Credit repair can be a long and tedious process. Getting inaccurate and erroneous information removed from you credit reports can take some time and energy and it may take awhile to get your credit score increased as much as you can. However, there are few quick fix things that can get you started faster than usual.
When repairing your credit the first step is always to get a current copy of all of your credit reports from each of the three main credit bureaus, TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. You are entitled to one free report from each bureau one time per year or you can also get a tri-merged report for a fee. If you contact one of the companies that offer a ?free credit report? you will get your report along with a sales pitch for additional services that you may not need. Make an informed decision before purchasing additional services. You do not need any company to help you get the free report; you can just get it on your own.
You can take a few proactive approaches to improve your credit score. You can apply for a credit card. The problem is that you may not be able to get a regular card if you have bad credit. However, you can always get a secured card and that is a good solution. You will put a deposit into an account and use that account as security. Make sure that you make all of the payments on time and keep the balance below 10% of the available credit or you will be defeating your purpose.
One thing that is important when repairing credit is to pay down any outstanding balances. Your credit score from FICO is based partially upon your debt to available credit ratio. As soon as you are able you should pay down any outstanding balances to below 20% of the available line of credit. Any new credit cards including the secured cards should also be below 20% of the available amount.
You may also considering consolidating your debt into one account. If you have an older credit card, consolidate all of the credit card debt on that card. Another large portion of your credit score is based upon your length of credit history. An older account is more valuable for a high credit score than a newer account.
When you are preparing to start writing disputes on your erroneous credit, you should pay close attention to all collection accounts. Many of these accounts show up as duplicates because of poor reporting when an account is sold. The same account can show up with the original lender and even more than one collection agency.
Collection agencies buy bad accounts and try to collect on them. They purchase loans from original lenders but also between themselves. Check all collection accounts very closely and make phone calls to verify that the account is active. If you only had one account make sure that it only shows once on your credit report.
It will not take long to start seeing some improvement if you take a few of these action. It will probably still take some time to complete the credit repair process but at least you will be on you way quicker if you start out right.
