If you have information on your credit report you believe is erroneous, you have a right to write to the credit reporting agencies and request an investigation. The credit reporting agencies, in turn, must either verify that the information is correct or remove the information from your report. They do not have to remove information that is accurate. You cannot force them to remove accurate negative credit reporting, but they are required by federal law to remove anything that is inaccurate or which they cannot verify.

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     Request a copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. You can do so at the free Annual Credit Report website.

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Mortgage loans are often jointly owned. These home loans are often quite costly and long term, and require a strong dual income to support the mortgage payment. In many cases, the two signers on the mortgage are married couples. In other cases, joint tenants are boyfriends and girlfriends, siblings or children and parents. However, if the time comes to split the mortgage, the process can be challenging. Unfortunately, the mortgage cannot be split evenly--instead, there is only one option: refinance.

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     Review the divorce agreement with your attorney, your ex-spouse and your attorneys, if you are getting a divorce. It is important to consult the agreement to make sure that you are following the orders of the divorce judge. Divorce court tries to be equitable--either requiring the house be sold or requiring one party to buy out the other. Consult this document before approaching a mortgage split.

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Having a lien on your credit report can greatly impact your finances. It will be more difficult to get future credit from creditors. There are different types of liens that can affect a credit report such as mechanical liens and IRS tax liens. You cannot get tax liens erased from your credit report until seven years after you have fully paid the taxes.

1. The Process

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     If the taxes are still outstanding, hire a reputable tax attorney to assist you with dealing with the IRS. The tax attorney will help you to show any financial inability to pay the tax lien and offer the IRS a compromise to pay an amount that is reasonable. The attorney will be able to negotiate on your behalf.

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Learn how to remove late payments on your credit report. This will raise your credit score and make it easier to get loans.

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     Get your credit reports. You can get a free copy of your credit reports from the site listed below or from any free credit report website. You can also get a copy from any lender that has recently denied you credit. You may also request one from the credit bureaus if you have been denied credit recently.

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     Find late payment errors. Review your credit reports for any late payments that could be erroneous or inaccurate. 79% of all credit reports have errors and 25% of those errors are severe enough to deny you credit.

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You want to refinance your existing mortgage loan to take advantage of lower interest rates. This makes sound financial sense: By cutting your interest rate, you can reduce your monthly mortgage payment by $100 or more. Problem is, your home has lost value since you purchased it. Because of this, you don't have an equity level of 20 percent in your home. And that's what most conventional mortgage lenders require before they'll approve you for a refinance. There is hope, though, from the federal government. You'll just have to figure out if you qualify for the government's Home Affordable Refinance Program, often referred to as the bailout refinancing program.

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