Monday, 8 July 2013

How To Fix Your Credit

By Maria M. Moller


If your credit situation is less than ideal and you are trying to buy a home, you probably are interested in repairing your credit fast. While there are certainly things that you can do to quickly improve your credit situation, it is important that you have realistic expectations. If you have had a recent foreclosure or bankruptcy, it simply is not going to be possible to repair your credit quickly. However, if most of your recent bills have been paid on time and your problems are a bit older, there is quite a bit that you can do to improve your overall credit situation.
[How To Fix Your Credit]


A bad credit score not only affects a person's ability to borrow and obtain loans, it can also adversely affect a person's quality of life. Obtaining good credit is something that many people wish to achieve, but many don't have the basic know how to get started. In the next few paragraphs we will discuss three simple ways you can begin to fix your credit report, and do so without having a negative effect on your credit score.

Once you have the results of your disputes, you will want to move on to the next step for any accounts that were not successfully removed from your credit report. Depending on who is currently servicing the accounts, you will want to go through the 623 method or the debt validation method. In both of these strategies, you are dealing directly with the account holder and requiring them to prove to you specific information regarding your account. If they cannot do this, they are not legally allowed to report to the credit bureaus.

Sometimes there will be negative accounts such as collections, judgments and public records that are listed on your credit report in error. When attempting to fix your credit report, you should look at each individual account and verify that the information reported is accurate. If you locate accounts on your report that are potentially negative and obviously reporting incorrectly, credit reporting agencies use a process called a "dispute" to allow consumers to dispute potentially negative items and inaccuracies on their credit reports. Disputing an item listed on your report with a credit reporting agency is free to do, so if you find inaccurate information in your file don't hesitate to dispute it.

Take out a small loan.If you take out a small personal loan from the bank, and pay it back over time, it can help your credit score.Once again, it will show all three major credit bureaus that you are responsible and pay your bills on time.Typically, local banks and credit unions will give you the best deal on a small loan, so consider stopping by and seeing what kind of deal they can give you.Use more than one card.Having a seldom-used card can't hurt your credit score, but it also isn't helping you either.Active credit accounts affect your score more, so instead of charging $500 to one card, put $250 on your normal credit card, and dig out that old one you barely use from dresser drawer and put the other $250 on it.

By charging to both cards -- and paying off both cards -- it shows credit bureaus that you have two accounts to which you are making on-time payments.You are looking for ways to fix your credit. The number one thing to do is to be sure that your monthly bills are paid in full by the due date. If you need assistance remembering when to remit payments, you can set up some sort of payment reminder. You can find various methods that will assist you in doing so. With the information age upon us, the possibilities are endless. There are many computer programs available to help with reminders, and now since phones have become mini computers, you can set up payment reminders on your phone. Which ever way works best for you.

It is always important for people to get a good understanding of what they are dealing with before they start attempting to raise their scores. This requires people to request copies of their reports from each one of the three major reporting agencies. These should all be fairly identical to one another, however, you may note some marked differences.Studying each of these documents and the differences that you are able to spot could help you to identify glaring reporting errors. For instance, sometimes companies report charges to the wrong consumer report. This is because the names of the two individuals might be very similar or even identical. This tends to happen a lot to people who have very common names, such as John Smith.

Obviously, steer clear of any tactic that may get you in trouble, or arrested. Such too-good-to-be-true scams are all over the World Wide Web. Usually they pitch that they can cause your bad credit history disappear to be replaced with a brand new shiny one. Don't fall for this scam. It is illegal, and you will find yourself in deep trouble. Simply paying for court defense will end up costing you a lot more than you would save, and you probably will go to jail.

It is probably pretty obvious that you will need to pay down open accounts if you want to enhance your score. Businesses will be reticent to offer you new financing if you have any existing amount of debt that seems overwhelming. Once you have less on your plate, however, you may be able to start qualifying for some of the loans that you really want.

Consumers must also work hard to develop positive lines of credit. If you want to know how to fix your score in a major way, you will find that spending money will actually help to increase an individual's purchasing power. You do not need to make a major purchase in order to do this. In fact, many people establish positive lines of credit by simply signing up for secured credit cards or by letting a business finance an in-store furniture purchase. These accounts are easy to manage and pay down and will help you to show yourself as being worthy of larger amounts of funding.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment