Grr... Credit Reports... Grr!

So, recently I found out that I had a nasty collection on my credit report! and it wasn't even legit!

You can imagine how upset I was...

But I knew that being upset wouldn't fix my credit report - taking action (hopefully) would.

Here's what I did to try to remedy the sitch:

First, I wanted to get some trustworthy information on credit reports and found this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/your-money/credit-scores/primerscores.html?ref=creditscores

Then, I wanted to get my complete credit report, score included, so I went here:

http://www.myfico.com/Products/FICOOne/Description.aspx?AID=10530973&PID=2567927

That site was helpful because they clearly marked which items were major problems, as opposed to the minor ones. You do have to sign up (and will be charged if you don't cancel before your trial ends - and it's a little tedious to completely cancel your trial), but I found it quite insightful.

So, if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, hopefully this information will help you. As for me, I successfully had the collection removed from one reporting agency... I'm still working on the others (since the creditor isn't being very helpful and is standing by their guns, claiming that I owe a pesky 80-something dollars for internet service that we never received)... But I'm hopeful I'll be successful in near future.

Good luck!