How to obtain your free Credit Report
We recommend www.annualcreditreport.com
This central site allows you to request a free credit report, once every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
While they won't usually provide you with a score unless you pay, you will be able to find out what these top three credit bureaus are reporting for you. It's very likely that they're all a little different. Creditors don't have to report to all three credit bureaus, so they typically report to the credit bureau to which they also subscribe.
What you can do on your end
1. Print a copy of your report if you can
2. Circle any errors you see on your report. This would include any current and past accounts (what’s open, what’s closed), invalid accounts (identity theft), late payment reporting history, collections and judgments. Nearly every consumer has an error on at least one credit report from one of the major credit bureaus so be thorough. Any accounts that may have been included in a bankruptcy, please make a note.
3. Now go back over your report again and prepare a list of all the credit items you determined to be innacurate. One tip might include listing these items in an order of most recent to least recent. Credit scores are impacted more by your most recent activity (last 2 years) rather than items that are in the past.
4. Prepare your next step. Disputing your credit report.
As a consumer you are entitled to one free credit report per year from each of the big 3 credit bureaus. We recommend www.annualcreditreport.com
Make sure your credit report contains all three credit bureaus so that you see ALL the accounts that are being report by your creditors (not all creditors report to all three bureaus).
Make sure you clearly identify each item from your report that, to your knowledge, is innacurate.
Circle any errors you see in your report. What you want to review:
- Account opened dates
- Dates of last activity
- Any Invalid or unknown accounts (identity theft)
- Credit limits
- Amounts owed
- Payment history; look for any accounts with a current or past late history
- Verify any collections, judgments, bankruptcies are reported accurately
Rank the items you circled in the order of damage they will cause to your credit score.
Here's a good starting point for ranking what will be most damaging to your score:
Bankruptcy
Foreclosure
Repossession
Loan Default
Court Judgments
Collections
Past due payments
Late Payments
Credit Rejections
Credit Inquiries
*NOTE: Keep in mind that negative items that are reporting activity in the last 2 years will usually have much more impact to your score.
If any of this information is incorrect you should ask for a deletion in the dispute letter which you will write next.
Your dispute letter will need to include the following:
- Your Name, Address, and Telephone number
- Your Social Security number or a clean copy of your actual credit report
- Company Name and Account number of the item you are disputing
- Brief explanation (20 words or less) why the information is innacurate
*IMPORTANT - Dont forget to also include a copy of your driver's license. If your license has a former address listed, then be sure to also send a recent bill with your name and current address on it. Otherwise, the credit bureau might send you a response letter asking you to verify your identity.
Lastly, if you have any supporting information like a paid satisfaction letter, or your bankruptcy paperwork, you'll want to include a copy of that with your letter.
You will find the mailing addresses of all 3 bureaus on your credit report.
After you send your dispute letter you can expect a couple of things. By law, the credit bureau must investigate all of your disputes with each of the individual creditor accounts you disputed.
In about 30 days or so after you send your letter, the credit bureau is required to send you their findings along with an updated credit report.
When you receive this updated report, compare their updated report with your original report. You should be able to see what accounts were updated.
Even at this point you should not give up if some or all of the items are still being reported with the same status. You are now just ready for Phase 2.
Mortgage Planning:
Andrew Luett
Chris Richter
Processing
Kym Pietrzak
Closing
Wanda Rodriguez
4619 N. Ravenswood Ave., Suite 203
Chicago, IL 60640 (map)
