Once you have noted each questionable item, you should rank them. After erroneous personal data, rank the most damaging information first, followed by the next most damaging, etc., until those items which are neutral. Do this for each credit report, as they may not all have the same questionable information on them. The following ordered list should give you an idea of the significance of erroneous or derogatory information:
- personal data
- bankruptcy
- consumer credit counseling
- foreclosure
- consumer credit counseling
- loan default
- repossess
- court judgments
- collections
- past due payments
- late payments
- credit rejections
- credit inquiries [Do Credit Inquiries Hurt You?]
You will find that some of the questionable information is duplicated on one or both the other credit reports, but not all will be. Pay particular attention to the addresses listed, and dispute all but your current address first, it will ease having other erroneous, misleading, or outdated information removed. In any case, you should send a dispute letter to each of the three major credit reporting agencies, for each questionable item, whether it appears on their report or not. This is to assure that the same questionable item will not be removed from one report only to reappear later on another. Next follows the most critical step.
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