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Mortgage lenders
generally check with three credit bureaus in order to evaluate your
past payment history. Your goal in cleaning up your credit report
should be to clean up each of the three bureaus. If you only work on
one, this does not effect the reporting to the other bureaus.
Get A Copy of Your Credit
Report
The first step is to
get a copy of your merged credit report, which shows all three of the
major bureaus, Experian (formerly TRW), Equifax (formerly CBI), and
Trans-Union. Most mortgage lenders will obtain data from all three of
these bureaus in analyzing your credit history. The exception is that
some portfolio lenders (usually adjustable rate lenders) may only
review one.
What to Say When
You Call Your Creditors
There are two efforts
that must be made. First, call any creditors reporting a negative and
ask them to remove the negative item. Ask in a nice calm voice and do
not get upset when they say no. Simply repeat your request over and
over in your nice pleasant voice. If you get nowhere, then ask to
speak to the supervisor. Make sure you keep a log of your
conversation, noting the date, time, who you spoke to and what they
said. Repeat this procedure over and over. In a high percentage of
cases, it works.
Get Written
Confirmation of Agreements
Be sure to ask for a letter by mail or fax that
shows the creditor is correcting the negative information. You may
need this letter for two reasons. First, they may not actually make
the changes. With the letter, you can appeal directly to the credit
bureau and they will make the correction. Second, if you are applying
for a mortgage before the changes actually hit the credit bureau’s
report, your lender will need this documentation.
If you have a charge off or collection account that
shows as unpaid, don’t just send them a check and pay it off. Call the
creditor on the phone, explain that you have the funds to pay the
account in full, and calmly explain why it should not have been
reported on your credit in the first place. Then ask if they will
provide you a letter deleting the account entirely from all credit
bureaus if you pay off the account. Try to get them to fax it to you.
As before, be sure to document all of your telephone contact and
always keep a nice pleasant tone in your voice. In a large percentage
of cases, this also works.
Disputing the
Report -- When Your Creditor Will Not Remove an Item
There will be cases
when the creditor does not agree to remove the negative credit item.
If it is an item that is definitely not yours, call the credit bureau
immediately (except for Equifax, who only responds by mail). When on
the telephone, do not discuss any negative items that are accurate. Do
not discuss any items that may be accurate in general but have some
small error in detail that you can dispute by mail. Once you confirm
any accuracy at all, you cannot dispute it later by mail.
For the remaining items, you need to dispute them
by mail, writing directly to the credit bureaus. Write a letter to the
appropriate bureau including your name, social security number,
address, disputed accounts, and account numbers. You must sign the
letter. Inform the bureau that you are disputing the data as it
appears on your credit report. |
