Debt Consolidation Loans

Plan Your Credit Repair Effort

Are you planning to make an effort at credit repair? Make sure to do it right. An informed effort will produce amazing results, and subtle details can make a world of difference. Take a bit of time to plan your attack and you will prevail. Here are my five favorite credit repair tactics proven to produce solid and significant results.

1. Don’t Wait to Rebuild Your Credit

If a stretch of hard times have left you with no open accounts it is tempting to postpone rebuilding credit until your credit repair project has borne fruit. You may think that if you wait until your credit is clean you are less likely to get denied. Unfortunately, the logic is flawed. Your credit scores will not recover if you don’t have active accounts. And new credit takes time to yield positive credit score results. If you put off opening new accounts you will be disappointed with your credit repair project. Now is the time to start rebuilding. Open two secured credit cards. Do it today. Once you receive them, use them, and keep them active. But be careful to manage the balances properly.

2. Manage Your Revolving Balances

The FICO scoring model places great weight on the relationship between your credit card balances and your card limits. This factor receives extra weight on accounts that are less than a year old. So if you have recently opened new secured credit cards as part of your credit repair strategy this issue is extra important. Your credit score will be rewarded if you keep your balance low, and conversely you will be punished if your balance drifts upward. Optimize your credit score by keeping your balances under 20 percent of the cards total limit. For example, if you have a three hundred dollar limit, keep the balance below sixty dollars.

3. Dispute Intelligently

If you are going to manage your own disputes instead of hiring one of the available credit repair services there are some caveats. Keep your disputes simple. The credit bureaus do not want to hear your story. Limit your communication to the bare minimum. If you have found an account on your report that does not belong to you, just list the account and say that the account is not yours. One more strategic pointer; don’t give up. If you do not get the response you want the first time, dispute again. This time state clearly that you are not happy with the first results and you demand that they have the creditor research the account. Stand your ground.

4. Learn Your Reporting Period Limits

When you review your credit reports and are planning your credit repair effort you must examine the reporting dates. Derogatory information, in general, can report for seven years. But there are exceptions and specific ways of counting the dates. Understanding the rules will give you the edge you need to succeed. Many people are not aware that the reporting period clock starts ticking on the date of the original default with the original creditor. Reporting periods never start with the reporting date of subsequent collectors. There are many cases where you will need to calculate your dates very carefully. Take nothing for granted.

5. Challenge Collectors

The most egregious offenders of credit reporting rules are collectors. You must examine all collection accounts as part of your credit repair effort. Don’t believe your eyes. This is a case where skepticism will pay dividends. Collectors buy and sell debt on a regular basis. Did you know that if a collector sells a debt to another collector or returns the account to the original creditor they are supposed to withdraw the account from your credit report? In fact, this rarely happens and non-compliant collections linger on your report for years depressing your scores needlessly.

And When in Doubt

If you are too busy to give your credit repair effort the careful attention that it deserves, just reach out for help. There are many legitimate credit repair services that will insure that every possible method of improving your credit is explored and implemented. Credit repair is a detail business, but you don’t need to be intimidated. Whichever route you take help is nearby if you need it. Good luck!