Your credit report is reviewed if you want to buy a house, or a car, or even when you apply for a job. Many of us don’t know what is on our credit report. How old is the information? How long does it stay on your report? Is there anything you can do to remove stale or inaccurate information? Read further to find out some of the steps that you can take to Clean Up Your Credit History!

Step #1
Obtain a copy of your credit report from the major credit reporting agencies, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. Review the report with a highlighter noting inaccurate information like names, dates, addresses, creditors, and negative information, etc.

Step #2
Know your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The Fair Credit Reporting Act promotes accuracy, fairness and privacy in the reporting of consumer credit information. You have a right to know what is in your file and you have the right to dispute incomplete or inaccurate information. The reporting agency must investigate your dispute and correct or delete inaccurate, incomplete or unverfiable information from your report.

Step #3
Dispute incomplete, inaccurate or unverifiable information in writing. Follow the credit reporting agency’s procedure for disputing credit report entries. Many credit reporting agencies have forms available online for this purpose.

Step #4
Contact the Creditor or Debt Collector Directly. Provide information and/or documentation in support of your dispute. The creditor or debt collector must be able to verify the debt in order for it to remain on your credit report. Once the issue is resolved, have the Creditor or Debt Collector contact the credit reporting agencies to correct your credit report.

Step #5
File a complaint with a federal or state agency that handles consumer protection matters if the creditor won’t request that the inaccurate information be removed.

Step #6
Sue the Creditor if the creditor continues to provide inaccurate information and will not correct it. The Fair Credit Reporting Act provides for this, but creditors also have protections under this law.

If you need legal help getting your credit report cleaned up, contact the Royal Legal Group, LLC. We are here to help.