Credit Debt Repair

You need a good credit history to obtain credit on favorable terms in the form of credit cards, mortgages, car loans and personal loans. To perform credit debt repair, identify any negative information in your credit report. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), United States residents have the right to view one free credit report from TransUnion, Equifax and Experian every year and can pay a fee per bureau to see their credit score.

Payments

Creditors usually report late payments to credit bureaus if you don't pay within 30 days of the due date, and late payments of 60, 90 and 120 days do even worse damage to your credit score. Become current on as many of your payments as possible by making the minimum payment necessary per account every month. In addition, don't take out new credit lines while attempting to repair your credit. Homeowners should limit damage to their credit report by selling the house through a short sale before a bank foreclosure.

Reduction

According to MyFICO, the amount of debt owed accounts for 30 percent of your Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) score. To improve your FICO score, pay extra money on your credit card and personal loan balances every month to reduce credit utilization by creating a budget or working an extra job. For example, a borrower who owes $15,000 on a $20,000 total credit line across all accounts has a credit utilization of 75 percent. High percentages of credit utilization lower an your credit score.

Correction

Improve your credit history within 30 days if you notice inaccuracies in your credit bureau report. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a United States resident can send a dispute letter to a credit bureau detailing the inaccurate information in the report, and the credit bureau must investigate the item in question. Should the credit bureau find in your favor, it must remove that piece of negative information from your credit report.

Time Frame

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), federal law requires credit bureaus to remove negative information on a credit report within seven years, although bankruptcies can remain on your credit report for 10 years. As of March 2011, some states and the District of Columbia have shorter statutes of limitations than federal rules for judgments placed against you to collect a debt, including Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Wyoming.