Credit Score Not Makin' the Grade?

Here are some helpful tips to improve your credit score!

1. First and most important, find out what is being reported about you. There are three major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and Trans Union).
2. Check the back of each report you receive, you'll find an explanation of the codes used in the file. Study these codes so that you'll know which accounts you need to concentrate on most while you're performing each step of the credit repair process.
3. The first items to search for are what are knows as "charge-offs". This means that the creditor has given up on trying to collect the debt and they have written it off as a loss. You can not repair your credit without getting these items removed from your credit report.
4. Contact each creditor that has charged off a loan asking for re-instatement.
5. Next, search for late payment entries. These are usually pretty easy to clear up. Just contact the creditors and and explain why you had difficulty making your payments on time. Ask the creditors to remove the late payment entries after you have made timely payments for a period of time, say 90 days. Most will.
6. Judgments will need to be removed next. You'll have to pay off these loans in full in order to do so. Contact the lender and make arrangements to pay off the amount due with an arrangement (in writing) that the judgment will be removed and the account reported as closed after a full payment is made.

*Provided by Holly Rice, Lawyers Title Agency of Washington