Credit scores affect every area of our financial well being including qualification for loans and mortgages, the interest rates we pay, employment opportunities, and even insurance premiums. Repairing your credit profile is one of the most important financial decisions you can make. Sometimes it just doesn’t matter who you are, how hard you work, or what dreams you have; all that matters is one little number:
Your credit score.
Hours and hours of learning and research went into gaining this experience and compiling it in a form you can benefit from. This article was meant to be a useful, educational and instructive resource for anyone interested in Credit Repair.
You see the advertisements in newspapers, on TV, and on the Internet. You hear them on the radio. They all make the same claims:
Credit problems? No problem!
We can erase your bad credit 100% guaranteed.
Create a new credit identity legally.
Do yourself a favor and save your money. These are false statements. Only time, effort, and a personal debt repayment plan will improve your credit report.
Like clockwork, companies everywhere appeal to consumers with poor credit histories. They promise, for a fee, to clean up your credit report so you can get a car loan, a home mortgage, insurance, or even a job. The truth is, they can?t deliver. After you pay them hundreds or thousands of dollars in fees, these companies do nothing to improve your credit report; most simply vanish with your money.
Under the Credit Repair Organizations Act, credit repair companies cannot require you to pay until they have completed the services they have promised.
No one can legally remove accurate and timely negative information from a credit report. The law allows you to ask for an investigation of information in your file that you dispute as inaccurate or incomplete. There is no charge for this. Everything a credit repair clinic can do for you legally, you can do for yourself at little or no cost. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act
Some Steps Towards Credit Repair
Credit is an important tool to most peoples lives. A good credit rating allows for many things that we take for granted: having a credit card, being able to rent property, qualifying for in-store financing etc. . .
If you fail to make payments towards a creditor this will affect your credit report collected by your credit bureau, and will make doing the above things difficult if not impossible. If your credit rating becomes bad, you must take steps a.s.a.p. to repair it. Credit repair can be a slow process, and requires that you build a better credit rating over time.
Some steps you should take:
Editor’s Note: I came across this article quite by accident - through a friend. She was reading a website - and the articles on it captivated her. She mentioned it, fortunately we managed to convince the author to agree to share this valuable content with others.
1) Add accounts to your credit report. If you are turned down for credit, immediately get your credit report from the credit bureau in question. Examine your report closely for mistakes. In case there are no errors, you may find that your credit rating is “poor” not because of overdue debts, but because you don’t have enough of a credit history to get you a good rating.
Many types of credit from smaller organizations are not tracked by credit bureaus. Things like gas-cards or department store cards are not usually on your credit report. As long as the account is verifiable, most credit bureaus will add it to your file.
They don’t legally have to,and usually charge a fee for this service. But by by adding these accounts to your credit report you will establish a better credit rating.
2) Credit Counseling. Once you become nearly buried in debt, the process can grow on itself, and it can be very hard to get out of it. If you are having having continual problems with your credit repair, you should seriously consider credit counseling. It’s important to notice the distinction between a credit counselor and a credit repair company.
The former is usually a non-profit service that offers advice and guidance on credit repair, while the latter are for-profit companies of dubious practices that as a habit, charge a fee for things that you can simply do for yourself.Good credit counselors will help you make a feasible budget and stick to it, and help you make the correct decisions regarding your outstanding debts.
By adding all accounts you have in good standing to your credit report, and seeking credit counseling if needed, you will make your way into the ultimate goal of credit repair. The tough thing about credit is that it takes quite a while to build a good credit rating, and a seriously short amount of time to destroy it.
When your credit rating has been damaged, you have to understand that there is no five minute solution: you will have to build your credit rating again - essentially from the ground up.
If you avoid the bogus bull of credit repair companies that promise a quick and easy credit repair for a price, and think along the lines of long term changes to your budgeting and spending habits, you will - after a bit of time - be successful in credit repair.
