Increase Your Credit Score, One Dispute At A Time!

One of the best ways to increase your credit score is to dispute errors on the report. If the credit bureau cannot prove that a negative piece of information is accurate, they are legally bound to remove that information from your report – read that again! – THE CREDIT BUREAU needs to prove that the information is accurate. If they can’t, they have to remove the item.

But be very careful – do not just climb in and start disputing. Credit Bureau staff (like most of us!) are overworked and underpaid, and they receive tons of mail. You need to make sure that YOUR dispute is not just going to be ignored, or even worse, dismissed as being “frivolous”.

Here are a couple of tips to make sure that your dispute will be taken seriously:

1. Do not dispute items that will make no difference to your credit score, even if they are inaccurate. An example of this is where the account type is not right, although the payment amounts are. Correcting this will make no difference to your credit score and will just irritate the bureau, possibly making them dismiss your claim. You then run the risk of all your other disputes being put into the same category!
   Make sure that you have the documentation to back up your claim. Yes, the burden of proof falls on the credit bureau, however, they can still refuse to remove the negative item, or simply fail to do it through negligence or the fact that they are simply overworked and ignoring your letter. In that case you have legal recourse and can sue them for neglecting to lawfully correct an error.
   Do not ever use a dispute letter format that you have copied from the Internet or out of a book. The bureaus know the formats and they will automatically assume that you do not know what you are doing, giving them reason to ignore you (they will just tell you that the negative piece of information is accurate) or dismiss your claim. Make sure that your letter is clear and concise – if you write a confusing or disjointed letter, they can easily dismiss it.
   Remember to include COPIES of your supporting documentation – not the originals!
   Be courteous and polite – aggression will only get your claim dismissed that much faster!

Raise your credit score by having a good debt-to-credit ratio

Another way to raise your credit score is… by having access to more unsecured loans! Yes, it does sound counter-intuitive, but this is how it works:

Your credit score will automatically be higher if you have access to more lines of credit that you are not actually using. In other words, if you have 2 credit cards that together give you a potential of $8000 credit, but you only use $2400 of that credit, it means that your debt to credit ratio is 30%. This is a good figure to aim for. What can you do if you, like most of us, have maxed out your credit card or credit cards? The answer is simply to either a) raise the limits on your existing cards, or b) to get a new card.

Now, if your credit score is bad, or if you have been defaulting on paying the minimum amount on your credit card then the credit card company might be loath to increase your limits. Your recourse then is to try and get access to another credit card or another form of unsecured loan (meaning, a loan that is not secured by some form of fixed asset such as a car, or a house).

Click here to download and read 37 Days to Clean Credit – the all in one encompassing guide that will give you this information and much more!