The first thing you should know is that the credit reporting system is rigged to serve corporate interests first. The key to repairing your credit score quickly is knowing how to safely (and legally) maneuver within the consumer protection laws. Your goal is to beat creditors and collection agencies at their own game, and force the credit bureaus to help you do it.

The law is on your side. Nobody wins if you spiral down to bankruptcy.

There's no shortage of information on the internet about credit repair strategies. Filing credit disputes is a favorite. But tread carefully. Much of the information floating around out there is self-serving... Made-For-Adsense content that exists only to get you to click advertiser's ads... or a masquerade secretly (or not so secretly) shilling for some pricey "credit repair specialist." If you visit enough credit repair sites, you'll begin to notice that the same drivel is recycled again and again.

Here are a few drivel-free insider credit dispute secrets to get you started...

1) Boilerplate credit dispute letters almost always do more harm than good. As with medical diagnoses, blanket prescriptions for credit repair can be dangerous. Make the wrong moves and you'll actually drop your credit score!

Plus, credit bureau investigators don't take boilerplate letters seriously -- especially boilerplate threats. They feel that the consumer who takes the time to write a concise, legally binding letter is more likely to hold the bureau's feet to the fire until they get what they want. They know this type of consumer is more likely to report them for FCRA violations, and more likely to sue.

2) Don't dispute negative credit items online. Send all dispute letters by U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail, Confirmation of Delivery -- no signature required. The credit bureaus typically refuse letters which require signatures. If a credit bureau doesn't properly verify your disputed item, you'll need the paper trail to gain the sort of leverage which will force the bureau to delete the item.

3) Don't file frivolous disputes. For example, don't pretend to the credit bureaus that you don't owe a particular debt when you do. That's a good way to get red-flagged and lose your right to dispute. Plus, such a ploy is highly unlikely to accomplish your goal of getting the negative item removed.

4) Dispute factual inaccuracies, and file foolproof disputes. The good news is that you can almost always find a factual dispute, if you know what to look for. You must learn how to identify which disputes will actually lower your credit score, or worse -- get your credit file red-flagged, which will cost you the right to dispute for up to 12 months!

Now, many credit courses and so-called credit repair specialists will tell you to dispute every single negative item in your credit file in the hopes that all those items will simply vanish because your creditors are too lazy or too busy to respond to the credit bureau's request for verification, or because the credit bureaus are too lazy to verify the item. Rarely happens that way, and it's a good way to get your credit file red-flagged. This "bazooka gun approach" is dangerous. The credit bureaus may very well be too lazy to investigate some items (and you can indeed use that for leverage), but not all of them.

Your success will lie in properly executing the Triage phase -- collecting and organizing every tidbit of ammunition that could be used as leverage to erase negative credit items -- and in sending (and documenting) the right series of letters. Credit histories can turn on a dime -- both positively and negatively.

Above all, your goal should be fast, safe credit repair. Often, the smallest changes can have an enormous impact on your credit file. With a little work, you can become the person every choice lender wants to loan money to, and in a relatively short period of time.