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101 Powerful Tips for
Legally
Improving Your Credit Score
Dealing With Your Credit
Report to Deal With Your Credit Score
Page 1 of 2
If you want to improve your
credit score, you need to go right to the source - your credit
report. Your credit report contains the information and data on
which your credit score is based. If you can alter or update
the information in your credit report, your credit score will
change to reflect the alterations. For this reason, getting and
checking you credit report is one of the first things you should
do when you attempt to repair your credit score. There are a
few tips that can help you deal with your credit report so that
you can give your credit score a boost:
Tip #19: Dispute errors
on your credit report
Contact each of the three
major credit bureaus - TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian - and
get copies of your credit reports and credit scores. Carefully
read over the reports and note any errors. In writing, contact
the credit bureaus and ask that mistakes be removed or
investigated.
This is called a dispute
letter and once it is received, credit bureaus have to
investigate your dispute within thirty days of receiving your
letter. It is important to keep a copy of your letter and it is
important to note the date the letter was sent. You should not
be accusatory or abusive in your letter - calmly and clearly
state the problem and request an investigation.
Note that you are aware the
agency is required to investigate the claim within thirty days
and note that you will follow up. Be sure that you do follow up
with the issues you raised in your letter - just because the
agency investigates does not always mean that your credit report
will end up error-free.
Many credit bureaus now make
it possible for you to correct errors on your credit report
online - and many have information on their web sites that tells
you exactly how disputes must be handled to be effectively
removed. It is important that you follow this information
exactly so that the inaccuracies on your credit report are
removed promptly and your credit score is updated as soon as
possible.
Tip #20: Add a note to
your credit report if there is a problem you can’t resolve
Sometimes, there are
legitimate reasons why you didn’t pay a bill. If a contractor
refused to finish a job or did a poor job, then you may have
refused payment, but the non-payment may still count against you
on your credit report. If there are any unusual circumstances
surrounding your credit report that may affect your credit
rating - such as a case of identity theft - you can ask that a
note be attached to your credit report to explain the problem.
Some lenders will pay
attention to this and some will not, but it is a better solution
than nothing at all. Such a note will not affect your credit
score but will affect your credit report. More importantly, it
leaves a paper trail of the problem that lenders can look at if
they choose.
Tip #21: Make sure you
know who is looking at your credit report and why
Many inquiries look bad on
your credit report, but more than that you likely want to know
who can see your personal financial information, now that you
know that your personal information is stored in a credit
report. If you sign a document with a lender or apply for
credit online, you can be sure that someone is looking at your
credit report.
However, you may want to
look over other documents in order to see who is taking a peek.
Insurance agents will often look at your credit report, for
example. Some landlords and potential employers will, too. You
need to be careful about online sources, too. In general, when
you provide someone with your social insurance number, you may
be giving permission to look at your credit report. You
shouldn’t bar people from looking, but knowing who is looking is
good financial practice.
Tip #22: Know the
difference between soft and hard inquiries
When you pull your credit
report to look at it, it is counted as a “soft inquiry.” Only
“hard inquiries” from lenders will affect your credit score
dramatically. Although checking your credit score too often is
an expensive habit, you should not avoid checking your credit
report because you fear it will make your credit rating
worse.
Tip #23: Contact
creditors as well as credit bureaus when correcting inaccuracies
in your credit report
When debtors find mistakes
on their credit report, they often only contact the credit
bureaus. While this is the most effective way to resolve the
issue, you should in some cases contact the creditors whose
account has caused a ding on your credit report. This can help
future dings and resolve problems faster.
Consider an example: Let’s
say that you were late sending a credit card payment two months
ago because you were sick. The late payment is listed as a ding
on your credit report even though you have paid it already. You
should contact the credit bureau in order to get the error
removed.
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