If you find yourself in a position where you want to repair your credit score there are some very basic things you can do to help yourself in those regards.
By following these simple guidelines, you should be able to make measurable progress to your credit score and also learn some ways to prevent it from getting so low again.
Stay On Top of Your Credit Report Since nothing is infallible, it's important to know what's on your credit report and who's putting it on there.
Often, all it takes is something getting reported incorrectly or not reported at all and suddenly your credit score could go from something respectable to not so much.
It's important, that once this happens that corrective measures be taken immediately as oftentimes the longer something incorrect sits on your credit report, the harder it is to repair the error.
If you stay on top of things and regularly check your credit report you'll be able to quickly act on anything that may or may not need to be corrected.
Since it is now federal law, you can legally request a free copy of your credit report from each of the three reporting companies once per year.
Pay Your Bills, On Time This may seem to be quite an obvious one, however, it's often one of the main reasons people have such a hard time repairing their credit score.
The reasons this trips people up more than likely comes from one of two sources: not enough money and procrastination.
If availability of funds happens to be an issue and you have outstanding debts negatively affecting your credit score then it's important that you contact the institutions carrying those debts and work out a plan with them to lower your monthly obligation.
You'd be surprised how willing many places are to work with you if you simply open the lines of communication.
If procrastination on paying your bills happens to be a problem for you, then it's time to sit down and write out a budget and seriously become disciplined to follow.
One helpful thing that many people choose to do is set up automatic payments, when the bill comes due each month the funds are automatically taken from your account and there are no worries as to whether you're paying on time or not.
Avoid Credit Repair Scams Of course, the easiest way to repair your credit score is to look at the report on your own and identify the problem areas then get to work fixing them.
However, for some this isn't such an easy task to undertake because of varying factors in each individual's life.
There's a great resource by the FTC to help people get started on doing it themselves: "Credit Repair: Self-Help May Be Best.
" Don't let the word scams scare you into avoiding getting help if you need it.
There are plenty of very good companies out there that will help find the most effective ways and put together the most effective plan of attack to get your credit score where you want it.
The important thing is to do research on the companies you're considering by talking to prior or current clients, contact the Better Business Bureau and research them online.
Do Not Add More Debt Yes, this too might seem like quite an obvious tip but sometimes when a person is making really good ground on cleaning up their credit report and repairing their score they reach a point just short of their intended goal and feel that they can go buy something on credit.
Don't do it, wait until you get your score where you want it.
By adding further debt to your debt load you're doing two things that hamper yourself: you're increasing your overall debt which can lower your score and you're increasing the amount of funds you need to have available for bills every month which can make it difficult to pay your bills on time.
Talk With Your Creditors One thing many people do not know is that businesses you owe money to are not required to remove any negative things they've reported to the agencies.
Yes, they are required to report any payments you have made to them but that does not mean they have to remove negative reports.
By taking the initiative and talking with your creditors you will more than likely be able to put together a deal for repayment and occasionally, simply because of the plan put in to action, you will be able to get them to remove the negative items even before total repayment has been made.
If you're able to do this, it's important then to follow through and pay them back in total and as agreed upon as it's likely they will not be so willing to deal a second time.
It may seem like a lot of work at first and quite daunting to get things going, however, if you remain diligent and thorough you'll be able to repair your credit score in no time and learn how to keep it that way in the future.
By following these simple guidelines, you should be able to make measurable progress to your credit score and also learn some ways to prevent it from getting so low again.
Stay On Top of Your Credit Report Since nothing is infallible, it's important to know what's on your credit report and who's putting it on there.
Often, all it takes is something getting reported incorrectly or not reported at all and suddenly your credit score could go from something respectable to not so much.
It's important, that once this happens that corrective measures be taken immediately as oftentimes the longer something incorrect sits on your credit report, the harder it is to repair the error.
If you stay on top of things and regularly check your credit report you'll be able to quickly act on anything that may or may not need to be corrected.
Since it is now federal law, you can legally request a free copy of your credit report from each of the three reporting companies once per year.
Pay Your Bills, On Time This may seem to be quite an obvious one, however, it's often one of the main reasons people have such a hard time repairing their credit score.
The reasons this trips people up more than likely comes from one of two sources: not enough money and procrastination.
If availability of funds happens to be an issue and you have outstanding debts negatively affecting your credit score then it's important that you contact the institutions carrying those debts and work out a plan with them to lower your monthly obligation.
You'd be surprised how willing many places are to work with you if you simply open the lines of communication.
If procrastination on paying your bills happens to be a problem for you, then it's time to sit down and write out a budget and seriously become disciplined to follow.
One helpful thing that many people choose to do is set up automatic payments, when the bill comes due each month the funds are automatically taken from your account and there are no worries as to whether you're paying on time or not.
Avoid Credit Repair Scams Of course, the easiest way to repair your credit score is to look at the report on your own and identify the problem areas then get to work fixing them.
However, for some this isn't such an easy task to undertake because of varying factors in each individual's life.
There's a great resource by the FTC to help people get started on doing it themselves: "Credit Repair: Self-Help May Be Best.
" Don't let the word scams scare you into avoiding getting help if you need it.
There are plenty of very good companies out there that will help find the most effective ways and put together the most effective plan of attack to get your credit score where you want it.
The important thing is to do research on the companies you're considering by talking to prior or current clients, contact the Better Business Bureau and research them online.
Do Not Add More Debt Yes, this too might seem like quite an obvious tip but sometimes when a person is making really good ground on cleaning up their credit report and repairing their score they reach a point just short of their intended goal and feel that they can go buy something on credit.
Don't do it, wait until you get your score where you want it.
By adding further debt to your debt load you're doing two things that hamper yourself: you're increasing your overall debt which can lower your score and you're increasing the amount of funds you need to have available for bills every month which can make it difficult to pay your bills on time.
Talk With Your Creditors One thing many people do not know is that businesses you owe money to are not required to remove any negative things they've reported to the agencies.
Yes, they are required to report any payments you have made to them but that does not mean they have to remove negative reports.
By taking the initiative and talking with your creditors you will more than likely be able to put together a deal for repayment and occasionally, simply because of the plan put in to action, you will be able to get them to remove the negative items even before total repayment has been made.
If you're able to do this, it's important then to follow through and pay them back in total and as agreed upon as it's likely they will not be so willing to deal a second time.
It may seem like a lot of work at first and quite daunting to get things going, however, if you remain diligent and thorough you'll be able to repair your credit score in no time and learn how to keep it that way in the future.
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