Regardless of your record or history, there are a number of quick & easy steps you can take towards credit repair. It’s never too late, and costs nothing, yet the results can be huge!

You can begin by ordering a copy of your credit reports, going through them, and understanding them. There are three different credit reporting bureaus, and each one may have slightly different information.

By law, consumers are entitled to one free credit report from each of the these agencies, TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. You can get one from each agency, each year.

There is a website set up by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) specifically for this purpose: annualcreditreport.com. Be leery of any other sites claiming free credit reports – there will be strings & fees attached.

You can begin your credit repair efforts once you have your reports in hand. You will want to go through them carefully, line by line.

Along with the report, you will get a “dispute” form – or an address where you can get it. This is where your initial credit repair efforts will focus.

Make a note of each and every entry that is either incorrect, outdated, or inaccurate. For each of these, you will be filing a dispute. You will want to list why the entry should be removed, such as a debt that has already been paid but hasn’t yet been removed.

By federal law, the credit reporting bureaus have up to 30 days to verify each dispute. If they don’t do so, or don’t do it within the 30 days, they must remove those entries from your credit report.

This simple step can remove many of the negative strikes against you, and they will no longer count towards lowering your credit score. In many cases, this can lift your score by up to hundreds of points!