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.

The bureaus use this as a stall tactic. Instead of actually investigating the dispute, the delay is more cost effective for them. People will most likely give up at this point and keep on paying extreme interest rates.

In time, the bureaus will investigate the mark only if another dispute letter is sent with the requested information. While investigating, the bureau will contact the lender to verify the disputed mark.

If the lender can not verify it then the bureau must remove it from your credit report. For optimal results we suggest you wait until the lender has received some form of payment for the outstanding debt. This is because lenders are often unwilling to spend the time and money verifying a debt that is no longer collectible.

For instance, the lender has no more use for a charged off credit card account that is sold to a collection agency. As a result, the lender will not take the time to verify the account when they are contacted by the bureau.

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 you will have more options to remove a mark if it is verified. Services can; request debt validation, escalated dispute information requests, creditor direct interventions, and in extreme cases an attorney can go to court and fight on your behalf.

Your credit score is a very important number, as it impacts your finances, place of employment, residence, and many more. Approximately 25% of Americans have an error on their report and is costing them money in higher interest rates.

In sum you can dispute your credit yourself through a dispute letter or by hiring a service to do it on your behalf. You can remove negative items from your report and stop paying the high cost of bad credit.