If you are currently repairing your credit report you understand how important your score is. How this number directly impacts your quality of life.

You will be judged by employers and lenders on this number. It can prevent you from being approved for credit and worse yet being hired for a job.

Many lenders will look at nothing else but your credit score when you apply for new credit. They rarely care as to the reason why a negative mark is on your credit.

There are two parts to credit repair that you should concentrate on.

1. Deleting negative marks on your credit report.

Negative marks cause the most damage to your score. However you can remove these items without waiting the full 7 years.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act that was passed by congress allows you to dispute negative marks. When you file a dispute you are challenging the accuracy or validity of a negative mark on your credit report.

To file a dispute a dispute letter must be sent to each credit bureau. In this letter you must include why the listing is inaccurate. Common reasons are; not my account, item is out of date, account paid in full. Upon receipt of your letter the bureaus will investigate the disputed listing.

If the mark can not be verified then the credit bureau must remove it from your report. It has been found that once a listing is investigated it is often removed, regardless of its accuracy.

2. Build positive credit

This is a more challenging task. If you have a low score it is difficult to be approved for new credit.

However you need to have a credit line to build positive credit. This will have the most impact if it is an unsecured credit card, even with outrageous interest rates.

With this card you should try to keep the balance at around 10% of the credit limit. This will help your score because it shows you have available credit that is not being used; the bureaus call this your ratio of credit to debt.

By making your monthly payments on time it will also create a positive payment history on your report. If you can not create a positive payment history it will be almost impossible to add points to your credit score.

In sum you can repair your low credit score. It may make sense to wait and remove some of the derogatory items before you apply for new credit. However both these aspects need to be used to get to a 700 credit score.