Common Sense Tips On How To Repair Your Credit Legally Without Too Much Pain
It doesn’t matter why your credit report score is low. Foreclosure, bankruptcy, numerous credit tradelines, or what have you, you must improve your score in order to enjoy the benefits of having good credit. This is self-evident to all — including thieves. Due to the recent rash of foreclosures, many will have that terrible entry on their credit report for years, around seven years actually.
How about bankruptcies? Ten years it will remain on your credit report. Such desperation causes some to think they can employ creative ways to right the ship of their credit score. Be careful. This article will show you some of the things to watch
Be assured that while you may have bad credit, there is a way to repair your credit legally.
Actually, rebuild would be a better term I suppose but there is some element of repair to it. The best thing to do would be to hire a lawyer who knows the nuances of credit laws. The problem, though, is that lawyers are very expensive. You should do everything in your power to correct your credit without hiring a lawyer. That should be a last resort (believe me, I know this from experience). Yes, t will take a lot of effort but you can repair your credit yourself. So, now, here are some excellent real-world tips on how to repair your own credit.
1. Become familiar with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. I don’t remember the exact percentage but literally about 1 in 6 credit reports have an error on them. This error can dramatically in some cases adversely affect your credit. When you get your credit report, look it over for errors. It can also help you avoid future problems.
2. Get copies of your credit report from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus. Any credit report will have the scores of all of them usually. (Believe it or not, you can get a free credit report.) Go over it carefully making sure everything is correct. If anything seems to be incorrect, get a statement regarding anything you think is reported in error. Gather all proof you can as to why it is an error. Documentation beats conversation. You have to prove to the credit agencies that you are telling the truth. If you can do that, they will eliminate the mistakes.
3. Don’t buy into the “create a new credit file” scam. This is illegal and will land you in more trouble than you want. Creating a new credit file is credit fraud. Some people will try to sell this idea as a way to get money from desperate people looking for a way out.
4. Be especially consistent in repaying any money borrowed from banks with car and mortgage loans. Basically, any organization that submits reports to a credit agency you need to pay on a timely basis. This is the most important step. Don’t be late on anything. Pay everything you own on time and your credit score will improve.
5. If you can, pay all you credit card debt every month. Don’t pay any interest. Use your card as cash and don’t allow the card to get any interest accumulating. I’ve done this and it works great even though it seems counter productive.
6. Dispute any bad reports you disagree with in writing to the credit bureau on plain paper. They call it typically (at least the ones I dealt with “dispute resolution”. Include any notarized and official documents of proof that the item reported is erroneous. For many items, send separate letters of dispute. Treat them on a case-by-case basis. Doing it en masse is ill advised. Be advised that it is a good idea to avoid sending dispute letters during a high volume time of year, like as November through January. It usually takes longer to process your dispute during that time.
In time, you will be able to get a low limit credit card, which should be your immediate goal or a small consumer loan or even a car loan. If you show renewed credit worthiness, you will then be able to afford significant loans like a home loan or a business loan with good customer interest rates.
Conclusion
Credit can be rebuilt. I once had a credit score of 532 and I was on the verge of having six homes go into foreclosure at one time. I followed the advice in this article and within a year and a half, my middle score was 722. If you’re willing to diligently work at it, you can repair your credit yourself rather than let the the credit agencies determine you’re worthy of credit again after a number of years passing.
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