Let me tell you about our bad credit repair story. After we found our dream house, we applied for the home loan. That is when we discovered all of the problems that were showing on our credit report. Unfortunately for us, there was a ton of problems, charge-offs, collection accounts and old bankruptcy filing and even a tax lien. Some of the things on our report were ours from when we had financial difficulties years before, but we had turned things around, we thought those problems were in the past.
But they were still there on our credit report. And then there were things showing that we didn’t know a thing about. Some of it wasn’t even our credit but it belonged to someone else. We found out quickly that we were in serious need of some type of credit repair services!
In fact, our low credit scores caused us problems we never even dreamed of. We couldn’t get a decent credit card and there wasn’t a bank around that would even talk to us after they saw our credit report. It was demoralizing to say the least. So we started to do searches on the Internet like, “how to improve credit score” and “how to fix your credit” or “improve credit score” you know what I’m talking about.
How To Improve Credit Score Without Credit Repair Services
Unless you were born into an extremely wealthy family, it is unlikely that you will be able to get through life without having a few credit problems. It is just the nature of the current economy that credit problems happen. So you might need more information on how to improve credit score or find credit repair services.
Why You Need Good Credit
Good credit is required to get a home mortgage, loans on automobiles, credit cards and more. Removing the negative credit and repairing your credit report can make your financial life much easier.
How To Improve Credit Score And What You Need To Start
You’re probably asking “how do I fix my credit” or maybe “how to improve credit score”? We have broke it down in to seven steps below.
1. Order a report from each of the three main credit-reporting bureaus, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. You have the option to receive a free credit report from each one time per year, however, you may want to save time and get a tri-merged report that contains all three reports for a fee. You will want to improve your credit reports by purposefully working towards removing negative listings and improving the positive listings. If you choose to make a dispute the credit bureaus will have 45 days from receipt of the dispute to verify the veracity of their listing. The sooner you have a report and the sooner you make your disputes the sooner you will get results.
2. Opt out. The credit bureaus can sell your information to creditors, insurance companies and more.
3. Update all of your personal information with the credit bureaus. It is only necessary to have your current address along with your name; all other information is superfluous and can be eliminated. It is not necessary to have employee information or job history information on your credit reports so delete whatever you can delete, keeping only your current correct address. It will take about a week for your updates to be completed.
4. Read up on the laws and know your rights. There are the Federal laws: FCRA- the Fair Credit Reporting Act. FDCPA-the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act. FCBA-the Fair Credit Billing Act and others. All of the Federal laws are enforced by the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission. There are also individual state laws that govern credit reporting and debt collection. Find information about your individual state here. Remember that when you are learning how to improve credit score these laws are your friend.
5. Compare your reports and determine the order or urgency. There are some debts that may have passed the Statute of Limitations for your state. If they have passed the statute of limitations you need to dispute them and have them removed. The statute of limitations timeline is always from the date of the first delinquency. You may also have debts showing on your credit report that are completely inaccurate. There may be debts that do not belong to you or have different terms than the ones you originally agreed to. These listings can also be disputed. For items that are accurate and still in the statute of limitations that rightfully belong to you, you will need to contact the creditors directly and make arrangements.
6. Be specific and detailed in your dispute letters. It is not recommended that you list all of your disputes in one letter as it can get too confusing and some problems may get lost in the shuffle. Dispute each item separately or at the very minimum just combine a few at a time. You will also need to be patient and give the credit bureaus time to verify your disputes. They are required to do it within a certain period of time (45 days and 5 days to respond back to you) or remove it from your credit report. Do not submit more disputes while they are verifying the information on your past disputes, you do not want to confuse the issue any more than you have to.
7. If your reports come back verified, you may have to send out a debt verification letter to the original creditor to verify that the loan if still valid and belongs to you or a debt validation to a collection agency, which validates their right to collect the debt. If you have just a few late payments on an otherwise upstanding account, you may need to send out a ?goodwill? letter that explains your temporary lapse of how you made the mistake of being late but that you are now back on your feet and will never allow it to happen again. Many times these explanations can be added to your report and they can be helpful with creditors.
Hire A Credit Repair Services Company
It is important to realize that you can do all of the things to repair your credit on your own. However, there are reputable, successful companies with high expertise who can help you for a fee. It may be worth it to check out some of these companies as they specialize in credit repair services and they have developed an expertise.
If a specialized credit repair company can fix your credit and they can do it easier and faster than you can do it yourself it would probably be well worth the service plus saving you time and the avoiding the difficulties of doing it alone. So might want to forget how to improve credit score and have a pro do it.
Check out any credit repair services that you are thinking of using. The Better Business Bureau can usually give you valuable information on a company. Reputable credit repair services companies follow the professional guidelines established by the Credit Repair Organizations Act.
The CROA was enacted to protect consumers from dishonorable and dishonest practices. Make sure that the credit repair services company you pick has a good, solid reputation and a good track record.
Whether you have learned how to improve credit score and you decide to do it yourself or use a professional to assist you with your credit repair it is a good idea to try to repair your credit as life is unpredictable and you never know when you might need to have your good credit.
