Finding out you have a less than ideal credit score can be disheartening, especially if you pay your bills on time and are generally responsible with your credit. However, you can dispute your credit score with the major credit bureaus by making a few changes to your spending habits, identifying errors on your credit report and contacting the appropriate venues to institute change.
Step 1
Request a copy of your credit report for free from annualcreditreport.com. You will be prompted to fill in your personal information. Once submitted, you'll receive a copy of your credit report, which you can review. Print all three reports from Experian, TransUnion and Equifax for your personal records.
Step 2
Contact creditors who have recently denied you for credit. They will be able to tell you which credit bureau they contacted for your credit report, so you can pay extra attention to that particular report for errors. Should you find an error, report it to the credit bureau and contact the creditor once again to have your application reconsidered after the problem is fixed.
Step 3
Report inaccurate late or missed payments to the creditor in question. Have your monthly statements and checking account statement handy to provide evidence that payment was made on time. Once the error is fixed, report it to the credit bureau and see a jump in your credit score.
Step 4
Ensure that judgments on your credit report are not what's lowering your score or impairing you from getting new credit. Judgments can appear when you file for separation or divorce. Though they are usually not supposed to be considered when filing new applications, these judgments on occasion trip up the system and might prevent you from getting new credit. Contact your potential lender to see if these judgments were the cause of your denial and contact the credit bureau to make sure these judgments are not affecting your credit score. In either case, a simple phone call can either fix your credit or get you approved for a new account.
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