Frugal Credit Repair- Do it yourself!

I often hear, "my credit is horrible; I have no money and don't know where to start." Here I have listed a few steps to repairing credit:

Obtain your three credit reports. Legally, you may request all three once a year for free by requesting them from http://www.annualcreditreport.com.

If you have been turned down for credit due to reporting from a credit bureau, you can send a copy of the denial letter to the credit reporting agency with a request for a free credit report. The are obligated to send it to you for free.

BEWARE: Many "free credit report or free credit score" sites require you to sign up for services (sometimes upward of $300) to receive your free report.

Review the reports and locate the negative items. Dispute all negative items with the credit bureaus. Even the ones you believe you owe. Most items will have had interest upon interest complied. Are you sure you agreed to all of the fees and interest? If you did, they should be able to verify it.

Disputed items will be removed or corrected. Items that cannot be re-verified must be removed. Negotiate with creditors and collection companies ONLY if your debt is far from the date that it would automatically drop off of your credit. In most cases this is 7 years. The drop off date will be listed on the report. If you contact them say a few months from the drop off date the can list that as the new date, restarting the 7 years.

After negotiating and making payments, creditors delete the negative accounts or change them to a positive rating. Most creditors or collectors will say anything to you over the phone to get that payment. I suggest you ask them to send you a new agreement -in writing- that states after x number of payments your account will be considered "in good standing" and reflect the new positive information on your credit report(s) BEFORE sending in your payment.

State the item you are disputing, but do not use dispute forms or file numbers provided by the bureau. Do not do the work for them, they are required to re-verify or send proof of the validity of the debt. Do not confirm the account if any information about the item is wrong- if your account number was 12345 and they report it as 12435 - that is wrong, do not correct them.

Send disputes during busy times of the year. For Example: The first to middle of November can cause a delay in verification because of Thanksgiving. Christmas rush for the creditor and the bureau can catch them before they can thoroughly investigate within a reasonable time. This will cause the creditor to miss the verification deadline.

You can go to here for a great reference for Credit Repair Letters and Telephone Tips and Techniques including:

General Dispute To Collection Agency
Dispute of Collections
Dispute to Collection Agency
Negotiating a Settlement
Negotiating a Settlement with Utility Companies
Settlement to Creditors
Dispute Related To "Trans Alert" And Soc. Sec. Number
After No Response from a Credit Bureau
Disputing Specific Items and Inquiries
Request Reinvestigation of Items that are Still Showing on Report
Answer Letter to Credit Bureau's Request for More Information
How to speak with the Credit Bureau's Representatives

This is what I am doing to repair my credit to obtain a home loan. My employer will give me 105% for the mortgage, however my credit must be considered good if not excellent. I will be chronicling my credit repair journey. Once my husband and I are considered in good standing, we have resolved to the house being our only only form of debit. The only exception is that we would like to have two credit cards (one in each of our names) for car sharing use only. The car share company that we use requires a credit card (not debit card) on file. We have set up a separate saving account for emergency use.