If you’ve seen advertisements that say you can repair your own credit, be aware that the statement is only true to a point, and it’s often not as simple as it’s made out to sound, but some of it can be done. There are things that you can do to start improving your credit rating, and those things will make it more acceptable to a lender at a later date when you decide that you want to borrow money and your credit has to be checked. The first step, therefore, is to know what’s on your credit report and why it’s there, because you can’t work at improving your credit if you don’t even know what it looks like right now.
Next, step two is to take a look at the credit reports that you’ve been sent from the various bureaus (there should be three of them - Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) and spend some time comparing them. If you see discrepancies, part of your credit problem could be that there are things on your credit that actually don’t belong to you and that are hurting your credit. You can call the credit bureaus and ask that these things be removed, and they will investigate them for you - finding no evidence that these things really belong to you will get them removed from your file and a new copy of your credit report issued to you, which can help to raise your credit score.
Step three involves how many active credit accounts you really have, since having a good credit score requires at least three active accounts. When someone only has one or two accounts, especially if those accounts are only credit cards and not longer-standing accounts like vehicle loans or mortgages, it doesn’t show a strong history of being able to handle credit properly. You can get more accounts if you don’t have enough to have a great credit rating, but you should be careful doing that, since getting too many accounts too quickly can harm your credit - and that’s especially true if those accounts are just credit cards.
Step four is a crucial one if you know someone who has good credit and who trusts you, because it’s not a step that you can do on your own. What you want to do here is get that trusted person to add you as an authorized user on their credit cards without actually giving you the card to use - that way you won’t be spending or adding up debt, but you will be getting the benefit of their good credit added to your credit report. Only do this with a person who has had the card for at least two years and who has not been late with a payment, though, because their credit problems with that card would also attach to your report, as well.
Step five starts into the harder things, like paying down your debt, since having a high balance on your credit accounts makes you look as though you’re not responsible with credit - and it will harm your credit score. When you start paying down balances, focus on getting them down below 50% of what you’re allowed to borrow on the credit card, and from that point work to get them down to 30% of what you owe and make sure that they stay below that level, because when you do that you’ll show that you are being responsible with your credit. You’ll have a much better chance of getting future credit that you might need if you can show that the balances on your cards are low and that they are staying low, so it’s something worth concentrating on, since it shows that you’re taking good care of your credit.
Another important step, the sixth one on the list, is to not take a step at all, in the sense that you don’t want to close out the credit accounts that you have paid off. Accounts that are in good standing and that are still open give you points on your credit report and if you close those accounts out you might actually see your credit score drop by a little bit instead of rising. Some accounts you won’t have control over and they will automatically close out when they are paid off, like mortgages and car loans, but keep those good-standing, paid off credit card accounts open.
Probably the easiest step of all is step seven, but it’s also a long-term step, and that’s to maintain what you’ve managed to get where good credit is concerned. Don’t pay off your old debt just so you can add up a bunch of new debt, and you’ll not only have more money but you’ll be better able to get credit in the future for something that you really need if you don’t have a bunch of other debt. If you only get credit for things that you really need (vehicle, house, etc) and use your credit cards sparingly, you’ll be much better suited to having a really high credit score and not worrying about your ability to get credit when you absolutely need it.
Tags: credit help, credit repair, Finance, Home equity loans, loan modification, Loans, money, mortgage, personal finance, real estate