Ok, let’s be real, There is no free lunch. But you could do self credit repair. It doesn’t cost much but it does take time. Remember this process does not erase debt. If you have a lot of debt you may need to utilize other resources first. We will do an overview of how to fix your credit for you here and provide more details later.

First let’s look at how not to fix your credit. Here are a few popular examples:

Credit Sweep, This involves filing a false identity theft report. This is illegal. You could go to jail. Just don’t.
File segregation, This is applying for personal credit with something other than your social security number and establishing a new credit file. This can be an Employer Identification Number (EIN) or a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN). Get ready, if you get caught you will be eligible for free housing. (Jail) We do not recommend this route.
609 letter, This refers to the Fair Credit Reporting Act § 609. Disclosures to consumers [15 U.S.C. § 1681g]. This is the right to get your credit report information and also discusses identity fraud. It does not force anybody to delete anything. There is no magic here. Sorry.
File Suppression, when an account is disputed it is suppressed in the score algorithm until the re-investigation is complete. This worked great until the mortgage industry caught on and will not accept a score while accounts are marked in dispute.

Credit clean up. Now that we have the junk out of the way let’s get to work and do it right.

You will need to order credit reports, a tri merge is a good tool to get an overview and set your strategy. They will also provide credit scores. You will find some good options here. Evaluate the reports to see how your scores are formed and what kind of accounts you have. Then identify the accounts that are having a negative effect on your credit scores and what is contributing to a higher score. You may want to audit only the accounts that are not contributing to a higher score. You may want to do them all. That is up to you and your goals.

Remember your score is a combination of negative and positive factors. Lack of negatives alone will not build a good credit score. We have information here and resources for building a variety of positive credit lines if you determine this will benefit you. Keeping a handle on your mix of credit and utilization is important too.

Next you will go to annualcreditreport.com and order your bureau direct reports from each of the credit reporting agencies. Make sure and get all three. These reports are free, have no scores and are large and unwieldy but they contain more information to audit. These reports are vital in litigation. More information means more opportunities to identify errors. The more errors they refuse to fix the higher your damages become.

At this time you will identify the collection accounts and medical collections.

Collection accounts are regulated by different laws and may have a different process from the rest of your accounts. Go here for information on the collection process.

Next you will audit each account on all three bureaus to identify each and every error and omission on each account. You will find these within each report and by comparing one report against the others to identify discrepancies. Next you will notify the bureaus via certified mail to request a re investigation of each individual error and omission. The more you identify the better. Some of the reports do not even contain all the required data so make sure you can point out what is missing. Now the hard part, you wait for the credit bureaus and data furnishers to respond or the reports to get updated, up to 45 days.

Now the real fun begins. Order a new set of reports from annualcreditreport.com. You will first identify what errors and omissions remain on your report. Identify any accounts that may be completely corrected or deleted. Then you will determine which of the remaining accounts are eligible for arbitration and which ones will require legal counsel.

Here is where you get to decide again if you want to proceed by yourself or you want to farm this part out. I highly suggest farming this out as the cost is free to minimal and you will probably get much better results. If you wish, Consumer Credit Auditors has arbitration services and a nationwide network of qualified attorneys. These are done on contingency and will not cost you out of pocket. It is very important that the original re-investigation request was done correctly. Then pre-arbitration and settlement letters will be sent to the credit reporting agencies and the data furnishers.

Hopefully at this stage there will be an opportunity to settle. Accept your checks and admire the changes on your credit report. If not, the case will proceed to filing, go though the process and the credit reporting agencies and data furnishers will be liable for additional processing fees and legal fees on top of your damages. Then, once again, accept your checks and admire the changes on your credit report.