I was just reading some useful 'Must Read' posts and in the 'mistakes I made' post, not being organized or losing stuff was posted. This is my small token of giving back. It is how I got organized. . . I bought a spiral notebook that had three holes (this is important later). I took my three credit reports and wrote each creditor on a different page. I then noted which CRA's had that particular item and the date at the bottom of the page. Then I just kept track of what letter I wrote (I have a system of letter based off of the samples here). When I went to the post office, I stapled each receipt to the back of the page (important because you cannot read when stapeled to the front) as I got them AS THE POSTAL WORKER COMPLETED EACH ONE so I always knew what went where. When the green card came in, I stapled that on as well, matching up the numbers. I also bought a 3 ring notebook (you can find cheap ones at goodwill) and a GOOD holepunch and lots of tab dividers. I put my spiral notebook in the front (so not to lose). Then made a tab for each creditor and CRA. Copies of letters to creditors/receipts/responses were hole punched and put behind that tab. Copies of letters to CRA/reponses behind each CRA tab. Then a tab for each time I ran my credit report with the date. If I had a loose receipt (or something I couldn't hole punch) I had some clear page covers and I put them in there. It worked for me because I could file while watching TV in the living room and wasn't trapped in the office/den or near the filing cabinet. I could take it with me to the copy place or post office. I could keep my stock of green cards and receipts in the notebook inside pocket (or clear page cover). Example Page: Example: ABC Collections EXP- Dispute sent 4/15/03 TU- Dispute sent 4/15/03 ABC Collections-Dispute/paid original creditor-sent 3/15/03 Letter Received from ABC 4/2/04 Called 4/4/04 Spoke with Fred asked for receipt 4/5/03 Faxed receipt from original creditor 4/6/03Spoke with Mike (said he was Fred's supervisor), he refused tradeline deletion, told me I must dispute. Very rude. EXP-3/3-5/15/03-Letter from Experian Deleted TU-3/3-5/12/03-Letter from TU Deleted Hope this will help at least one person!
