Most people need to have a good credit rating.
Good credit is required to get loans on important items like cars and houses. Good credit can also help you to get more favorable interest rates. Good credit is a benefit in any economic climate.
If you have inaccurate, misleading or erroneous credit showing on your credit report, you can repair your credit. You can either do it on your own or you can utilize the services of a professional credit repair service.
You will need to issue a dispute on the erroneous credit and then the credit bureaus will have a certain amount of time to either verify the information or remove it from your account.
The very first step in repairing your credit is to get a credit report from each of the three main credit-reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Get a report before you contact a professional credit repair service if that is your plan.
Once you have your report in hand, study it carefully. There will likely be some obvious things that you can fix, but there will also be some things that may not be so apparent. Look for duplicate accounts, information that is outdated, wrong names, misreported credit amounts and more.
Any accounts that are past due will need to be brought up-to-date. Inquire with your creditors about setting up a payment plan if you are behind more than you can catch up. None of your credit repair efforts will be effective if you are still showing any kind of late payments. Completely pay off everything that you can so you can eliminate those accounts completely.
When you are working on your credit repair do not close your credit card accounts. Surprisingly, closing your accounts actually counts against you for your credit score by reducing the amount of credit available. You can go ahead and close out department store accounts because they are not looked on as favorably as other types of credit.
While you are completing your credit repair it is important not to apply for any more credit. Each inquiry counts against you and your credit repair success will come easier if you do not add any additional credit until you are done. After your score is higher because you have cleaned up your report it will be easier to get credit and better rates anyway.
Credit repair is an effective way to improve your financial life. It will take some time and expertise but it can make a huge difference in your economics. You may want to use the services of a professional credit repair service if you want to achieve the maximum results.
Are you working on repairing your credit?
Flickr image by TrinityCreditServices
