Whatever your background or record, you can take some simple and quick steps to begin your own credit repair. It costs nothing and you can begin right away – but the results can be tremendous!

The first step is to get copies of your credit report, read them, and understand them. There are three credit reporting agencies, and there can be differences in your file between them.

By law, consumers are entitled to one free credit report from each of the these agencies, TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. You can get one from each agency, each year.

The Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, has set up a website where you can order them: annualcreditreport.com. Be careful of any other website that claims to offer you free reports – this is the “official” site, and any others have strings attached.

You’ll start your credit repair efforts as soon as you get your reports. To begin with, you want to read each report line by line.

Along with the report, you will get a “dispute” form – or an address where you can get it. This is where your initial credit repair efforts will focus.

Make a note of each and every entry that is either incorrect, outdated, or inaccurate. For each of these, you will be filing a dispute. You will want to list why the entry should be removed, such as a debt that has already been paid but hasn’t yet been removed.

By federal law, the credit reporting bureaus have up to 30 days to verify each dispute. If they don’t do so, or don’t do it within the 30 days, they must remove those entries from your credit report.

This simple step can remove many of the negative strikes against you, and they will no longer count towards lowering your credit score. In many cases, this can lift your score by up to hundreds of points!