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How to Remove Negative Information on Your Credit Report

Published on June 30, 2022
by Contributor, Kit Elliott

Now that we're in a recession and the economy is in the crapper, let's start working on improving your credit score. It’s important to periodically review your credit report, no matter how good your credit is and remove any negative or inaccurate information from your report.

Credit Repair

Doing this on an annual basis will ensure that there are no mistakes on your report, and any time you are planning to apply for credit or a loan, it’s best to have another look, just to make sure things are accurate.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act says that you are entitled to a free annual credit report. You can request one directly from each of the credit agencies or you can go to FreeCreditReport.com and create an account. I requested mine and now, it updates within their backoffice.

You can also go to TransUnion & create your account with them. They have a credit monitoring solution that alerts you when anything is posted or anything changes within your credit report. Click here to create your account.

Address and Phone of the Credit Bureaus

Credit Bureau	Mailing Address	Phone Number	BBB Rating
TransUnion	P.O. Box 1000 Chester, PA 19022	1-800-916-8800	A-
Equifax	P.O. Box 740241 Atlanta, GA 30374-0241	1-800-685-1111	A
Experian	P.O. Box 2104 Allen, TX 75013-0949	1-888-397-3742	B+

Important Tip: If you find yourself in a situation where you cannot pay your bills, and you feel bankruptcy is a viable option, note that this does not fare well for your credit report and will stay on the report for 10 years.

Let's start looking for any errors or inaccurate information. Removing any inaccurate negative information will boost your credit score. Also if you need help with repairing your credit, we recommend The Credit Pro's (the fastest growing credit repair company)

If you see something not right on your report, these are the best things to do to remove negative items from your credit report.

Send a Dispute to the Credit Bureau.

dispute letter template for credit agencies

If you see an error, contact the credit bureau online or by mail immediately and describe the error. To submit the dispute online, follow the corresponding credit bureau’s online instructions.

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To submit by mail, send a letter describing the error and submit copies of any proof you have. They will look into the matter and remove the error if their findings correlate with your dispute, or contact you with more information.

Dispute Letter Template for the Credit Bureaus

Here's a dispute letter template showing exactly what the credit bureaus need to dispute and remove an item from your credit report.

Use this dispute letter template to send to the credit agencies to clean up your credit report. Click To Tweet

Submit a Dispute with the Business that Reported to the Credit Bureau.

If you feel that you were charged in error with any business, this may be the best place to start. Be it a service business, a credit card issuer, bank or debt collector.

If you make the dispute in writing (online or by mail), they are required by law to investigate the situation, just as the credit bureaus do. When the business determines that there is indeed an error, they are required to alert the credit bureau to remove any inaccurate or false information from your credit report.

You can also download a free credit repair app that will locate any errors and dispute them for you.

Pro Tip: If an items is still incorrect after a dispute, then, send the same letter every six months letting them know that you want accurate information and point out the inaccuracies in your report. I did this for two years during college & boosted my score 200 points.

Credit Report Limit to Remove Negative Info

Another tactic is to simply wait out the time limit imposed on your credit report. For any late payments or other similar blemishes to your credit, seven years is the length of time these negative issues stay on your report. For any bankruptcies, the limit 10 years. And the older the negative information become, the less impact it has on your credit.

Personally, I would rather start a side hustle and use that money to pay off all my debt. There are many side hustles you can start right now to make some fast cash.

You could find a freelance job or make money blogging. You could become a freelancer on Fiverr and turn your skills into money.

Pay to Delete Negative Information from Credit Report

If you have a severely delinquent loan or credit card, you may be able to negotiate a fair pay-off amount with your creditor in exchange for having the negative details removed from your credit report.

This works for some creditors, so it is worth a shot if you can come to some sort of agreement with them. If you need to make more money, consider one of these side hustles to put more money in your pocket.

My friend works for a collection agency and negotiates $200,000 balances for $20,000 or even $2000. It can be done, and it's all negotiable.

Of course, having more money solves most problems.

Here are five additional ways you can search our site to find ways to make more money.

Get your current credit report today and check things over carefully. It will give you piece of mind the next time you apply for that loan or credit card.