Credit scores and duplicate listings

Joined: 26 Apr 2004 Posts: 7 Location: Idaho

To all,

I wanted to ask you a couple of questions.

I got my three credit bureau reports and my FICO

My fico is 598. I know it isn't great but it is actually higher than I expected. My first question is - Is there any way to raise that quickly? If so what can I do to accomplish my goal of a higher FICO? I thought maybe if I dispute some things on line I could get a few things changed.

Next - I have many duplicate listings of the same items. This seems to be because there are minor differences on some - slighly different account numbers. Others are sold to collection agencies. Can I get the duplicates removed?

Is there any harm in having a duplicate if it is a positive? I was wondering if even a positive mark might still be lowering my FICO.

I would appreciate any helpful input.

Thanks,

Ruth