Cleaning up a credit report can be time consuming. Most of the times you do not even find out about something being on your credit report until you are applying for a new home loan, car loan, or credit card. Of course it could not come at a worse time for you as you are probably ready to buy. Worst of all is that it could be a little bit embarrassing too. When your credit is pulled it is usually done from the top three reporting companies. When you look at it you will be able to contact each bureau and start asking about each account.
The first place you should head to is the credit reporting companies themselves. Equifax is one of the three largest companies that handles these types of inquiries. There is a strong chance that if anything is showing it is with them. To be able to work with them you will have to purchase a credit report from them. From there you will start going over the accounts in question. You might get lucky and only have to deal with Equifax because many companies only work with them.
The company that started the whole credit scoring system was My Fico. They work with all three credit bureaus. There will be a fee involved to work with them as they are going to handle all of your accounts for you. After obtaining the account numbers they will inform you of who you need to pay to close or cancel out an account. After you pay the bill, My Fico will forward the info to Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union on your behalf.
If paying your outstanding bills in full is not going to work and you want them lowered then Lexington Law should be your next phone call. This is a law firm who specializes in helping people clean up their credit reports and also negotiate lower balances for their clients. The fees involved with working with them are higher than your other options but you might pay less in the long run with your debts. When all accounts are settled, they will forward the statements to the credit bureaus for you.
If you need to repair your credit then start with the three sources above. They are all very good at what they do. The further down the list you go the more expensive it might be. With the end goal to clean up your credit it might sound costly now but paying higher rates on other things you want to buy might be costlier with bad credit.