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Your address will probably be listed many different ways, depending on how many times you have applied for credit and how careful the person entering your information into the database was. The next set of information you will see might be a general breakdown of the dollar amount of your debt, in categories such as real estate, revolving debt, etc. Then you will likely see a detailed list of every creditor you have had for the past seven years. There will also be any accounts that, although opened more than seven years ago, were only reported as delinquent within the past seven years. You should be aware that old debts only fall off seven years after they are FIRST REPORTED AS DELINQUENT. You should expect to see any debts still owed, collection accounts, and any current revolving accounts. You can also expect to find any old medical bills, bank and other accounts.

Each one of these account records are supposed to include the name of the company reporting the information, and include an address phone number, account number, type of account, current status of account, date opened, date closed, if applicable, date first reported, high balance, low balance, account maximum, over-limit or late charges, and current balance. Beneath this list should be a chart detailing the history of the account status. (Consider it a miracle if even one of the accounts has every single piece of information. Assume you are dreaming if all the information is correct.) Then there is usually a separate score for each bureau, with a single composite number, indicating your "credit score".

4. Dispute, dispute, dispute.

To tell you to dispute everything would be a bit pat, but it can't hurt. I went through my credit report and disputed every instance of my name that was a duplicate. I did this with all my past addresses as well. I also disputed one address that was just spelled wrong (hey, it's not the name of any street I lived on, right?), and an address and phone number that I had never heard of. All of these items were deleted from my report. If nothing else, it made the report less cluttered and easier to read. Then I disputed an old bank account record that reported I still owed on the account. I filed the dispute explaining that the account had been closed, and when, and it too, was deleted from my report. I had my ex-husband's name removed, because it reported him as being my current spouse. I disputed anything that was not absolutely correct, literally down

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