Having a good credit score can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars over having a bad credit score. If you have made poor choices that have affected your credit score negatively there are options that you can do to help repair your credit score. You can choose to repair your credit on your own or you can use a credit repair company to help you repair your credit. Here are the steps to take with both of the best credit repair options.

Steps to take if you are Repairing Your Credit Yourself

Repairing your credit can often be very time consuming and it will often take a long time before you see any improvement to your credit score. The very first thing that you will want to do if you are repairing your credit yourself is to obtain your credit report from all three of the credit reporting agencies. The three credit reporting agencies are Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Legally, you are entitled to get at least one free credit report each year from each of the agencies so this shouldn’t cost you any money. You can also get a free credit report if you have recently been denied credit during a credit application. Doing this will help you know exactly what is on your credit report and what things are negatively affecting your credit score.

After you have gotten your credit reports, make a note of any of the items that have incorrect information. Anything from incorrect amounts owed, incorrect dates, or incorrect addresses can be considered incorrect information and will be used to help you dispute the debts later. You will also need to get any documentation that you might have which proves that the information reported is incorrect. Be sure to make copies of each piece of documentation that you have so that you can send those in along with a dispute letter for the credit reporting agencies which have the bad debt listed. Be as specific as possible in your dispute letter as to why you are disputing the debt and highlight any proof that you might have to make the dispute process quicker. If there are multiple cases where the bad debt is incorrect then you will need to send one letter for each debt that you are disputing.

In addition to this, write the company that claims you have the bad debt and ask them for verification of the debt. If they cannot submit proof of the debt, then they will be forced to remove the bad debt from your credit report. If the creditor does not respond to your letter within 30 days, then the credit bureaus will have to remove the negative item from your credit report.

Once bad debts have been removed from one credit bureau, check to be sure the bad debt is also removed from the other agencies.

Steps to Take to Repair Your Credit with the use of a Professional

When looking at the best credit repair companies, the first step you will need to take if you are using a credit repair company will still be to get your credit reports. Then you will still want to make a note of any disputes that you might have and gather up your documents that support your reason for disputing the bad debt. Then you will want to find a credit repair company that has a good reputation and is well established. After you have done this, the credit repair company will do the rest of the work for you.