ATLANTA -- When banks and lenders start loaning money again it may be more important than ever to have a high credit score, which means it is more important than ever to make sure your credit report is clean.

In Kim’s Cash and Credit Clean-up, Kim looks at how you can get rid of errors on that report.

As an IT consultant in business for himself, Sal Palma says he never misses checking his credit report for free twice a year.

“Actually more often. Actually, probably I would say on a quarterly basis," said Palma.

Reacting to the recent credit crisis, experts say it may be impossible to get loans in the near future, even for things like cars, unless you score is high.

“One of the major lenders for auto loans raised the floor for credit scores to about 700 and in doing that they eliminated about half the population from getting auto loans with them,” said Ely.

But your score won't be near that number if your report is riddled with errors and at Atlanta based Equifax, they say it is not uncommon

“The lender or the creditor you got the credit from simply made a mistake when they reported that it could be noted as a late payment or an incorrect amount. Those are pretty easy to fix,” said Steve Ely.

If you think there is an error on your credit report it is your right to dispute the information.

1. You need to contact the 3 credit agencies online or by phone.
“We would encourage you to do it online. It is the fastest easiest way to do that,” said Ely.
2. You have a right to have your dispute investigated in 30 days, 45 if the credit report was one of your free, yearly reports.
“It's a tedious process, but something I think you have to do,” said Palma.
3. If there is an error on your credit report, you have the right to ask the credit reporting company to notify anyone who received the erroneous report within the past 6 months.
4. If you can't resolve the dispute and you still think there is an error on your credit report, it is your right to defend yourself by adding a brief personal statement to your credit report.

“It can [be] up to 100 words. We'll record that in the credit file so that anyone who pulls your credit report for a loan or anything will see that description in your credit file,” said Ely.

For tips on reading and disputing items on your credit report, go to Equifax.