How to Get Stuff Off Your Credit Report

Bad marks on your credit report can keep you from financing a home or car, or from getting other credit. The good news is that there are ways to get these marks off of your report. The first option is to wait for them to naturally fall off within seven to ten years. The second option is to dispute the bad marks.

1. Print out all three of your credit reports. You should have one from each major credit card bureau. The three major credit bureaus are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.


2. Check each of your reports for any errors. Make sure there are no accounts double reporting, that each amount is reported correctly and that the beginning and end dates of each account match your records. 


3. Send a dispute to the creditor and the credit bureau, if you find any errors. You do this by writing a dispute letter to the creditor and sending it through the U.S Postal Service via Certified Mail with Return Receipt. You then send a letter to the credit bureau whose report you found the error on, letting them know that you have found an error on the account and would like it removed if not corrected.


4. Wait for a response form the credit bureau. They have 30 days to correct the account if you purchased the report that contains the error or 45 days for reports that were obtained for free through annualcreditreport.com. 


5. Check your report again. The error should have been updated or the account removed all together. The older the account is, the better the possibility of getting it removed since creditors often don't have the time or records to respond to old debt that they have written off.