This has helped me and a few of my clients.

To fix your credit report is easy but does take time and patience.  To start you will need to pull your credit report.  Equifax, Experian and TransUnion have credited a central web site, www.annualcreditreport.com to accommodate people who wish to obtain copies of their credit report.

Once your have printed your three credit reports, look over then.  Look for credit that is not yours, late credit, outstanding credit, and too many open credit cards.  These are the ones you need to work.

Credit that is not yours: You need to write a letter to the credit bureaus and the creditors to let them know that you did not charge and /or buy that item.  On the letter you need to put your name, address, social security number, account number, and a copy of the credit report and highlight the item.

Late Credit:  If the credit is paid off, write a letter to the creditors and ask them to remove the item form your credit report.  Wait two months and then write a letter to the credit bureaus and ask them to remove the item from your credit report if it is still on there.  All letters need to have your name, address, social security number, account number, and a copy of the credit report and highlight the item on it.

Outstanding Credit:  With outstanding credit you can do this two ways.  The best way is to pay it off in full and ask the creditor to remove it from your credit report and in two months ask the credit bureaus to remove it if the creditors did not.  The other way is to ask the creditor to accept a portion of the debt as payoff.  This is called charge off.  Some credit card companies will charge off 50% to 70%. So if you owe $10,000 and the credit card company will take 60% as a charge off, this means you owe the credit card company $6,000 right then.  On your credit report, the line item will show a charge off.  Some companies will take it off your credit report, some will want to leave it on there for 3 years, and some will leave it on there 7 years.  Charge offs do hurt your credit score but not as bad as not paying it at all.

Too Many Credit Cards:  Having credit cards are ok and long as they have a balance on them.  If the credit cards are at a zero balance CLOSE THEM except two or three but leave them on your credit report.  Two or three opened credit cards with a zero balance anymore than that will hurt your credit score.