Repairing Your Own Credit
Many of us spend a lot of time and effort in building a good credit history. However, sometimes we run into situations which cause our credit to become dysfunctional. A lot of the time the damage to our credit is not intentional. However, credit company statistics show that over 70% of credit reports include at least one derogatory comment in them.
After we cause damage to our credit our next step is to attempt to reestablish our good credit. We can achieve credit repair using any of the methods listed below:
- Get Credit Counseling
- Hire A Credit Repair Service
- Do It Yourself Credit Repair
If you follow the correct approach it is easier to do your own credit repair. Therefore, the rest of this article assumes you prefer the third option above. Here are some basic tips to follow when performing your own credit repair.
Challenge Negative Entries
The first thing to try is to challenge your negative credit report entries to force a determination about whether or not they are verifiable. If they can be found to be unverifiable the entries are eligible for removal from your credit report. The longer the time that has passed, the harder those negative items are to verify.
Time Is Your Ally
If the negative entry removal fails, you can attempt to negotiate those debts down to a payoff agreeable to your current financial situation. For collection services, the more time that passes without receipt of payments the less the debt is worth. Therefore, the longer a debt has been on the books, the better the chances that the collector will accept a lower payment amount to list the debt as paid. As you can see, time is your ally.
After you succeed in repairing your credit record you can begin to reestablish your credit. Keep the following points in mind to accomplish this successfully.
Limit Credit Inquiries
Anytime you apply for a credit or debit account the issuer requests your credit report from the reporting bureaus. These inquiries are added to your official credit report and are available to potential lenders. Too many such entries on your report indicate to them that you have a pattern of acquiring too much debt. This can raise a flag about your ability to pay them back if they make their credit available to you. Your ability to acquire new credit decreases as your credit inquiries increase.
Secured and Pre-Paid Credit Cards
For individuals with poor credit scores it becomes difficult to obtain new credit cards. Therefore, they are forced to apply for pre-paid debit cards or secured credit cards to meet their credit needs. Although no credit check is triggered with either of these applications only the secured card reports your payments to credit bureaus. Both of these card types require a deposit upon sign up.
Pre-Paid Credit Cards
The pre-paid card functions like a checking account debit card. Your account is debited as you make purchases until your funds are gone.
Secured Credit Cards
Secured credit card charges, on the other hand, are applied against your credit line but are not billed to you until the end of the month. Upon receiving your bill you can either make your minimum payment or pay the entire balance. An advantage of these credit cards is that your payments are reported to the credit bureaus. Therefore, if you make timely payments it will help to raise your credit score.
Summary
Observing the tips discussed here will help you do your own credit repair and raise your credit score.
If you are new to credit repair and want more information visit this link for more information: Credit Repair Manual.
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