Five Steps to Improve Your Credit

For many, improving credit is an important step towards a chance at some of the most important aspects of everyday life. Good credit is vital if you want to own a good car, a good house, or any other major purchase. Like millions of people in America, you might have a few issues with your credit report; here are a few hot tips that can lead to improvement:

Step One: One of the best things you can do in your efforts to improve your credit is to learn your rights. Laws protect you as a consumer, and thus your credit score as well. You need to be familiar with those laws and your rights to improve that score. Policies of all sorts are in place that regulate everything from criteria regarding rejection to the ways a collection agency is allowed to go after late payments. If you're unaware of your rights, you'll find it difficult to insist on the proper steps that are in place to help you. Confusion is the enemy.

Step Two: The three major credit bureaus (TransUnion, Experian and Equifax) are required to provide you with a free copy of your credit report once a year, at your request.

Step Three: Once you have the credit report in-hand, go over it in miniscule detail. File a report for each and every negative item immediately. Any negative item must be investigated by the bureau: if they don't verify it within 30 to 45 days, the item must be removed! There are many reasons creditors refuse to verify information, which is great news for anyone trying to improve their credit. Better still, file your disputes when the credit business is busiest to help ensure there's less chance of verification.

Step Four: For certainty's sake, send every dispute form by certified mail (which only costs a few dollars extra) and request return-receipt. Make sure your records are extremely detailed, covering dates, times, names, every single minor step along the way. You want this process to be rife with delays and it will only help if you can make yourself as difficult as possible for them to deal with. Just one person failing in the verification-chain on their end, that's all it will take to get the negative mark cleared off your record.

Step Five: 30 to 45 days after you've sent in your dispute, get another copy of your report. Pay for it this time if you have to! Review it from top to bottom and start making phone calls about why unverified information hasn't been removed; it had plenty of time, after all. Dispute anything that remains, over and over and over again, until they get tired of dealing with you. Don't give up, because the reward for your persistence is an improved credit score!

In truth, it isn't difficult to improve your credit score, not really. It's as easy as getting your report, disputing everything negative, and repeating those steps until you get the results you want. Pay attention to every little detail and keep strict records, and you'll be well on your way to the better score that you want.