No matter how irresponsibly you managed your credit in the past, it can be fixed. Credit repair companies make promises of boosting your credit in miraculously short time frames for substantial fees. However, credit repair takes time. Legal credit repair is free and can begin whenever you are ready to begin improving your finances.
Ordering Your Credit Reports
The first step in fixing your credit is ordering a copy of your credit reports. In order to know where you're going, it is important to know where you stand financially. Your credit reports include a list of all your credit accounts, amounts owed, dates of late payments and personal information such as your address and legal name. All consumers are entitled to a free copy of each of their credit reports from the three major credit bureaus --- Experian, Equifax and Transunion --- each year to help combat fraud and incorrect credit reporting. Each derogatory item in your credit report has a negative impact on your credit score. Review your report to find negative credit information that may be incorrect or unauthorized.
Disputing Items
Creditors, like consumers, make mistakes when handling your credit information. Occasionally, you may find information included in your report that is false; you may also find evidence of identity theft. Dispute these items immediately by contacting the credit bureaus in writing. If you pull your credit reports online, all three major bureaus have electronic dispute forms for you to use when correcting your report. Creditors have 30 days to prove the validity of the information. If the information cannot be proven as correct, the credit bureau is required to delete the information from your credit report.
Getting Your Bills on Track
Arguing with creditors over legitimate debt gets you nowhere except to a place of frustration and anxiety. A creditor is less likely to make provisions for customers with accounts in bad standing than a customer who demonstrates a desire to manage his debt responsibly. Communicating with your lender after creating a positive payment history can sometimes take the place of disputing items on your credit report. If information on the credit report is valid, the only solution is continuing to make timely payments avoiding adding new debt to your bill.
Considerations
There are few substitutes for managing your credit accounts correctly when attempting to improve your credit rating. The top three factors influencing your credit score each month are payment history, amounts owed and length of credit history. At 80 percent of your score, these three factors allow you the opportunity to keep your credit score rising each month even in the presence of derogatory information. After seven years, the negative items in your credit report, with the exclusion of bankruptcy, are removed allowing you to get a fresh financial start.
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