How do I get credit reporting agencies to remove old info?

Is the information correct, or incorrect? If it’s incorrect, you can simply call them and tell them, and they will automatically followup and remove it. If it’s correct, you may have to wait it out (I think it takes a number of years for things to disappear off your credit record).

The first time I checked my credit I noticed a credit card on there that wasn’t mine. I called the credit reporting agency (I think it was Equifax) and they took care of it surprisingly smoothly.

ben’s cheerful picture reflects his optimism. Even incorrect information can be difficult to get off, simply because you are small potatoes to the credit reporting agencies, and correcting bad information is not how a CRA makes its money. They wouldn’t have had to pass all the legislation forcing CRA’s to act responsibly if they were inclined to do so. I’ve done a lot of bankruptcies and had CRA’s refuse to update or remove incorrect information. Sometimes it’s not their fault because the creditors keep reporting incorrect information. I myself have a Spiegel account I have been trying to get off my credit report off and on for 20 years. It comes off, it comes back on. I’m not even sure Spiegel is still in business, but I never opened any account.

On the other hand, sometimes they are very responsive. If they are not, all you can do is keep following up with them, or give up and wait the 7–10 years for it to roll off your credit report, or see if you can find a consumer attorney willing to jump on them for a pattern of bad conduct.