Commence Your Credit Repair Journey Today

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Friday, March 12th, 2010 Subscribe To Our Feed

All too frequently acquiring good credit is a vital part of life. We all need to have good credit in order to qualify for mortgages, car loans and credit cards. However, for many of us past monetary problems and times of economic challenges have damaged our good credit. There are some steps we can take to start to fix our credit and re-establish some stability to our economic lives.

As you start to repair your credit report the first step you need to take is to get a credit report from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus, TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. You are allowed a no cost report from each of them one time per year or you can pay a cost and get a tri-merged report also. You may find that it is simpler to measure the information if it is all contained on one report.

When you have your reports you will need to inspect them meticulously for incorrect information or inaccuracies. It is believed that as many as 70% of all credit reports hold mistakes so it is to your advantage to find them so that you can take care of them right away. There will also likely be some outdated or older accounts that have passed the statute of limitations in your state. You may be able to get those deleted on that basis alone.

Check your credit report also to make sure that your uppermost credit limits are reported. Many businesses fail to give an account or often underreport credit limits. This can be damaging to your credit score since a large proportion of your score is based upon your offered credit compared to the credit you have utilized. Try to continually keep your balances below the 20% mark of your accessible credit. You can also accomplish a quick credit score lift if you can get a creditor to raise your credit limits.

Many times duplicate accounts will show up on a credit report. They may not be reporting negatively but they still influence you negatively because it shows that you have more unresolved debt than you really do. Make sure to dispute duplicate accounts because the highest credit scores go to the individuals with the most obtainable credit and the lowest debt.

Be cautious about paying off old collection accounts and charge-offs. Information is reported on the date of last activity so an old collection account that is not paid may really be better for your credit score than one that is paid up or even paid off because of the last activity date brings all the negative information forward. Collection accounts are often passed on and sold to other companies and each company may list information on your credit report. When they no longer own the account they are meant to remove the information but many times they do not follow through on that later. Make sure that the accounts on your report are valid and not duplicates.

If there are mysterious items on your account make sure that you dispute them. Many folks find that other people’s credit information shows up on their credit report. This often happens when you share a common name such as Smith or Jones. Make sure that all of the credit on your credit report belongs to you and is an correct portrayal of your credit. Verify names, identifying numbers and make sure that the records contained on your report agree with your own records.

It is also smart to start to build new credit by acquiring a credit card. If you cannot as yet meet the criteria for a conventional credit card, you can get a prepaid card. Do not get credit from department stores, furniture stores or the like to establish credit because the credit bureaus look upon that category of credit as a negative and it is detrimental to your score.

It may be useful to engage a professional company to help you with your credit repair. A good credit repair company will have the expertise to guide you through the credit repair maze quickly and competently. Of course, you can always attempt to complete your repairs on your own also but in the interest of competence, hiring a expert may be something to consider.

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