Having good credit score is crucial in today’s world. It is almost impossible to get a loan for a house or a car with bad credit and potential employers and landlords can pull and look at your credit. If you have made credit mistakes in the past, you can get past them and start to work on fixing your credit.
Pay every bill and pay it on time. If you don’t have the money, lean on friends and family to help if you can. It takes a long time to recover from even one late or missed payment. Above all your bills, keep your credit cards and loans paid and on time.
Talking directly to the credit bureaus can help you determine the source of reports on your history as well as give you a direct link to knowledge about improving your file. The employees at the bureaus have all the details of your history and knowledge of how to impact reports from various creditors.
When starting the process of rebuilding your credit, pull your credit report from all 3 agencies. These three are Experian, Transunion, and Equifax. Don’t make the mistake of only getting one credit report. Each report will contain some information that the others do not. You need all three in order to truly research what is going on with your credit.
Do not add on additional debt if you are working on repairing your credit. Opening a new account when you have missed payments and late accounts on file sends up a red flag to possible lenders. Fix the credit problems you have before opening any new credit cards.
Make sure to borrow no more than 30% of the credit available to you. Your credit score will start to suffer if you have any higher credit utilization than that. Make sure to use your cards, though, because using none of your available credit hurts your score as well.
Pay down credit card debt. Most people carry a debt on their credit cards, usually at an exorbitant interest rate. By paying the minimum amount each month, you will only be making a small dent on the balance. If you have any excess cash, you should start trying to pay off the credit card that has the highest interest rate. Once you have paid off that debt, focus on your other cards in the same manner. Always pay down the debt of the card with the highest interest rate, first.
Realizing that you’ve dug yourself a deep credit hole can sometimes be depressing. But the fact that your taking steps to repair your credit is a good thing. At least your eyes are open, and you realize what you must do now to get back on your feet. It’s easy to get into debt, but not impossible to get out. Just keep a positive outlook and do what is necessary to get out of debt. Remember, the sooner you get yourself out of debt and repair your credit, the sooner you can start spending your money on other things.
An important tip to consider when working to repair your credit is to ideally keep your credit card utilization no more than 25 percent of the total credit limit. This is important because your credit card utilization is directly responsible for your credit rating. If your balance is high, aim to bring it down to no more than 70 percent.
Credit Score Check
If you are trying to repair your credit score, check your credit report to make sure all of your positive credit is being reported. Credit report disputes aren’t just for wrongly noted negative marks. If you have a loan or account in good standing that isn’t on your report, be sure to contact the holder of the loan to request that they report it.
When you check your credit report, make sure to spend the time reading it very carefully. There is a chance that there are a lot of errors on your credit report that are damaging your credit score. Check to make sure everything is correct, from your name to your payment history.
You can fix your credit. If you follow our proven tips, you will see improvements that will help to raise your score to a more acceptable level. Everyone is looking at your credit report, so it needs to be something you are proud of. Good credit is a great asset.
