Repair Bad Credit Yourself

By Author: Article Writer Kali
Total Articles: 10
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If you have been told that you can only repair bad credit with the professional service, then you have been told wrong. A consumer can easily repair bad credit by working themselves and save themselves the hassle and money of using a professional service. This guide has been created to help consumers take the steps needed in order to repair bad credit on their own, rather than using a service.

Get Your Reports - Before any consumer can repair bad credit, they need to know how bad their credit is to begin with. Get copies of your reports from all three credit reporting agencies (TransUnion, Experian and Equifax) and look over them carefully. If you are wondering why you should obtain all three credit reports, it is because information on one credit report could not be shown on another. Therefore it is essential to know just what is on all three reports in order to begin the process of repair.

Review Your Credit Reports - While you are informing yourself of what is on your credit report, you need to review your credit reports for any errors. Often when people are in the process of repairing their credit they ...
... will notice errors on their credit report that shouldn't be there. These errors can include late payments on accounts that you have a good credit history with, address errors, etc. To repair bad credit, you need to remove any negatives that are inaccurate in order to speed the process along.

Make Your Disputes - In the event you do notice any errors on your credit report, you will need to dispute them. To dispute the errors you will need documented proof. When you submit your letter to the credit reporting agency with the inaccurate information, submit any documented proof you have in regards to payments made, statements sent, or letters received. Be as detailed as possible when you are disputing your credit report inaccuracies.

Get Rid of the Negative Information - Now that you have disputed any inaccurate information, it is time to pay off the rest of the negative information on your report. To repair bad credit you will need to pay off any past due accounts, judgments, and accounts that are in collections. By paying off these items you can have the negative information removed from your credit report. If an account has been charged-off, you should still pay them off, but put it behind in priority. You will first want to pay off the accounts that are close to being charged off and prevent them from entering that status. Call your creditors and debt collectors and see what payment arrangements you can work out.

Fix Your Maxed Out Accounts - Credit cards that are maxed out or close to their limit need to be paid down in order to repair bad credit. About thirty percent of your credit score is based on your debt-to-credit ratio. Therefore it is extremely important you bring down the balances on your credit cards.

These are just a few essentials that every consumer should take to repair bad credit. One thing to always remember is that these steps are not overnight fixes. These steps will take time to repair bad credit and you may not see the results of these fixes immediately. Patience is one of the most important steps that any consumer can take when they begin to repair bad credit.