1) Know Your Current Credit Score
Without knowing your precise starting point, you’ll find it hard to know exactly how much you’ll need to improve your score. Order a copy of your credit report from one of the three major credit bureaus and find out your exact starting score. You might even find that your score is higher than you thought.
2) Repair Credit Errors
Did you know you can legally dispute any wrongful errors listed on your credit report – and you’re allowed to dispute these yourself. You don’t need to pay expensive fees for credit repair companies to remove these for you.
Search the internet for “credit repair letter templates” and then write to the credit bureaus yourself.
3) Negotiate
If you’re all ready behind on any payments or bills, then don’t be afraid to call your lender or credit company. Ask them if you can negotiate for extended payment dates and discuss ways to reduce your payment costs by either finding about lower interest options or refinancing and consolidating to help make meeting payments easier.
4) No More Credit
If you’re trying to improve your credit score, then don’t apply for any more credit and don’t keep using the credit cards you already have.
If you can show a positive reduction on your existing balances – even if it’s only a few dollars a week – then your score will gradually increase as your total debt to credit ratio will begin to improve.
No more credit!
5) Pay Off Outstanding Debts
You’ll be surprised how willing most credit companies and banks can be when you call and discuss positive options. They do understand that everyone has moments where we all fall behind and they will be happy that you’re trying to catch up.
6) Arrange Payment Plans
There is absolutely no point in offering to pay off your past debts at $1,000 a week if you know you can’t keep up those payments. Make sure you arrange for realistic payment plans that fit into your budget are will be manageable to keep up with.
7) Create New Spending Habits
If you’re looking for ways to repair bad credit, then obviously repeating your spending habits from the past are only going to get you into deeper financial trouble.
Learn to allocate the money you receive from your pay check each week a little differently. Prioritize your repayments and your bills and make sure you’re keeping up with the important things. The longer you keep up a great repayment history, the higher your credit score will be bumped up over time.
Professional Assistance
If you’ve already reached the point where your credit is too bad to consider simple credit repair tactics, then maybe its time to seek professional help.
Professional credit counselors and debt management companies can help you to work around your existing issues and get you back on track.
Never be ashamed to ask for help. Listen to what advice the professionals can offer and make sure you act on that advice.
