It is possible to remove wrong items from your credit report to help improve your FICO score. It is also possible to do it without the use of a credit repair company. You can do the same thing the credit repair companies do with little or no cost to you. You must be very careful when using credit repair companies as you might do more damage then good if you do not use a reputable company.

So the first step to improving your FICO score is to get a true copy of your credit report. You can get a copy of your credit report from www.annualcreditreport.com. Do not use one of the other services that are looking to add monitoring service and charge you.  If you do not have a computer you can still get a copy of your report by calling 877-322-8228. If you go to any of the service bureau’s you will see free all over their sites and you can get a 30 day trial but they are not free. This is not the place where you would want to get your FICO score as they do not offer the true FICO score they offer FACO scores.

Remember to get your true FICO score you need to go to http://www.myfico.com/ as these are the people that invented the FICO score.

Once you receive the report you will need to review the report for inaccuracies. Our lender partner will gladly review the report with you and help you determine the validity of the items reported. These reports are not the easiest to review. So now that you reviewed the report you find that there are mistakes?

So you have found a problem how do you dispute it? First step is to write to the credit bureaus including the information from the credit report. Within five days of receiving a written dispute they should respond. The supplier of the credit information then has 30 days to respond to the dispute.

There is also a website where you can file disputes.  It is run by the federal reserve and can be found here  at https://www.federalreserve.gov/creditreports/ This site has some good information on how to file a dispute for any of the credit bureau. We can get any information needed from teh free credit report we received from www.annualcreditreport.com. So now you fixed and removed the mistake.

Now the last step is to get a secured credit card. Establish credit and make payments on time. You should see an improvement in your FICO score within six months as long as there are no other issues. Make sure the card reports to all three credit bureau’s.

If you find that your situation is over whelming you can contact The National Foundation for Credit Counseling. We are not a credit repair company and you should beware that not all supposed credit repair companies are legit. There is nothing these companies can do that is different then what is described here and it won’t cost you.