In chapter 7, Kevin Trudeau explains the most important way to combat the credit card companies is to get a copy of your credit report.  You are allowed one free copy a year.  In chapters 8 and 9 of Debt Cures, he tells you how to get the report and then says how you can go and better your credit report.  The most important thing to do is to improve your score.  The best way to find out what needs to be done score is to get your credit report and to understand it.

The credit card companies rely on three companies in the United States to create the reports.  All three companies are required at your request to give you a copy of the report annually.  Don’t worry, Trudeau provides you with the contact information for each of the companies so getting you report is easy.  After getting the report you must review it completely.

There are four main areas on your report:  1.) Personal Information, 2.) Credit Information, 3.) Public Record Information, and 4.) Inquiries. 

Personal information is the basic information about yourself such as your name, date of birth, address etc.  It is not uncommon to find someone else’s information here so make sure each detail is correct.  What could be messing up your credit is someone’s information on your credit report.  This is a quick and certain way of improving your credit.

Credit information is the guts of the report.  This will show your loan and credit history.  Make sure this is accurate, if you have paid off a loan, and the report shows it as unpaid, you need to correct this immediately.

Public Record information could be a legal judgment or a tax lien.  Again, you want to verify that the information is accurate.

The final section of the credit report is inquiries.  Each time a company attempts to verify your credit it will show on this section.   Every credit card that you have applied for will show up on this report, and each time it will lower your score.  That’s why you should not be applying for every credit card offer in the mail or at every store in your local mall.

Your credit score will fall between 300 and 850 reports.  You want to get as high a score as possible, if you are average or slightly below average, the credit card companies will seek you out because you are a candidate to get behind in your payments and they make a higher profit money from you. 

There are many ways to improve your credit.  Trudeau provides details on how to do it.  Always make sure you contact the credit reporting companies to correct any errors.  This can be done on the telephone, online or by snail mail.  The dispute process is free, in 30 days the reporting companies must correct any errors.  If they cannot justify the reason it is on the report you win and it must taken off of your report.  Make sure you check each of the three reports carefully, as an error may only be on one of the reports.  You will have to open three disputes if it is on every report.  Again, Trudeau lays it all out clearly in Debt Cures.

Debt Cures continues to say that it is up to you to take control. Take the time and effort to work on your credit report; it can only save you money in the long run.