How to Fix a Ding on My Credit Score

Fixing a ding on your credit score may take time. There are several reasons for dings on a credit report, such as consistent late payments, delinquency and information that was erroneously put on the credit report. Paying your bills on time and paying off delinquent accounts will repair your credit. Disputing incorrect information can also help to improve your score and remove any dings on your credit report. It is important to check your credit report on a regular basis to make sure everything is accurate.

Instructions

1

Pull a free copy of your credit report. Contact the credit bureau for a copy or you can use annualcreditreport.com, which allows you to pull your reports once a year for free. There are three different credit agencies; you can pull them all at once or pull one every four months to monitor your credit more closely.

2

Look for delinquent accounts, late payments or inaccurate statements on your credit report. Each of these things can ding your credit score. Make sure you recognize each credit account listed on your credit report. If you do not recognize an account, contact the bank about the account.

3

Pay off all delinquent accounts in order to improve your credit score. You can often negotiate a lower payment amount with your creditors, but the account will show as settled instead of paid in full. This lowers your score a bit, but is better than having a delinquent account on your report.

4

Make your payments for all other loans on time. Creating a positive payment history over the next twelve months can remove any late payment reports you have had in the past. Unfortunately, the only way to fix a late payment report is to make your payments on time from now on.

5

Dispute any incorrect items on your credit report by contacting both the bank that reported the incorrect item and the credit bureau. Send a letter to the bank explaining the error and requesting that it be fixed. Calling the bank can speed up the process, but this needs to be taken care of in writing.

6

Send a letter to the credit agency and explain the problem, but if the bank does not fix the report, they will not remove the item from your credit report. Generally this letter is most effective a month after you have contacted the bank, since it will give the bank time to fix the error.

7

Keep a copy of all interactions between you, the bank and the credit agencies for any disputed claims.

8

Pull a copy of your credit report again to make sure you have repaired your score. Disputed items should be removed, delinquent accounts should be paid off and your payment history should show on-time payments.