How to Repair Your Credit for Free

You don’t have to pay for pricey repair services to fix your credit.

Repairing your credit isn’t as difficult as you might have been led to believe. It’s absolutely possible to fix your credit on your own — and entirely for free. Learn more about how the credit repair process, your rights, and how to avoid credit repair scams.

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What is credit repair?

Credit repair is the process of improving a person’s credit score. It’s a multifaceted process that can vary from person to person based on their credit history. There are three main categories of credit repair actions:

Correcting mistakes on a credit report
Disputing negative credit comments
Taking deliberate actions to impact credit score ranking factors positively

The impact they’ll have on your credit score can vary, as can the speed of how long credit repair takes. However, this three-pronged approach will result in sustainable and long-term credit improvement.

Will credit repair hurt my credit score?

Disputing items on your credit report is protected under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. If you think an item that appears on your report is inaccurate, you can ask the credit bureau to verify the information. They have 30 days to respond and if the information cannot be verified then it must be removed. This doesn’t hurt your credit and won’t cause your score to decrease.

Welcome, contestants, to an exciting round of the Game of Good Credit. If you’ve ever lost big in the Game of Good Credit, it can feel like you’ll never be able to win again. But if you take the right moves you can get back to winning score faster than you think.
A winning game plan often starts by cleaning up your credit report. It helps you clear the board so you can move forward effectively. Negative items can linger longer than necessary. You may have actually made some bad moves, but some negative items that show up may not be real at all.
So, the first step in your game plan should be to order your credit reports through annualcreditreport.com. Answer a few security questions, pass through the portal and access your profile from each credit bureau. After a bad credit loss, you’ll want to play through three rounds of review – one for each bureau.
As you work through each round, look for trouble spots that could set you back. Make sure those items are legitimate. But keep an eye out for errors, such as mistakes in your personal information. But take note if your report shows duplicate accounts or accounts that shouldn’t be there.
Detail any information that’s not correct: Look for late payments that you actually made on time and identify bad account statuses that might be outdated. See if there are any hard credit inquiries that you didn’t authorize.
Now you can dispute these errors to the credit bureau to have them verified or removed. They have 30 days to respond to a dispute. Once that clock expires, the item must be verified or, by law, it must be removed from your report.
This is how you clean up your credit so past issues don’t affect your current game. If you’re ever unsure of any credit rules, call the toll-free number for the bureau listed on the report. They’re required to explain any rules you don’t understand so you can play with confidence.
For more tips on how to win the Game of Good Credit, visit ConsolidatedCredit.org.

How to Repair Your Credit for Free: Step by Step Guide

Step 1: Get a copy of your report

First, you need to get your report from the reporting agencies. The U.S. has three credit bureaus – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Each maintains their proprietary copy of your report. So, you have three reports instead of just one.

You can download one, two, or all three reports through a federally mandated free website: annualcreditreport.com. If you’ve never checked your credit report, it’s best to do all three first to ensure your profile is as clean as possible. However, if you repair your credit regularly, you may do just one at a time.

To get your reports, you just need to answer a few security questions to verify your identity. Then, the portal will direct you to the right place to download your reports from each bureau. You can complete this step in about 15 minutes.

If you prefer hard copies, you can send a letter or request it by phone:

Mail to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281 Atlanta, GA 30348-5281 Phone: 877-322-8228

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Free Credit Repair: Step-by-Step Credit Report Cleaning Instructions

If you find mistakes or errors in your credit report that you need to dispute, use these free credit repair instructions to repair your credit so you can maximi…

Step 2: Review your report for errors

Next, you must review your reports to ensure accurate information. For the most part, you want to focus on any errors that appear as negative items in your report. However, other discrepancies may occur, too.

Below is everything you want to look for:

Personal information mistakes include aliases and name variations you don’t use; verify your Social Security number and previous addresses.
Payment history errors indicate that you missed payments when you made them on time.
Inaccurate balances and outdated account statuses show you have more current or delinquent debt.
Negative items that have already expired, such as bankruptcies, foreclosures, judgments, or liens, should have been removed from your file.
Hard credit inquiries that you did not authorize. There are two types of inquiries listed in your report, but you must authorize hard inquiries, and they can affect your score.
Duplicate accounts. Your credit report may list an account like a mortgage more than once. Duplicate accounts are bad for your debt-to-income ratio making it seem like you have more debt than you do. Write any mistakes you find in a list. You can use a table like this or download the PDF for a printable worksheet at the bottom of this page.

Item

Issue (missed payment made on time, duplicate account, expired penalty)

It’s important to note that some negative items listed in your report may be legitimate. If so, you can’t change them. Luckily, the penalties will eventually expire.

When Do Negative Credit Report Items Expire?

Learn how long negative items remain in your credit report to understand when penalties expire.

Welcome back, contestants, to the Game of Good Credit!
Do you have the right strategy to win? The game of good credit is easy to win with the right moves. And winning means you achieve a good credit score that helps you get approved with low rates. But some actions you take can set you back.
By law, filing for bankruptcy hits you with a penalty that sets you back 10 years from the date of filing. Except if you file for Chapter 13 – the bureaus stop the penalty after 7 years. This minimizes the setback so it’s easier to recover.
Things that happen outside your credit file can also affect your game – civil suits, court judgments and records of arrest can come up. These public records remain for 7 years from the date of entry OR as long as the current governing statute of limitations allows – whichever is longer.
Unpaid taxes can also set you back. A paid tax lien sets you back seven years from the date the lien was paid. On the other hand, if you leave a lien unpaid it can stop you in your tracks and remain indefinitely until you pay it off. That is, except in Experian’s game where the penalty for unpaid tax liens ends after 15 years.
Every time you pay on time it creates a positive space that stays on your credit forever and pushes you ahead. But each time you pay more than 30 days late, it sets you back 7 years from the date the payment was missed. And the longer a debt goes unpaid, the more it sets you back. If you let it go unpaid too long, the creditor writes off the account and changes the status to charge-off. Charge offs also set you back 7 years.
There is one exception to that rule… If you default on a federal student loan and then bring it current, any negative actions from the late payments disappear. But for all other debts, charge-offs are usually sold to collections, which creates ANOTHER trouble space that causes issues for 7 years. So, letting a debt slip into default is almost a double or triple whammy to your game.
However, don’t believe a collector if they say they have ways of ruining your credit game forever. That’s just not true. Nothing you do can get you kicked out of the credit game forever. Any penalty you encounter will only set you back. But you can offset these setbacks by taking positive actions that help you move forward. So even if your period of financial distress puts you back at Square One, you can start again and get right back in the game.
For more information on winning the Game of Good Credit, visit ConsolidatedCredit.org

Step 3: Dispute mistakes

Disputing errors is the most labor-intensive part of DIY credit repair and the most important. Types of credit report mistakes include:

Having accounts on your record that aren’t yours
Accounts that have been paid off show that there’s still an unpaid balance
Incorrect account statuses like being in default, in settlement, or closed
Information that’s no longer included on credit reports, such as medical debt under $500 or tax liens
There’s a specific process for making credit report disputes, and failing to follow proper procedure can cause your dispute to be rejected and make the process take even longer.

All complaints should be submitted in writing to the credit bureau. However, you may call the original creditor before you make the formal dispute if you want to attempt to resolve the issue quickly.

If that doesn’t work, the Federal Trade Commission offers a sample letter you can use as a template to make disputes. Include copies of documents supporting your dispute (always keep the originals for yourself). State only the facts in your letter and concisely express why you are making the dispute. Send the letter by certified mail with “return receipt requested” to verify when the bureau received your dispute.

Once received, the bureau has 30 days to respond. They will contact the original creditor or issuer of the information to ask them to verify the item. If it can’t be verified, then it must be removed. If that happens, the credit bureau will provide a free copy of your report so you can confirm the item no longer appears. You can also request the credit bureau to notify anyone who inquired about your credit in the past six months. You can also ask them to send a copy to employers who have checked your report within the past two years.

If the dispute is not resolved in your favor, you have the right to add a 100-word statement to your file explaining the issue. It’s called a “consumer statement.” However, this may not be very helpful since many creditors either won’t see or won’t read the statement. You may be better off hiring a consumer law attorney or contacting the Federal Trade Commission.

Step 4: Repeat as needed

If you have a number of mistakes in your report, you may want to include only a few disputes at a time. We recommend a maximum of five disputes in one letter. That means you may need to go through several disputes if you’ve never repaired your credit before. If you do this process regularly, then it typically takes one round at most.

In addition, it’s important to note that you must make disputes with each credit bureau individually. They do not share corrections since errors may or may not occur across all three reports. So, if the same error appears in all three of your reports, you must go through the dispute process three times.

Always keep a log of your disputes and their status. Also, keep any correspondence you receive in case you run into trouble.

Booklet

Repair Your Credit

Credit

Mistakes in your credit report can drag down your score, making it harder to qualify for financing at low-interest rates. But you have a right to review your reports each year and dispute information that you believe is incorrect. This process is known as credit repair. Learn how it works and how to repair your credit for free on your own.

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How to Avoid Getting Scammed

According to the Credit Repair Organizations Act, hiring a state-licensed attorney to make disputes on your behalf is entirely legal. However, as we mentioned at the top of this page, credit repair scams occur. The repair services industry is so fraught with scams that the Better Business Bureau doesn’t even rate repair services.

For a third party to fix your credit, they must have at least one state-licensed attorney on staff. That means a licensed lawyer to work in the state where you live. Then, you must authorize that attorney to make disputes on your behalf.

The Federal Trade Commission requires that service providers must explain:

Your legal rights in a written contract that also includes details about the services they perform
A three-day right to cancel without charges
How long it will take to get results
The total cost you must pay
Any guarantees, such as money-back offers

Recognize the signs of a repair scam!

Always thoroughly vet a service provider before you sign up or pay any fees! The following tips can help you avoid getting scammed:

Ensure the company has an attorney licensed to make disputes in your state.
Be cautious of any guarantees to improve your credit score by a certain amount; this is not something any company can guarantee.
Never take advice that sounds illegal, such as using a fake Social Security number or using an Employer Identification Number (EIN) to start a new profile.
Be wary of any upfront fees that don’t come with a money-back guarantee.

Credit Repair FAQ: Other Frequently Asked Questions

Can I make disputes directly to the original creditor?

Yes, but it’s usually advisable to go through the credit bureaus instead for most disputes. If you think the original issuer of the information made a clerical mistake and would correct the error easily, you can contact them directly.

However, the abovementioned process is the best way to ensure that disputed information is removed promptly. If you decide to make a dispute with a creditor, keep detailed records. Note anyone you talked to on the phone, with time, date, and what was discussed.

If this method doesn’t work, you can still file a formal dispute with the credit bureaus.

Can I make disputes online or by phone?

You can make disputes online. All three credit bureaus provide online portals on their websites where you can make disputes. Some people do this because it is easier than sending letters (and cheaper than certified mail).

However, we recommend making disputes by certified letter with the return receipt requested. It’s easier to keep track of correspondence, and you also know when the dispute was received. Some statistics show that letter-based disputes have a higher chance of success.

You cannot make disputes by phone, although you can request hard copies of your credit report by phone.

Does repair improve my credit score?

In many cases, yes. Removing negative items from your report often improves your score. However, that’s more of a happy side effect than a primary goal. The goal of credit repair is to ensure your report is accurate. That way, when creditors review it, you have a clean bill of credit health. This will often improve your score, too.

The critical point here is that you can’t go into repair expecting to improve your score by a certain amount. Scores are highly specific to an individual, so changes vary based on your credit history, other penalties, and where your score was before the item was removed. That’s why “score improvement guarantees” typically indicate a scam.

How long does credit repair take?

If you download your reports, review them, and send the disputes that day, you can expect it to take anywhere from 31 to 40 days. The timing depends on how quickly the bureaus receive your dispute. It will take longer if you file disputes with the same bureau in several rounds. If you have more than five disputes to make on one report, you should always send them in rounds, five at a time.

In general, if you act quickly throughout the process, you should expect to be finished with credit repair within 40 to 90 days. Even with several rounds of disputes, the process should take no more than three months. If you review and make disputes regularly, then it should take less than 40 days in total.

Should I review one credit report or all three?

According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you can download one report from each bureau once every 12 months. That means you can review and dispute any mistakes once per year for free.

If you’ve never gone through this process before, start with all three. They may not have the same information, so you want to ensure all three reports are clean. However, if you’ve done this before, you may choose to do just one at a time. That would allow you to review your credit up to three times throughout the year.

On the other hand, some people prefer to always do the three reports at once. You take one day per year to review your credit and see if you need to make any disputes. This saves you time and keeps your credit clean.

What does “verified” mean?

Verification is the key to making disputes. If an item cannot be verified, then it must be removed. That’s exactly how the law is worded, and that matters. Keep in mind that verifiable and correct are two different things. Depending on the situation, this can work in your favor or against you.

Here is an example of when verification can work in your favor: Suppose you’ve had a debt through multiple collectors. The debt has been bought and sold several times. In many cases, collectors don’t have complete information about the original debt, which is required to verify that the debt is yours for the amount they say. It must be removed if you ask a bureau to verify it and the collector can’t provide all the required information. This can sometimes get a collection account removed, even if it’s legitimately a debt you owed initially. Basically, you get off on a technicality because the collector doesn’t have complete records.
An example of when verification can work against you: Let’s say you missed a mortgage payment that you made on time because of an insurance issue. For instance, if your flood insurance isn’t up-to-date with the mortgage lender, they increase your payment requirement. If you have recurring payments set up and don’t pay attention to correspondence, then your payment won’t cover that month’s requirement. Then, they report to the credit bureau that you missed a payment even though you paid on time. Even if you correct the issue with the lender, the credit bureau may count the information as verifiable because you technically missed the payment, even though it was wrong.