10 Must Do Things to Fix Your Credit Report
If your credit rating is poor, do not panic. There are a lot of things you can do to fix your credit report. There are many companies that claim to "fix" your credit, but you can do the same thing for free. If you follow our tips you will be well on your way to repairing your credit.
1. Knowing what is on your credit report is the first step in repairing your credit. President Bush back in 2003 signed into law the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions act. This act allows you to receive one free credit report per year for all United States Citizens.
2. Check your credit report carefully before accepting discrepancies as valid. There are times when issues could occur when a mistake is made or an error in your file is made. These can be handled easily through a credit dispute, which takes a little time but removes the discrepancy if proven invalid. You want to make sure that these errors or mistakes don't exist so you aren't paying for something that isn't right.
3. An important tip to consider when working to repair your credit is to know what goes into calculating your credit score. This is important to know because it is composed of a complicated series of calculations that judge your score based on a large amount of variables. What is most important to know is that will take a long time to build your score up, however it can quickly drop if you do not pay your bills or default on a loan.
4. Check your credit report often. Even if you don't have bad credit due to defaults or bankruptcy, there may be errors on it that are not your fault. It can be scary, but knowing what is on your report is essential to maintaining healthy credit. It is recommended to check your credit report, at least twice a year.
5. To figure out how to best start improving your credit, order copies of all three major credit reports. Read through them carefully to see what's reducing your credit score, and if any information on the report is incorrect. It's important to obtain all three reports because most creditors won't report to every credit bureau.
6. Set up automatic payments for your credit cards. You can set this up by calling your credit card company. This way you can be sure at least the minimum payment is made every month on time. If you do this, you can avoid forgetting about it and getting late fees.
7. Paying your bills on time every time must become a priority as you work to rebuild your credit. Your payment history reigns supreme when your credit score is being calculated so anything that you can do to start improving that history will be a huge help to your FICO scores.
8. Any credit cards that have balances over 50% of your limit should be paid off until they are less than 50% of your limit. When balances are over 50%, your credit rating goes down significantly, so try to either spread out your debt or, ideally, pay off your credit cards.
9. Throw away all your credits cards, and keep only one. When you have multiple cards it is much harder to stay on top of all the monthly payments. It is really unnecessary to have more than one card, and canceling cards is easy. All you have to do is call or write a letter to the issuer of the card to cancel it, make arrangements to an existing balance or transfer the balance to the one card you are keeping. This makes your finances easier to track, and helps to reduce the amount you purchase on credit.
10. If you have negative items on your credit report, you have the right to challenge them at any time. Even if you don't think an item is disputable, there is a chance you can have it removed if the credit bureau doesn't investigate your challenge in a timely manner. For items that are two years old or more, the credit bureau may have trouble finding information to verify its accuracy, in which case they will have to delete it from your report.
As you can see, by following our helpful tips you will be able to do exactly what credit repair companies do. Your credit rating does not have to stay in the poor range forever; you now have the knowledge to drag yourself out of the poor credit world and into the good credit world.
For more Personal Finance Tips see the author box below.
1. Knowing what is on your credit report is the first step in repairing your credit. President Bush back in 2003 signed into law the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions act. This act allows you to receive one free credit report per year for all United States Citizens.
2. Check your credit report carefully before accepting discrepancies as valid. There are times when issues could occur when a mistake is made or an error in your file is made. These can be handled easily through a credit dispute, which takes a little time but removes the discrepancy if proven invalid. You want to make sure that these errors or mistakes don't exist so you aren't paying for something that isn't right.
3. An important tip to consider when working to repair your credit is to know what goes into calculating your credit score. This is important to know because it is composed of a complicated series of calculations that judge your score based on a large amount of variables. What is most important to know is that will take a long time to build your score up, however it can quickly drop if you do not pay your bills or default on a loan.
4. Check your credit report often. Even if you don't have bad credit due to defaults or bankruptcy, there may be errors on it that are not your fault. It can be scary, but knowing what is on your report is essential to maintaining healthy credit. It is recommended to check your credit report, at least twice a year.
5. To figure out how to best start improving your credit, order copies of all three major credit reports. Read through them carefully to see what's reducing your credit score, and if any information on the report is incorrect. It's important to obtain all three reports because most creditors won't report to every credit bureau.
6. Set up automatic payments for your credit cards. You can set this up by calling your credit card company. This way you can be sure at least the minimum payment is made every month on time. If you do this, you can avoid forgetting about it and getting late fees.
7. Paying your bills on time every time must become a priority as you work to rebuild your credit. Your payment history reigns supreme when your credit score is being calculated so anything that you can do to start improving that history will be a huge help to your FICO scores.
8. Any credit cards that have balances over 50% of your limit should be paid off until they are less than 50% of your limit. When balances are over 50%, your credit rating goes down significantly, so try to either spread out your debt or, ideally, pay off your credit cards.
9. Throw away all your credits cards, and keep only one. When you have multiple cards it is much harder to stay on top of all the monthly payments. It is really unnecessary to have more than one card, and canceling cards is easy. All you have to do is call or write a letter to the issuer of the card to cancel it, make arrangements to an existing balance or transfer the balance to the one card you are keeping. This makes your finances easier to track, and helps to reduce the amount you purchase on credit.
10. If you have negative items on your credit report, you have the right to challenge them at any time. Even if you don't think an item is disputable, there is a chance you can have it removed if the credit bureau doesn't investigate your challenge in a timely manner. For items that are two years old or more, the credit bureau may have trouble finding information to verify its accuracy, in which case they will have to delete it from your report.
As you can see, by following our helpful tips you will be able to do exactly what credit repair companies do. Your credit rating does not have to stay in the poor range forever; you now have the knowledge to drag yourself out of the poor credit world and into the good credit world.
For more Personal Finance Tips see the author box below.
