credit reports, 3 agencies, wh

RE: credit reports, 3 agencies

Ender,

For TU go to www.creditability.com
For Equifax/CSC go to www.equifax.com

Both sites offer direct from the CRA to you reports. No middle man.

Does anyone has a good suggestion for Experian? Their new direct to consumer site is not up yet....

Ender Wiggin wrote:
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Hi, my goal is to repair my bad credit within a 1 year period. There are many derogatory marks on my credit records, from 30,60,90 day late payments, many chargeoffs, and many collection agencies.

My initial plan is to write both the CRA for disputes (1 to 2 items each letter) as well as the collection agencies themselves challenging the debts (using Marie's letters, 1-3).

First however, I would like to obtain the 3 reports. What do you guys recommend? Where should I order these and where is the least expensive to get them in a timely fashion? Are the online ones just as good as the ones through mail? Also, how about the 3 in 1 merged reports? Are those recommended at all?

Secondly, when I dispute the items on my CR and send stuff to CRA, I should only dispute 2 items at post per letter, right? Also, can I send out 10 letters disputing 2 items per letter, which would be 20 letters or will this be too much? Do I just need to dispute 2, wait and keep doing that?

T....

 

RE: credit reports, 3 agencies

Transunion: (800)916-8800 business hours 8:30am - 4:30 pm

OR

Transunion Consumer Relations
PO Box 2000
Chester, PA 19022-2000


Equifax:

1-800-685-1111 or

Equifax
PO Box 105518
Atlanta, Ga 30348

Experian:

1-888-397-9742

OR

EXPERIAN
NCAC
PO Box 9595
Allen, TX 75013

Good Luck!

roni

 

RE: credit reports, 3 agencies

Ender,

Both TU and Equifax's site do charge. The reports are instant and online. Equifax lets you buy just one. TU makes you get a year membership w/credit monitoring. It can be a good value....but it depends on how you are going abou things. TU allows online disputes as well...that can be nice.

 

Free reports if you

You can have a free report from each bureau if you live in:
Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Vermont

$3.00 for Maine and Minnesota
$5.00 for Connecticut
$8.00 for California
$8.50 for all other states

You also qualify for a Free report for:

Persons that are unemployed and intend to apply for employment within 60 days;

Persons receiving public welfare assistance;
Persons who believe their consumer file contains inaccurate information due to fraud; and

Persons that have been the subject of adverse action, such as denial of credit or insurance, within the past 60 days.

 

Get one report from each burea

If you get a merged report you won't be certain which errors/ derogatory issues are on which report.

Get your reports. Highlight (I made a copy of each report and highlighted the copies) the true errors with one color, then look throught the entries that are technically yours and look for things that are wrong:
wrong amounts, wrong opening date, wrong charge off date.

Each error on every entry you can eventually dispute. I used a spreadsheet for each bureau and I tracked my progress. Be careful to ONLY dispute accounts on each bureau. For example, if ABC collection only shows up on Equifax, obviously dispute it only with Equifax. Not Transunion or Experian. I've actually heard of people putting negative info on their reports by disputing an item with the wrong bureau. dumb. Also, since you're new at this, you may only want to dispute via mail. If you call in they sometimes ask a lot of questions and if you're nervous you might inadvertantly say the wrong thing (and confirm your own entry).

As to how many issues per bureau. There are differing opinions here. NOT 2 items per 10 letters all sent out at once. Just think about the logic. If you work at the bureau, and you got 10 letters in 1 week from the same guy with 2 disputes each... obviously he's trying to fix his credit and not get caught. They keep up with this on the computer (they know you have a running dispute).

Now, here's a good tip. One way bureaus verify entries is by matching the address to the entry. For example, if you lived at a previous address and had lots of bad credit, first write the bureaus and tell them that the old address is incorrect. You could still dispute 2 more things. Addresses aren't a big deal.

That way, when you dispute tradelines and they go to verify: the addresses don't match. That helps. If the creditor isn't using your SSN you have a good shot of removal.

Normally, 2-3 items per dispute per bureau. Wait until it's complete (they'll send you an updated copy of your report with the results).

Hope this helps. There are a few really good sources of basic credit repair you may want to check out.

http://www.carreonandassociates.com/

has a lot of free and great advice. they also
have a book you can download that's inexpensive and worth every penny. YOu can download it and start reading tonight. It'll answer your more basic questions and help you understand the whole process.