1.
A black permanent
marker,
2.
A copier,
3.
Envelopes,
4.
Stamps,
5.
A telephone.
1.
Call all 3 credit
reporting agencies and order your credit report—it is free. Your order will be automated.
Transunion: 1-877-322-8228
Equifax: 1-877-322-8228
Experian: 1-877-322-8228
2.
When you get your
reports make a copy (front and back) of each report.
3.
You will notice
that all of the creditors are in long strings across the long part of the page.
4.
The ‘good’
reports are usually the first ones reported (but not always, you will have to
scrutinize each report).
5.
Do not do
anything with the good reports.
6.
When you come to
the ‘bad’ reports you will want to do one of the following:
a)
If it is for late
payments it will show 30, 60 or 90 days late…..if it shows 30 days late you
will take your black permanent marker and write across the entry “NEVER 30 DAYS
LATE” or enter the number of days that it states payment has been late.
b)
If it shows that
you are in default of payments you will write across the entry “NOT MINE”.
c)
If it is a notice
of federal tax lien, write “NOT MINE”.
7.
By writing this
across the entry forces the reporting agency to verify that it is yours or that
it was late.
8.
If you have
several ‘bad’ entries, do not do all of them at once, pick 3-5 for each
mailing.
9.
Make a copy of
what you send for your records. (This
will prove to be an important step as it will let you know what you have
already done.)
10.
You only need to
enclose the page(s) of the corrections you have made for mailing back to the reporting
agency, no cover letter or cover page is necessary.
11.
The reporting
agency will send you an updated report within 30 days and either strike it
altogether, or they will state that it is verified to be correct.
12.
If they say it is
verified do the same thing that you did the first time and send it back.
13.
Each agency has
several addresses, so send to different addresses if you need to follow up with
another mailing.
14.
Understand that
they cannot verify since they have no first hand knowledge of who you are.
15.
There may be
other names on your report, make sure that you write through them “NOT ME”.
16.
You may have to
take some time with this, but it will eventually clean up your entire report.
17.
Be diligent and
even if you find you must send in for the same ones several times, they will
eventually take it off.
18.
Note: Each agency
has several addresses, pick any one for the first mailing and thereafter you
may want to choose a different address.
Transunion: 1-800-916-8800
1561
E. Orangethorpe Ave., Fullerton, CA 92831
PO
Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834
PO
Box 1000, Chester, PA 19022
PO
Box 2000, Chester, PA 19022
Equifax: 1-800-685-1111 or 1-866-222-5881 for CA
PO
Box 105873, Atlanta, GA 30348
PO
Box 105167, Atlanta, GA 30348
PO
Box 105888, Atlanta, GA 30348
PO
Box 105252, Atlanta, GA 30348
PO
Box 105379, Atlanta, GA 30348
PO
Box 105873, Atlanta, GA 30348
PO
Box 740256, Atlanta, GA 30374
Experian: 1-800-311-4769
PO
Box 2104, Allen, Texas 75013
PO
Box 2002, Allen, Texas 75013
PO
Box 9595, Allen, Texas 75013
PO
Box 9530, Allen, Texas 75013
PO
Box 1017, Allen, Texas 75013
I also have a lot of other interesting ways to combat the fraudulent system that do work,included in my information package.