Credit Repair Strategies: What To Do When You Have Too Many Options?
Todd Ossenfort, chief operating officer at Pioneer Credit Counseling, says that credit repair is a matter of time and patience. He often fields letters from people who complain that their credit scores don't increase after they pay their debts off. Delinquent account holders cannot expect a magic wand to remove those blemishes overnight; instead, the late payers will have to suck it up and wait seven years. It is always best to pay back old debts rather than just ignoring them and hoping they will go away over time. Time won't stop harassing creditors from calling or lawyers from taking you to court over an unpaid bill. "All you need is a little patience to give the positive information on your accounts some time to outweigh the older negative information," Ossenfort writes back. "As your credit history continues to have positive information added, with new accounts paid on time, etc., your credit score will improve."
If you're wondering how to bring up a low credit score, then you'll be happy to know there are a plethora of ways to do so. First, check your free credit score at www.annualcreditreport.com, and be sure to look up one from Experian, one from TransUnion and one from Equifax. Once you see what you're dealing with, you'll know where to begin in the quest to repair your credit. Next, pay off all your debts, starting with the highest interest credit cards first. If you need help with this area, then you may want to consult www.cccservices.com. While you're paying these off, it's important that you do not close your accounts, as it will look like you're using a larger portion of your available credit. Thirdly, look into getting what is known as "good debt," such as a mortgage, a school loan, a car loan or a self-financed installment loan; anything that will show you can be trusted to pay a monthly bill again.
One way to re-establish good credit is to secure one of the credit cards for people with bad credit. You need to exercise caution while looking over these credit repair offers, as there are obviously many scams preying on the poor. An unsecured credit card paid each month on-time and in-full is one of the best ways to demonstrate the "new you," the one who can be trusted with a loan or line of credit. At www.credit.com, there are a number of offerings from Visa and Mastercard for people with low credit scores. Some of these interest rates are as low as 9.9% or as high as 19.92%, so naturally you'll have to weed through the lot of them for the best deal. This option should only be exercised if you can be disciplined enough to use it only for credit repair purposes. Maybe you'll use your card to buy gas each month or you'll pay for your cell phone bill each month, using your bank's auto-bill-pay to ensure that you never make a late payment or miss a payment.
You can fix your credit on your own with a little bit of guts and knowledge. A 2004 Federal Reserve bulletin stated that 29% of credit reports contained accounts with inaccurate balances, often more than three months out-of-date. Not all creditors report timely payments or adjust their records. Additionally, creditors aren't required to report to all three credit bureaus, so your credit repair should include sending in your updated information to all the bureaus to ensure accuracy and to check up on your credit score each year.
Related topics about credit repair
Credit Card Counseling
You may have seen the commercials on TV for "Freedom Debt Relief" and credit card counseling. These services claim to help you regain control of your life by offering credit card debt reduction.
