Cleaning up a credit report

Cleaning up a credit report implies that one can fix bad credit which one can't.  What a person can do is try to get erroneous items removed from the report.  Mistakes do occur but even if an item is legitmate, one can solve the problem with some tough negotiation. 

After my divorce I wanted to purchase a house but I had some items on credit report that prevented
me from doing so.  My ex told her creditors, after she filed bankruptcy, that I would be responsible for making the payments on her vehicle.  The vehicle was licensed in her name only and the loan was in her name only.

Another item on my report was where I had helped my wife's sister with a line of credit so she could purchased some airline tickets for her kids (another story we will not go into here).  She was making scheduled payments until she decided she wanted a car so she borrowed to the max and then couldn't make the payments. 

The first order of business was to call the bank and work a deal to pay off my sister-in-laws debt.  I agreed to pay so many cents on the dollar that very day if they would have any bad entries removed from my credit report by issuing a statement that the entry was made in error.

After several calls to the bank about my ex's vehicle with a promise to correct the entry but with no action taken by the bank to do so, I finally had to personally visit the bank.  I saw the man who was responsible for making the entry and asked him to correct it and he said he would.  I sat down in a chair in his office and he asked me what I was doing.  I told him I was waiting and he said he would get things done at his convenience.  I didn't move.  After he urged me to leave I informed him I was going no where until he took care of the matter. 

Sure, it made him angry but he finally made the correction that allowed me to purchase my house.

Now, had I made late payments or defaulted on a loan or filed bankruptcy or over extended my credit I would not have been able to correct or fix anything.  If there are errors sometimes only you would know    and sometimes it requires doing some things strangers aren't going to do for you. 

If an entry is wrong fix it.  Otherwise learn to do better.