How to Remove Bad Credit From Credit Report

Removing bad credit information from your credit reports takes some creativity and maybe a little luck. By law, negative information on your report remains for a minimum of seven years--if the information is accurate. If the information is inaccurate, you can have it removed within about 30 days by simply writing the credit bureau. However, in most cases, negative information on credit reports really is accurate, making its removal difficult but not impossible.

Instructions

1

Obtain a copy of your credit report. The reports are available for free from the U.S. Government-sanctioned website Annual Credit Report (see Resources, below). The nationwide credit bureaus established the site to offer free credit reports as required under the terms of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Visit the homepage to order or call 877-322-8228.

2

Study your credit report for the negative information you want removed. Pay special attention to delinquent accounts that have been charged off or sold to collection agencies.

3

Write a letter to the credit bureau challenging the accuracy of the negative information. The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives you the right to challenge any information on your report, even if you know the information is correct. Under the terms of the act, the credit bureau must contact your creditor or debt collector--within 30 days--to confirm that the information is indeed accurate. If the credit bureau misses the deadline the negative information, by law, must be removed. If the information is confirmed it stays. This loophole is often exploited by credit repair agencies, which will often challenge every negative item on a report. However, the credit bureaus are wise to this and will work diligently to keep negative information on your report. The credit bureau will send you the results of its investigation by postal mail. Go on to the next step if the bureau refused to delete your information.

4

Contact creditors or debt collection companies to resolve old accounts that were charged off and never paid. Offer to pay off the accounts in exchange for the company removing the negative information from your credit report--a process called "pay for delete." Be sure to get any agreement in writing. Make the payments and then check your credit report in about 60 days to confirm that the negative information was removed.