Good credit is almost essential for most people. It can be extremely difficult to buy larger items outright with cash for an ordinary middle-class family. Therefore it becomes necessary to get loans for the bigger items such as cars and especially houses. Good credit can also help you to secure the lowest interest rates and the best terms for your new loans. And recently good credit has also become important to secure jobs and to get the lowest insurance rates.
However, even though it is very important to maintain good credit it has been estimated that as many as 70% of all credit reports have errors and mistakes. These errors can be as simple as under-reporting your good credit or as difficult as having bad credit that actually belongs to somebody else showing on your credit report. Many of these errors, be they errors of omission or outright mistakes can be repaired, removed or updated so that you can more easily achieve the good credit that you need.
Fortunately if you have bad credit there are some things you can do to repair and improve it. First off you need to obtain a copy of your current credit report. You can receive a free copy one time each year from each of the three main credit reporting agencies at annualcreditreport.com. Do not be taken it by advertisements claiming to offer a free credit report as many of these are for credit monitoring services and they will try to persuade you to purchase their services. The only place to get your truly free credit report is at annualcreditreport.com
If you identify mistakes on your report you can dispute them yourself or you can employ the services of a reputable credit repair company. Credit repair can be a time-consuming and frustrating process, as it rarely happens easily or quickly so if you happen to have a busy life, a family, a job, other commitments you may find it helpful to delegate the burden of credit repair to a reputable and professional credit repair company. They should have the professionalism, experience and expertise and that can save you a tremendous amount of added stress and setbacks.
As you are repairing any mistakes on your credit it is also crucially important to maintain our current credit. Are all of your payments up to date? Are you making every payment on time? Also if possible it will serve you to pay down outstanding balances to below 20% of your credit limit. The debt to available credit ratio is very important to achieving a high credit score.
Do not close out old accounts even if you are not using them. This again pertains to the all-important debt to available credit ratio. You want to have available credit that is not in use. This is very positive for your credit score.
By using the correct strategies in time you will have great credit again and that can be a huge relief for your financial situation.
