Where to start first

[Kam]

I am ready to clean up my/our credit reports, starting with my reports. Should I dispute first with the creditor or the credit bureau? Household and Beneficial continue to report I "owe" money, so instead of my credit report showing 0 tl open and 0 owed, it shows we owe almost 14 K.

Sigh. I have these ephiphany moments where I know what to do, but I think they are simply brain farts, because these moments vanish and I am suddenly clueless.

Color me,

Clueless Kam

[AAAArt]

Both. At the same time. By registered, proof of receipt mail.
Inform the creditor that they are reporting false information. Inform the CRA's that they are showing wrong info and ask them to VERIFY it.
When you request that they verify it they must get the info from the co. and if the company does not report back, it must be entirely removed from the report.
They are supposed to reply w/in 30 days. CRA's are reportedly better at replying w/in the time period than co's. Anyone you have not heard from in 30days, repeat procedure and mark it "2nd Attempt". Keep copies of everything. You have the right to sue and can win if you can prove willful neglect. Unfortunately, rewards are limited to $1000 plus atty. fees.
Good luck, Art

[down&out]

As I have posted elsewhere,

I disagree with the letter-writing campain approach. I did all of my disputes (25-32 discrepincies on all each of the reports) online. I have only had trouble with one lender. Now I plan to write a few letters to that entity. Why waste all the time and money it takes to write, print, mail, buy the return-reciept, etc... untill you know you have too.

[OutOfTown]

About online correcting

down&out, or anyone else,

What are your online tips? I'm not sure where to start. Do you subscribe to get frequent or even unlimited CRs?

Thanks

[down&out]

Out of Town,

My suggestion is this:

Get a subscription to trucredit's 3 in one unlimited access report. Then just start disputing. It is a lot easier then you might think. Here is my track record:

I begain disputing all debts on 9-7-2005. My FAKO scores were 564/516/518

all my disputes (That is a total of around 25 on each report -less two that I am having difficulty with) were settled within three weeks. Currently my FAKO scores are 642/561/697

It is important to note that the lowest one (561) is where I am having the trouble wit two accounts beign removed. Other then that it was incredibly easy

down&out

[bkfiler]

kam, keep in mind there is a process that some subscrtibe to and others dont.

that being the goal of removing the offending debt from the credit report rather then the goal of just getting them to report it correctly as $0 balance and IIB (Included In Bankruptcy).

the later is easy becuase you can just send the peition to the CRA directly and get them to change it all (almost). and then its a done deal and nothing can be deleted becuase you provied solid proof of the facts and it cant change. they have it on file.

the first approach plays games to see if they take too long or change the reporting to for whatever reason make it better for you somehow by mistake, or even do nothing and then sue them for $1K. worst case outcome of this is the goal above where everything is listed as $0 balance, IIB.