Article by Justin Hutto
Disputing negative marks on your credit report is the most effective method of improving a low credit score. A better payment history accounts for up to 35% of your score. Disputing negative marks helps because it will show a better payment history.
You need to contact each credit bureau and send a dispute letter to dispute a negative mark. The bureau will often reply with a letter requesting more information about the item.
This is a stall tactic the bureaus use. They have found it more cost effective to delay instead of actually investigating the dispute. It is common for people to give up at this point and continue to pay outrageous interest rates.
Be persistent and send another dispute letter with the requested information. Eventually the bureaus will investigate the mark. During an investigation the lender is contacted and asked to verify the disputed mark.
If the mark can not be verified by the lender, it must be removed from your credit report by the bureau. For the best results, we suggest you wait until the lender has received a payment for the outstanding debt. Lenders normally do not want to spend money and time validating a noncollectable debt.
For example; with a charged off credit card account once the account is sold to a collection agency the lender has no more use for it. Thus when they are contacted by the bureau they will not spend the time to verify the account.
You can create a dispute letter and dispute your credit yourself or you can hire a service to dispute it for you. It is much easier to eliminate a charge off once it has been sold rather than outstanding.
The benefit of a service is that it provides you with more options to remove a mark if it is confirmed. Services can ask for creditor direct interventions, debt confirmation, escalate dispute information requests, and in severe cases, an attorney can go to court and fight on your behalf.
You credit score is a very important number. It impacts your; finances, residence, place of employment and many more. It is estimated that 25% of Americans have an error on their report and that is costing them money in higher interest rates.
In conclusion, you can remove negative items from your credit report and stop paying the high cost of bad credit. This is accomplished by disputing your credit yourself with a dispute letter or by hiring a service to do it for you.
For a free credit consultation call 1-866-246-7311.
Additionally you can visit us for free credit repair letters used to file a dispute with the bureaus or for info on how you can dispute NCO Financial a popular collection agency.
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