You have a file. You have never read it.
Seven parts, in order. What happens, and why that order.
Illustrative walkthrough of the process. Not a client file, and not a prediction of any outcome.
The seven parts, in order
The order is the method. Each part depends on the one before it, which is why doing them out of sequence tends to waste the effort.
The monitoring
Access to what the three bureaus actually hold, not a score summary of it.
The full report, in the form the bureaus keep it.
Updates as the file changes, so nothing is being read from memory.
The audit
Personal information, account history, public records and inquiries, each read in turn.
Most people have never had anyone explain what a given line is doing.
Nothing is challenged before it has been read and understood.
The dispute round
We challenge information that is inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable. Nothing else.
Every challenge is documented in writing and sent in your name.
You have the right to dispute inaccurate information yourself, directly and at no cost.
The building accounts
A thin file is its own problem, separate from anything negative sitting on it.
Accounts that report to the bureaus give the file something to be built from.
Opened in the right order, and kept rather than closed later.
The utilization strategy
It is not only what is owed. It is how much of each limit is in use at the moment it reports.
The reporting date matters as much as the payment date.
Managed deliberately rather than left to whenever the statement happens to close.
The rebuild
The slow, unglamorous part, and the part that actually lasts.
On time, every time, with account age preserved rather than reset.
Consistency is the only thing that compounds here.
The handoff to funding
Personal credit was never the destination, it is the foundation.
The business side is built on top of it, in its own sequence.
This is the point where the credit work hands over to the funding work.