Credit restoration is the process of erasing bad credit off your credit reports. Credit restoration involves credit repair and credit modification methods. Credit repair involves obtaining your credit reports from the three credit bureaus:

Once you've received your credit reports, you need to carefully go through it. It's estimated that up to 70% of credit reports have some sort of error in them, and some of those errors can seriously damage your credit. This is why it is important to check your credit regularly and send correction letters to dispute credit bureau reporting when you find an error.

Credit Bureaus Use Codes, including:

Credit Repair Analysts Get Results

Who is Responsible for the Account
J = Joint Account
I = Individual
T = Terminated
M = Maker (signer)
C = Co-Maker
U = Undesignated
A = Authorized User
B = On behalf of another
S = Shared

Type of Account
O = Open account (30 or 90 days)
R = Revolving or option account (open-end)
I = Installment Account (fixed number of payments)

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Current Method of Payment
O = Approved, but too new to rate
1 = Pays account as agreed
2 = Pays (or paid) after 30 days of due date but before 60 days, not more than one payment due at any given time.
3 = Pays in more than 60 days, but less than 90, or two payments past due.
4 = Pays in more than 90 days, less than 120, three payments past due
5 = Pays in more than 120 days.
7 = Making payments under wage-earner plan or similar arrangement.
8 = Repossession
9 = Bad debt, placed for collection; written off

The symbols are often combined, which is why you may see something like R2 or I3. The goal is to get all R1's and/or I1's. Because credit repair is a complicated and time-consuming product, many people end up buying a credit repair kit or partnering with a Credit Repair Company. Make sure you deal with a company that is a member of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and has had no complaints.

The second part of credit restoration deals with contacting creditors directly to dispute any information that is inaccurate or unverifiable and negotiating with them to possibly delete, re-age or otherwise favorably update your credit reports. Yes, this is legal. While negative information can stay on your credit reports is allowed to stay up to seven years, there is no law that says the creditor MUST leave it there for the entire 7-year period.