It is not necessary to hire anyone to fix mistakes on your credit report. Anything a credit repair firm can do, you can do for yourself for free. In fact, credit repair advertisements which promise to remove negative items are little more than scams.
Mistakes VS. negative information
Mistakes include things like a wrong address, a wrong date of birth, wrong spelling of your name, wrong spouse's name, wrong job, etc. These can be fixed easily by submitting documentation to the credit bureaus that proves there is a mistake on your credit report. These kinds of mistakes are relatively easy to verify and fast to fix.
Removing negative information
Mistakes are relatively easy to fix, but what everyone wants is to remove negative information. If the negative items are true, there is very little you can do to change them. If they are not true, then contacting the credit bureaus will not get you what you want. You need to contact the creditor who reported the error and have them correct the report.
Requesting an investigation
You have the right to dispute any information on your credit report that you feel is incorrect. The credit bureaus must re-investigate and, within a reasonable time, verify the new information.
Adding your own comment to your credit report
In an attempt to explain your situation to anyone reading your credit report, you can place a comment in your credit file. The space for your comments is about a half-page long. It will allow you to tell your side of a dispute. Credit bureaus will gladly allow you to add your own comment to your credit report.
Ask the creditor to remove the unauthorized inquiry
The agreement the credit bureaus have with every member stipulates that the member undertakes to get your permission before making any credit inquiry. The credit bureaus provide your credit report to the member with that protection in place. The credit bureaus will only remove an inquiry from your credit report when the member requests that the inquiry be removed.
