Start with receiving your credit report. You can get 1 free credit report per year from http://www.annualcreditreport.com. However, this free report is a one time download and does not contain your credit score. You can purchase a subscription for credit monitoring which gives you unlimited access to all 3 credit bureau reports and scores. We recommend Truecredit.com. This is necessary to monitor the changes in your score over a period of about 3 months. You can cancel anytime.

 Once you identify problem areas you can decide if you should challenge them to the credit agency, by reporting it. We suggest that you order a subscription credit report service, if you have not done it already, to get your credit score and to have continued access to your report. *CAUTION some subscription credit report providers only give you access for 30 days. Make sure you choose one that allows unlimited access to your report.

 Submit your challenge in writing to each of the credit report agencies. They must respond within 30 days, or remove the problem from your report. You can continue this process as often as needed. Use our easy credit letter maker below to prepare your letters to the three credit reporting agencies. Wait 30 days and if you have not received a response, use the subscription credit report service, mentioned above, to review your credit score again.