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By Root 636 0

every so often and asked for the credit department. I asked for supervisors, anyone who would talk to me. I would plead my case. Granted, these people have heard it all, but at the end of the day they’re humans, so the right one can help you. Some companies also will extend you a one-time courtesy of removing the first negative ding, so try that. This worked for me with Capital One. Be persistent. When in doubt with someone who won’t budge, just randomly yell out, “FCRA!,” or “Fair Credit Reporting Act!” It probably won’t do much, but it’ll make you feel like you’re fighting for the little guy (or gal), which in this case is you. My belief is that even if all of this doesn’t work, the effort you’re putting in will help justify your resolve to follow through with the “living more responsibly” plan. The point is, now you’re THINKING about this crap, where you probably never did before. That’s grown-up-ed-ness.

After that, I contacted each of the credit bureaus and filed disputes. When you receive your credit report, you will get a phone number on it to deal with this very issue. Even though I was late on the payments, creditors still have to follow certain rules for reporting, so if they make even a tiny mistake, you have a case to get something removed. The other thing you can do is ask each bureau to add a statement to each negative reporting. This statement is your chance to plead your case to anyone who accesses your credit report. “I was hospitalized” or “This is being reported incorrectly, and I’m attempting to fix it,” that sort of thing. It’s preferable that it be true, so try to make that the case. Most people don’t know that they have the right to do this, so it makes you look a little sharper than everyone else.

Once you have done all of this, make sure to go through the whole process every year at the very least. At this point, it’s a waiting game. I’ve heard that negative items can fall off anywhere between five and seven years. Truthfully, a creditor can knock it off whenever they friggin’ feel like it, but most of them just won’t. I begged some stony guy to the point of tears once to remove a ding on a closed credit card account. I was upset because I was so mad at myself for being so stupid for so many years, but I was absolutely committed to turning my life around. He coldly responded, “It is my experience that people don’t change.” It was shitty, but it strengthened my resolve, so thank you, asshole stranger, wherever you are.

Inquiries are another thing that people don’t pay much attention to but should. Any time you apply for credit, it’s recorded in the “Inquiries” section of your report. There’s also a subsection that houses inquiries made by companies out looking for suckers, but don’t worry about these. The only ones that matter happen when you are the one applying for credit. These will stay on your report for TWO YEARS, so try to keep this number limited. The more credit you apply for, the greater of a risk you appear to be. Why do you need so much credit suddenly? Are you trying to bilk some poor company out of their goods without paying? What are you buying over there? Is that a drug boat? Why are you drug boating??? These are rough and probably inaccurate examples of what a creditor might think while perusing your business.

The last bit of info you should straighten out on your report is your addresses. Creditors are likely to assume that having many addresses listed means that you’re running from something. Now, you can’t remove addresses that you’ve had that are correct, but a lot of times there are multiple variations of your addresses and sometimes at varying degrees of correctness. You don’t need two versions that say “Apt 1” and “#1,” so request that the credit bureau remove false or redundant versions of your addresses. This will help your score a tad, I’m told. Again, this stuff can be done via the contact info for each bureau on their respective credit reports. All of this stuff might feel overwhelming, but chip away little bits at a time. It took me three years, but it was a dang