If you’ve seen advertisements that say you can repair your own credit, be aware that the statement is only true to a point, and it’s often not as simple as it’s made out to sound, but some of it can be done. There are things that you can do to start improving your credit rating, and those things will make it more acceptable to a lender at a later date when you decide that you want to borrow money and your credit has to be checked. The first step, therefore, is to know what’s on your credit report and why it’s there, because you can’t work at improving your credit if you don’t even know what it looks like right now.
Step two is to take a careful look at all three of your credit reports – you should have one from Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian – and see if they match up or if there are some different things on some of them that are not on the others. A discrepancy could mean that some of your credit information was incorrectly reported or that some of the information on your report isn’t even yours, and that could be hurting your credit score. Contacting the credit bureaus and asking that these things be removed is what you should do, and they have to remove the items if they cannot absolutely prove that they are yours, after which they’ll send you a new credit report so you can see that the correction has been made.
Step three involves how many active credit accounts you really have, since having a good credit score requires at least three active accounts. When someone only has one or two accounts, especially if those accounts are only credit cards and not longer-standing accounts like vehicle loans or mortgages, it doesn’t show a strong history of being able to handle credit properly. You can get more accounts if you don’t have enough to have a great credit rating, but you should be careful doing that, since getting too many accounts too quickly can harm your credit – and that’s especially true if those accounts are just credit cards.
For step four you’ll need a willing helper, and someone who already has good credit, because you’re going to ask that person to add you to his or her credit card as an authorized user – with a caveat. You won’t get a card and you won’t be allowed to actually use the credit, but the length and quality of the credit that goes with that card will be placed on your credit report, as well. Do this only for a credit card that the person has had for a couple of years and that there haven’t been any late payments or other problems with, since you don’t want those bad things transferred over to your credit report.
Step five is one of the most difficult for most people because it involves the paying down of debt, and it can take a while for a lot of people to get their credit card debt down to the magic 30 – 50% of the total available credit. Having high balances makes you look irresponsible, though, and that hurts your credit score. In order to avoid that, pay your balances down until they are all below 30% of what you’re allowed to borrow on the card and then keep them there so that you’ll show potential future creditors that you’re responsible with your money and your credit.
Step six is to not close out your credit accounts just because you’ve paid them off, since open, properly-paid accounts help to build good credit. If you close them out and get rid of them you’ll find that your credit score might actually drop off a bit because you aren’t able to get any more ‘good credit points’ from those companies anymore. There are some accounts, though, that will automatically close when paid, like car loans and mortgages – but leave those newly-paid-off credit cards open.
Probably the easiest step of all is step seven, but it’s also a long-term step, and that’s to maintain what you’ve managed to get where good credit is concerned. Don’t pay off your old debt just so you can add up a bunch of new debt, and you’ll not only have more money but you’ll be better able to get credit in the future for something that you really need if you don’t have a bunch of other debt. If you only get credit for things that you really need (vehicle, house, etc) and use your credit cards sparingly, you’ll be much better suited to having a really high credit score and not worrying about your ability to get credit when you absolutely need it.
|
|