Newbie Question about where to start with reapiring

[OGdog078]

Hello to all!

I have been perusing this forum for about 3 months now, and just signed up today. This is post #1!!!

I am helping my wife repair her credit. She has lots of collections and chargoffs. Many are 4-7 years old. I am doing this for her and am stumped where to start. I have read all the article on "sticky" for newbs, and many other articles on the internet.

From what I have learned:

Step 1= Get a copy of your credit report from the big3.

Step 2= Dispute all the negitaves from TL with the CRA's FIRST!

Step 3= Analyze results from DV's with the CRA's. Then dispute them more.

Step 4= Dispute with the CA's and send letter to OC's.

This is where I have some questions!

I do not have a copy of her credit report from the CRAs, rather one consolidated report from freecreditreport.com. I am writing to the CRA's to get the reports directly from them.

Question 1= Should I send the Annual Credit Report Request Form that I optained from www.annualcreditreport.com? I read somewhere that said doing this gives the CRA's 45 days to respond to disputes, instead of the 30 days. Is this true? I dont want to give them any extra time!

Question 2= I understand that I should dispute every TL with the CRA's FIRST, but how do I approach this? Oldest first? Smallest Balance First?

Question 3= In disputing the TL's with the CRA's, do I dispute each Negative with each CRA at the same time? Lets say i have something that is being reported to EX and TU, but not EQ. Should I send the letters to EX and TU at the same time?

Question 4= I am having trouble identifying which negitave belongs to which creditor. Many of the chargoffs have been sold to lots of CA's. The wife doesnt know or remember what most of them are for. I have found some of them show collection agency, but cannot figue out for what bad debt. Any help?

Thanks for the help!!

THIS FORUM ROCKS BECAUSE OF THE MEMBERS!!!!

[Ahntara]

1) It's true. You may wish to obtain your CR by other means.

2) Totally up to you. There's no preferable way.

3) Sure. They all have either 30 or 45 days to respond. Might as well use the SAME time period for each CRA.

4) Dispute to the CRA because you don't know, don't recognize. Research more before you use that or the standard 'not mine' as your reason. This typically results in verification/update. You may also wish to research the 1-2 punch. This involves sending a dispute to the CRA's, then DV'ing the CA's. Once again, you want to be careful. If your desire is to simply find out who, what & how much - this will achieve that goal. If you wish to repair & remove, this may not work in your favor. Educating yourself is time well-spent at this stage.