If you ask me a more startling statistic is 90% of the information on the internet teaching you how to improve your credit is bad or erroneous. Let me explain.

If you've done any research about credit repair, surely you've seen free dispute letters, If you haven't let me show you the pitch.

“The FTC says under the FCRA credit bureaus have 30 days to investigate any dispute. If they cannot prove it's your debt in that time frame, they must delete it”.

Then it's followed with a generic dispute letter stating the following.

“This debt is inaccurate, under the laws of the FCRA please investigate this account and delete it from my file”.

I've said it for years and finally people are beginning to realize, these letters rarely work anymore. Use some common sense for a moment. If it was that easy, we could all go charge until we're blue in the face and not worry about our bills because we have the magic letters.

With that said, credit repair works and better then ever, just not with that method. The real way to improve your credit score is understanding the laws. When I say that, I mean actually using the law as opposed to just quoting it in your dispute letter.

Obviously, I can't cover every law here but I can point out a few violations that are present in nearly every trade line.

Re aging debts – Among the most common violations on nearly every credit report. Understanding how a debt's “date of last activity” is calculated is paramount. Chances are it won't be reported accurately. Why? Because collectors like to date it from the time they “bought the debt” and that is wrong and a sure fire way to have it removed. You can find “date of last activity” and “Re aging Debts” in both the FCRA and the FDCPA.

Statute of Limitations (SOL) – Another very common infraction. The SOL I'm referring to is not the SOL for how long a debt can be reported on your credit file. I'm referring to how long a collection agent is allowed to attempt to collect and/or sue on an account.

You might be surprised to learn that its only 3 to 4 years in many states.

I purposely left out some information because credit repair is about education and knowledge. It's not about generic dispute letters, loopholes and luck.

Spend a few hours a week actually learning the laws and you'll be surprised at how easy, effective and powerful credit repair can be.