Is do it yourself credit repair really doable? You have seen the ads. They are everywhere from your local newspaper to TV, bill boards, signposts in your neighborhood and virtually everywhere else, and of course on the internet. They promise “professional credit repair”. But are they really worth it?

Let me let you in on just one fact; there is nothing anyone can do for you to repair your credit that you can’t do yourself. This is not to say that there are no legitimate credit repair services out there. But what they can do for you for a fee, you can do yourself for free.

So, save yourself some money and start learning the strategies for fixing your credit report now.  May I add that credit repair services don’t come cheap, and there are no guarantees for results? Even worse, there are many scam companies out there.

So how do you go about repairing your own credit?

The first thing you need to do is get your credit file (also known as credit report) from each of the three major credit reporting agency (or bureau for that matter). Now, you are entitled to a free report from each bureau each year, but I would advise you not to use this. Why?

You see, your free annual report comes from a center created by the bureaus to provide free reports. This means that you will most likely get a merged report from all the three major credit bureaus. The problem with this is that you will not be able to tell exactly what has been reported to each bureau. Why is this important?

Well, this is important because you will need the details on each and every account, find any errors or omissions and use these to get them removed. Some errors or omissions may appear in all the three reports, others in one or two. So it is extremely important to look at every report separately.

This is another reason that you should not use the reports you get from say a mortgage company unless they are separate for each bureau. However these reports (from a creditor) are extremely important as they often contain more information than what you will get on your own.

It is therefore advisable to purchase your reports individually from each bureau.

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you have the right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information on your report. Fortunately or unfortunately errors happen more times than the credit reporting bureaus would like you to believe. You want to dispute any errors on accounts (also know as trade line) with negative information.

Some things to look at are dates of delinquency, duplicated accounts, missing dates or names of creditors, possible re-aging (sticking newer dates to old accounts), and discrepancies in amounts reported. There are many more reasons you can dispute a negative credit report than can be fit in one article.

When writing your dispute letter(s), make sure you are specific about what you want done and ask for it. If you want a deletion of the account, say so. Ditto if you want a correction. And oh, don’t go copying dispute letters you find online as these could get flagged and cause your dispute to be dismissed.

Warning: When disputing information on your credit report you want to be sure that it has a reasonable chance of success. Credit bureaus give a new date to each unsuccessfully disputed trade line, which is devastating to your credit score. This however does not change or affect the date of delinquency, date or last action or the date the item is supposed to get off your report (example, the seven years for negative notations and collections).

Do it yourself credit repair is much more complex than can be fit into any one article. Check out top rated credit repair programs and find out tips and strategies banks, bureaus and debt collectors don’t want you to know.

Related posts:

1. Clearing a Credit Report of Negative Information
2. Credit Repair, Remove Negative Items: Can It Be Done?
3. Credit Repair for the Regular Guy: Some Dos and Donts
4. 8 Steps to Fix Your Credit Report
5. Quick Credit Repair: Simple Steps for Raising Your Credit Score