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How to Rebuild Your Credit
or incomplete information in your report. To take advantage of all your rights under the FCRA, contact the credit reporting bureau and the information provider if you see inaccurate or incomplete information.
1 . Tell the creditor or other information provider, in writing, that you dispute an item .
Be sure to include copies (NOT originals) of documents that sup- port your position. Many providers specify an address for disputes. If the provider reports the item to a credit reporting company, it must include a notice of your dispute. And if you are correct—that is, if the information is found to be inaccurate—the information provider may not report it again.
2 . Tell the credit reporting bureau, in writing, what information you think is inaccurate .
Details for getting inaccurate information on your credit report cor- rected are given in the next chapter of this booklet.
3 . Use patience and time to remove accurate negative information .
The cold hard truth is, when negative information in your report is accurate, only the passage of time can ensure its removal. A credit reporting company can report most accurate negative information for seven years and bankruptcy information for 10 years. Information about an unpaid judgment against you can be reported for seven years or until the statute of limitations runs out, whichever is longer. There is no time limit on reporting information about criminal convictions; information reported in response to your application for a job that pays more than $75,000 a year; and information reported because you’ve applied for more than $150,000 worth of credit or life insurance. There is a standard method for calculating the seven-year reporting period. Generally, the period runs from the date that the last event took place.