How I Raised my Credit Score 111 points in 60 Days?

by Travis Wright

Maintaining a good credit score can be a challenge when you are young. However, it is one of the most important areas of your life, and its best to know EXACTLY what your score is, and how you can improve it.

If you have no idea what your current

FICO score

is, I recommend checking this link out, as it will give you a ballpark FICO score without having to put your social security number in.

FICO Credit Score Estimator

I accessed each of my credit bureau reports from Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. The MyFICO service on the link listed above will help you access your official reports if you decide you want more than just an estimate.

In college, I seemed to sign up for any credit card that they would allow me to have. Without having adequate income, unfortunately, some of these didnt get paid. Fast forward a bit to the recession of post 9-11 in 2001, and I was out of a job for awhile, so my credit suffered further. In fact, I thought that having good credit was something that I was destined to NOT have.

Well, I got married in 2001, and our first child, our son, Jharek, was born in 2001… and our daughter, Liliana was born in January 2006. The two bedroom apartment lifestyle just was not going to cut it any longer. With my credit in virtual shambles, it was time to rectify the situation. But how? How can I

raise my credit score?

Since 2001, I had paid off many of the past due and deliquent bills, yet my

credit score

didn’t raise. This was quite frustrating. I paid them off, thinking they automatically removed them. Apparently, this was not the case.

Driving down a busy intersection, I notice a sign that said “Need

Credit Repair?

Call xxx-xxxx” Hrmmm. Let me find out about this.

So, I go into the meeting with this “Credit Repair Specialist” and he laid it on the line. When you pay off a deliquent bill, the bill collector is not obligated to contact all three reporting agencies. A lot of the time, they don’t have to contact them at all. So, even if you paid some of your delinquent bills, chances are, they are still dinging your credit.

Also, each time someone checks your credit, it adds an inquiry to your report. Apparently, this knocks 2-3 points off your FICO
per inquiry.

Since 1991, I figured that I had lived in about 10 residences. Well, my Experian report had 26 addresses on my report. It had many variances of the addresses that I HAD lived, and some that I HADN’T lived. This made me look like a nomad gypsy without a home, and no doubt negatively affected my

credit score.

So, what the “Credit Repair Expert” suggested was that I pay him $350 and he would, in turn, contact each reporting credit agency, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion, on my behalf, and DISPUTE certain reporting creditors. By doing so, the Credit Bureau will contact the original creditor and check for validity of the bill. If the original creditor does not get back to the Credit Bureau within 30 days, it came off your report and would raise your FICO Credit Score.

I figured that I could raise my score by myself, and made a copy of each of my credit reports, and begin to mark on my reports with a red pen, DISPUTE- INACCURATE INFORMATION, please remove from credit report. I did this to each of the inquiries that I wanted to remove. I marked, DISPUTE- BILL PAID- PLEASE REMOVE FROM REPORT. Etc. I also disputed the addresses, and fixed it so it had only my past 2 addresses, plus the current one. I was a nomad gypsy, no longer!

I then made a copy of the marked up credit report, and I wrote a letter to each agency explaining that I am disputing several items on my credit report and would like to have an amended copy of my report sent to me ASAP.

Experian was the quickest, and I saw my score jump from 558 to 669 in about 45 days. 111 points! My Equifax jumped up around 80 points, and my TransUnion jumped up around 75 points. All three were amended and updated in less than 60 days.

As a result of this, I was able to buy the perfect home for my growing family. An apartment dweller no longer. It has been a very rewarding experience. I used GetSmart.com to find an incredible rate on my mortgage, and moved in to my new home in Lee’s Summit MO on September 1st. From credit nightmare to homeowner in 60 days. It can be done.

So again, check this out >> Free FICO® Credit Score Estimator
It can help you gauge what you need to do to get your credit rolling in the right direction.

Also, if you are in the market for a home or want to refinance, you can not go wrong with GetSmart.com. They made it happen with home equity rates as low as 5.74% with intro rates as low as 4.74%
And when you are just starting out, you can use all the help you can get!

Much Love-

Travis Wright