Do-It-Yourself Credit Repair Kit

Many companies offer to repair your credit for a fee, but you can do the same thing yourself at no cost. You are entitled to free copies of your credit reports each year, and you also have the right to dispute information and have certain negative items removed. You can easily prepare and use a do-it-yourself credit repair kit if you know your rights and the correct process to follow. It won't cost you anything, and you may be able to boost your credit score quite a bit.

Credit Reports

The first and most important item in your do-it-yourself credit repair kit is current copies of your credit reports. The law allows consumers to request a free credit report from Transunion, Equifax and Experian every year. You must use the official website to get these reports at no cost without any other obligation. They will provide you with the information you need to use the other items in your kit.

Negative Item List

You will use your credit reports to prepare the next item for your credit repair kit: a list of all the negative and questionable items. Challenging these items is the main part of your credit repair strategy. If these items are not correct, or if the credit bureau is unable to verify them with the creditor, they must be deleted from your report. Include incorrect items on your list, and also those that may not be easily verifiable. For example, if you have an old bill with a company that has gone out of business or merged with another firm, you can dispute that as well.

List of Dispute Reasons

You will need a list of dispute reasons to match up with your negative item list. According to the Credit Info Center, you can dispute items for a wide variety of reasons. These include:

Not your account
Wrong date for late payment
Incorrect account number
Incorrect amount, balance or credit limit
Wrong creditor name
Incorrect last activity date
Incorrect charge-off date
Incorrect account status
Incorrect high credit amount

Dispute Letter Template

You will need to file disputes in order to repair your credit. You should have a basic dispute letter template that can be adapted to specific disputes and used with each of the credit bureaus. You can file a dispute against negative items if they are incorrect or if you believe they cannot be verified. Your letter can say something like the following:

Dear (Credit Bureau):

I am disputing the following items on my credit report:

(Item), (Reason for dispute)
(Item), (Reason for dispute)
(Item), (Reason for dispute)

Use this format to submit online disputes on each of the credit bureau websites. They will investigate your claims and notify you of the results. Follow up in 90 days by rechecking your credit report to make sure that the incorrect and unverified items have been removed.