There are times when you may be turned down for credit and you do not understand why. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act you are entitled to a free copy of your credit report if you have been denied credit because of negative items on your credit report within 60 days of the request for credit, if you are unemployed but looking for work, are on welfare, or believe that your credit report is incorrect because of fraud. You may also receive a copy of your credit report for a small fee at any time in which you want to review the information contain therein.

If you dispute any of the information on your credit report, there are steps that you, the credit reporting agency and the information provider must take to have the information corrected or deleted form your report.

1. You should contact the credit reporting agency and request that the inaccurate information be taken off. To do this you will need to send a letter of request and enclose a copy of the report with the incorrect information highlighted. Send your request certified mail and indicate that a return receipt is requested.

2. The Credit reporting agency will forward the request to the information provider at which time they will review and investigate the request. If the information cannot be verified, then they must remove it. They can either correct or deny the request to change the information. They will then send their findings to the credit reporting agency.

3. If the information provider finds that their was an error they will provide written proof of the change and send a copy of the report to you, the credit reporting agency and anyone who has requested a copy of your credit report in the last six months.

4. If the information provider finds that there was no error, you can request that the credit reporting agency send a copy of the disputes with any report that is requested by creditors. You can also provide an explanation of a negative report in 100 words or less that will be included in any reports to creditors. Another alternative is to pay the debt, which would require the creditor to report the debt paid.

You should also be aware that negative reports will remain on your credit for up to seven years at which time they will be deleted in most cases. There are some exceptions, these include, bankruptcy, which can be reported for up to 10 years, and loans or life insurance policies which are in excess of $150,000.00, or criminal convictions, which can be reported at all times.