Rebuild Your Credit Report Yourself

Rebuilding your credit history can be more difficult than initially establishing credit, but it isn’t impossible to do. Start with requesting a copy of your credit report to be fully aware of what factors are in it.

Adverse information, such as late payments or unpaid accounts are on your credit report for seven years, bankruptcy for ten years. You have the right to have inaccurate and incomplete information corrected. Disputed information must be verified. If the information is not confirmed - it must be deleted.

You may add a 100 word explanation to your credit report that could help a creditor understand your situation any time your report is sent out. Make sure your current lenders are reporting that you have been paying regularly to the credit bureau. Manage loans and credit cards well when rebuilding your credit history.

Source: Dollar, P. (1999, May). Self-help: rebuilding your credit history can be tough. A Magazine, 3.