Free Annual Credit Report

There are tons of companies out there that say that they can fix your credit report. While I’m sure that there are a few legitimate credit repair services out there, most simply exist to take your money and can sometimes even hurt your credit if you try and follow a quick-fix solution. Repairing your credit is an ongoing process that takes many months if not years to do properly.

Most credit repair companies will require an upfront fee to repair your credit report. THey may advice you to setup a new credit line using an employer identification number rather than your social security number. Additionally, most will advise you not to contact the three major credit bureaus.

This advice is not only unhelpful, but may be illegal in certain states. Most of the work that you need to do to repair your credit report can be done on your own and for free.

The first thing that you need to do is to get a copy of your Free Annual Credit Report. Review your report and take note of any item that is incorrect. You can dispute these markings by contacting the corresponding credit bureau or by filling out one of the dispute forms available online. The credit bureaus will usually take around 30 days to complete their check on the purported item and if they find out that you are indeed correct (or if they don’t respond at all), then they will remove the item from your credit report.

This is one of the reasons why it is important to review your Free Credit Report on a daily basis. Removing a simple negetive item or two from your credit report will have a significant impact on repairing your credit report.

Another thing that you can do to repair your credit report is to negotiate with companies and ask them to remove a few items off your credit report if you can repay that debt. Most companies are eager to improve their cash flow and will go for something like this rather than waiting around for collections to kick in.

These are just a few of the things that you can do to repair you credit report for free.

When you request your free credit report, make sure to review it carefully and take note of each record on the report that may be inaccurate or untrue. Even if the record is semi-true, you may want to dispute it as there is a possibility that it can be negatively affecting your credit report.

Be sure to read all the instructions that accompany your credit report carefully. The credit bureaus (Equifax, Transunion and Experian) will sometimes use symbols to mark up your credit report and it is easy to become confused on the notation that they use.

Here are some of the steps that you can take to remove negative entries on your credit report:

1. Write down a list of the inaccurate entries that are listed on your credit report.
2. Call up the credit bureau that issued you the report and tell the appropriate person that you are planning to dispute one of your credit report entries.
3. Make sure not to be dissuaded by the person on the other end of the line in regards to disputing your credit report.
4. Ask the person that you are speaking to to issue you a ‘Dispute Form’
5. Complete the ‘Dispute Form’ when you receive it and return it to the appropriate credit bureau by certified mail.
6. After the credit bureau receives the dispute form, they must verify the information that you provided with the bank, lender or creditor that was responsible for listing the entry.
7. The credit bureaus usually take between 30-45 days to review your request and make a decision.

This technique will work for eliminating negative entries because most creditors don’t hang onto old files and it will make it difficult for them to dispute your request. Additionally, past creditors usually don’t care to waste their time verifying the accuracy of your credit report.

That is the basis of why credit repair companies are so successful: they know that by creating a flood of challenges to the credit bureau, creditors would become frustrated and simply appove the request. If you are interested in repairing your own credit report, we recommend taking a look at Credit Report Counseling, as they offer a free, no-hassle credit consultation.

There are tons of companies out there that say that they can completely wipe out your debt and fix your free annual credit report and repair your negative credit history. While, challenging your credit report is legal, creating a brand-new credit report is not and you should pay attention to any company that says that they can do this for you. Despite that fact, there are new scam artists that are saying that they can create a new credit report and history for you in 30 days. Do not fall victim to these statements as they against the law and can actually hurt your free annual credit report as well..

These ‘credit repair’ companies make their profit by selling info on how consumers can replace federal employee id numbers (EINs) or taxpayer identification numbers for their own social security number and use this to build up a new credit report history. These companies call this process file segregation and claim that it is a legal way of restoring your free credit report. However, anyone that knows the knows that using a false id number to apply for credit is a felony and can face jail time for using this in attempts to repair their credit.

Another practice that these credit repair companies may try is to instruct consumers to use a different first or last name to apply for a driver’s license. This, again, is illegal and can put the person performing the act behind bars.

While it is acceptable that a consumer would want to repair their poor credit history and create a new credit file, people should exercise caution when approaching companies that advertise a magic credit fix. As the saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, then it is (certainly in the world of free credit reports and credit repair). Falsifying any information to correct your negative credit history is a felony and should be avoided, period.

Building Good Credit

One of the most important aspects of leading a successful financial life is to Build Good Credit. If you are married, separated or divorced, and most of the credit you obtained is in your spouse’s or exspouse’s name only, you should start to get credit in your name too. Getting credit in your own name is also an excellent strategy for repairing your credit if:

• All or most of your financial problems can be attributed to your spouse, or
• You and your spouse have gone through financial difficulties together, but most credit was in your spouse’s name only. In order to understand how this works, you first must learn about which of your spouse’s accounts can appear on your report. Here are the rules:
• Credit bureaus must include information about your spouse’s account on your free annual credit report in two situations: (1) you and your spouse have a joint account (that is, you both can use it), or (2) you are obligated (responsible for paying) on an account belonging to your spouse, even if your spouse is the primary signer or obligor on the account.
• Credit bureaus cannot include information about your spouse’s account on your credit report if the account is not joint and you are not responsible for paying the account.

  This is usually good news if you are worried that your spouse’s negative credit history may reflect badly on you—delinquent accounts in your
  spouse’s name only should not appear on your credit report. However, if you are now divorced or separated and had relied primarily on your spouse to obtain credit, so that most loans and credit cards were in your spouse’s name only, you won’t have a lengthy history of good credit in your report. You now need to start building good credit in your own name. If you are still married, you can start by making sure that all joint accounts and accounts that you are obligated to pay appear on your credit report too.

  This is just a quick overview of some of the ways that you can go about building credit in your own name. Stay posted for more information on ways to restore your credit and keep your Free Annual Credit Report in good standing.

Free Credit Report Repair

Given the unsteady nature of the economy where losing ones job is a very scary, but real possibility, what can you do to protect yourself and your credit history? The easiest and best way is to build up a decent nest egg of savings to help ride out the downtimes that may get in your path. However, this is difficult for a lot of people to do. While this blog does not focus on Credit Repair, there are may books and resources out there that focus extensively on this type of situation. Instead, we will focus on ways to protect your credit rating and decrease your expenses during the difficult times.

If you have ever gotten laid off, fired or lost your income in one way or another, you should contact everyone who you own payments to. Call your credit card companies, your auto loan lender, the bank that issued you your home mortgage, your utility and phone company, etc. You should ask to speak with a credit manager or consult at each of these places. Explain your current situation and ask if you can be put on alternate plans or possible skip a few payments. You could say something along the lines of “I just was laid off from my job and don’t have an income. Its going to take some time for me to get a new job and get back on my feet. Is there my way I can skip a few payments until I get that new job and can
start paying you again?”

Discuss your options with the lender. Some won’t be able to bargain with you while others may give you a few month grace period for payments. You don’t know what you can get until you ask. After calling them all, you now know what bills you have to pay and what ones can wait for several months. If your unemployment and savings can cover the “must
pay” bills, your credit rating will stay healthy. And, if you find that replacement job in time, your good credit rating is preserved, just as though there were no financial crunch. Be sure to keep an eye on your Free Annual Credit Report during these times to ensure that no negative marks are being accumulated.

With this disaster planning and a bit of luck in the job market, you will get through these troubles with your good credit intact. And, if things don’t work out well and it
takes a bit longer than expected to get back to work, this method will at least minimize the damage done to your credit rating. And this will make the subsequent
cleanup of your Credit Report much easier to accomplish.