Consumer Car Buying Advice Blog

Consumers with bad credit can raise their credit scores by disputing the errors they may find on their credit reports.

Raise your credit score

At Auto Credit Express we’ve spent close to 20 years dealing with consumers who have bad credit and helping these same customers raise their credit scores while reestablishing their car credit by financing a vehicle with a bad credit car loan.

But in addition to using a bad credit auto loan to raise their credit scores, many of these same consumers could also boost their FICO scores by simply correcting the inaccuracies found on their credit reports. Here are the steps that need to be taken in order to do this.

Step one – order your credit reports

In order to review your credit reports from all three bureaus – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion – you must order them. They can be ordered online from each of the bureaus, or you can pay to have a service, such as freescore360.com, do this for you.

Step two – review the information

Once you receive the reports, print them out and carefully review the information that they contain. The length of time negative information stays on your report can vary. Here are some common items:

Tax liens – Tax liens can appear on your report indefinitely if they aren’t paid. Once paid, this type of lien will appear for 7 years from the date paid.

Bankruptcy filing – A bankruptcy filing record expires 10 years after the filing date with each account record that was included in the bankruptcy remaining on your credit report for 7 years.

Charge-offs, collections, closed negative accounts, foreclosures, late payments and repossessions – Each of these negative records will appear on your credit report for 7 years. In the case of collection records, the expiration takes place 7 years after the last 180 day late payment that led to the account being sent to collection.

Inquiries – Inquiry records such as requests for credit or loan applications will remain on your credit report for 1 to 2 years.

Review this information for crossed or duplicate information, records that should be expired as well as data errors and fraudulent information.

Step 3 – write a dispute letter

Equifax and TransUnion will allow you to mail in your dispute, while all three bureaus have an online dispute process. When writing a letter, be sure to include your name and address, a copy of the credit report listing the inaccuracies as well as any supporting material you may have (copies of account records, statements and correspondence).

Step 4 – file a dispute

When filing a dispute, either by mail or online, be sure to include the identification number located at the bottom of your most recent credit report.

In the credit report, along with the name of the creditor, is the information that you need in order to contact the creditor directly – by phone or in writing. If the creditor indicates that the information was incorrect, make sure you get this in writing. Make sure to keep all paperwork that involves these disputes. In the event that the creditor continues to report the wrong information, you can show this to the loan officer as proof or send to the credit bureau to have it removed.

Step 5 – track your results

All three credit bureaus have 30 days in which to investigate and make changes to your credit report following the filing of a dispute. Once they complete their investigations, they will inform you, by letter, of what information was and was not changed as a result of the dispute process.

Step 6 – do a final credit check

Once the process is complete, order a final credit report from each bureau and check to make sure each of the changes has been made.

Check with us about the bad credit car loan process

For nearly 20 years, Auto Credit Express has been helping people with credit problems get approved for new and used car loans. Our dealer affiliates work with a broad spectrum of bad credit auto loan lenders to get you approved. Since our inception, we have processed over 1,000,000 online bad credit auto loans and closed over 1 Billion dollars in auto loans.

For more information, please visit www.autocreditexpress.com to see what we can do for you.

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