Back in 1992 I was a victim of fraud. It took me nearly 2 years of manual research with the help of the credit bureaus (3) to straighten out the mess. Back then, I didn’t have computer access as a tool to lessen the load of providing burden of proof. I didn’t realize there was a fraud situation until buying my first home. My credit report was nearly 6 pages long! The person bought $30,000 car, opened many department store accounts, and even purchased jewlery in access of $30,000. This was the nightmare of my life. Lesson #1, check your credit reports (3) every six months :).
Aside from this, soft pulls do not affect your credit score. Don’t remove any existing credit card information from your report, it’s historical information of how you’ve handled credit in the past. Get a credit card (2), and take advantage of cash back deals, savings account benefits, frequent flyer points, ect.
Use the card(s) to purchase gas, food, retail, and restaurant outtings. You’ll not only build up you credit but get more back in retun…win/win situation I think ;D.
I AM CURRENTLY WORKING ON ESTABLISHING/IMPROVING MY CREDIT WITH A SECURED CREDIT CARD FOR ABOUT 6 MO TO 1 YR THEN GET A MAJOR CREDIT CARD AND DO THE SAME. SO I PROBABLY WON’T GET STARTED IN MY FIRST INVESTMENT PROPERTY UNTIL ABOUT 2.5 TO 3 YRS FROM NOW. AM I DOING THE RIGHT THING? OR IS THERE ANOTHER FASTER WAY I CAN IMPROVE MY CREDIT RATHER THEN KILLING 3 YRS?
Don’t dispute items on your credit report just to open a dispute file in the hopes the credit bureaus won’t do their work in time and bad information will magically disappear. They have 30 days to confirm or remove disputed items and in my experience they usually accomplish this within 1-2 weeks. If there is incorrect and derogatory information in your file then by all means file a dispute and have it removed.
A word of caution here. Opening a dispute with the credit bureaus is like opening a can of worms. Once they start making changes to your file there is a high probability that items will be changed that were not part of the original dispute. From my own experience I’ve seen old paid off mortgages suddenly show as current and even had my primary house mortgage balance go to zero. The headaches of making things right can be worse than having a score that is ten points less than it should be.