…Your Credit Report - Part VI
Specific steps should be taken regarding your credit report, whether you have good credit, bad credit or no credit. With the boon of technology and the information available from various sources, it is extremely important to do everything possible to limit access to your personal information.
Don’t use your social security number for identification purposes on your driver’s license, checking accounts, etc.
Get a copy of a tri-merge credit report from an independent source, ie. your bank or a mortgage company. This report will have the most complete and accurate information. The scores on this report will also be the ones looked at for most lending transactions.
Make sure that you dispute anything of question on your report. Have old information deleted from your report ie. accounts closed that are over 7 years old, derogatory credit over 7 years old with the exception of bankruptcies which are reported for 10 years.
For credit issues that you wish to dispute, send a letter to each bureau outlining the issue and why you dispute it. Attach copies of any documentation you have to support your position. Once received the bureaus have 30 days to respond to your disputed claim. If they do not respond within 30 days they must removed the derogatory credit from your report.
Remember that, even when you finally have something corrected on your report that should improve your credit scores, it can take between 30-90 for them to adjust.