You can allowed a copy of your credit once a year from each credit bureau. Along with your credit report will be a dispute form.

If a credit bureau can not verify that a disputed item is correct as reported, it must modify or remove it from the consumers’ file. If the trade line confirms at a later date that the information was indeed correct, the credit bureau will add the information back into the consumers’ file. It will notify the consumer in writing as to the changes, within 5 days of the change.

Bureau errors are very common. The important thing to remember is to check your reports regularly to keep them accurate.

Always keep copies of everything you submit and receive from the three credit bureaus in case you need to re-submit them in the future.

Investigate your moving company before using them. If it is not a well known or national moving company do some investigating. There have been several scams in the past involving moving companies. Ask for recent references, check with local agencies, the better business bureau, consumer reports, etc. It may be worth it to look into getting some additional insurance for the move as well.

Honor your agreements with vendors . Do not stop making installment payments because you are dissatisfied with an appliance you bought. Instead, try to resolve the issue with the vendor, even if it means going to court. Vendors who grant you credit on purchases can report to the credit agencies. Another common mistake people make is they stop honoring sales agreements they make with mobile phone companies. Many mobile phone carriers give away phones for free with a one or two year contract. People who break their contracts will be reported to credit bureaus.

Not honoring the contracts you signed with mobile phone companies can also ruin your credit. Many wireless companies offer free cellular phones if you agree to use their services for a certain number of years. If you terminate subscription to their services, these wireless companies may attempt to collect on the cost of the phones and if fail, will report to the credit bureaus.

It is recommended to monitor your credit directly with the aforementioned three major credit bureaus. Maintaining less than 35% of your credit limit will help you increase your scores.

When disputing incorrect information on your credit report, be sure to write to all three credit repositories. If only one is notified of the erroneous item, your scores from the other two bureaus would not improve.

One creditor may report to only to bureaus a and b, another creditor may report to bureaus b and c, and yet another creditor may only report to bureau b. For this reason, the exact information that each of the credit bureaus has on file about you varies, and therefore so does your score with each bureau.