Jan 8, 2009
Rebuilding Your Credit Score: 3 Quick Tips
Your credit score has a huge affect on your day-to-day life outside of whether or not you can get a loan. Insurance rates, employment, billing cycles and interest rates are just some of the areas where your credit score can and often does have an impact on your life. If you’re just getting started with credit repair, finding a quality credit repair company to work with is a good first step to improving your credit score and lowering the daily costs of poor credit. However, even if you are working with a reputable credit repair agency, there are some quick steps you can take that will also have a direct impact on your credit score and potentially improve your financial standing.
Tip 1: Avoid Excessive Hard Inquiries on Your Credit Report
If you are shopping for a loan, avoid applying to several different places and waiting to see what offers you receive. Multiple credit report inquiries in a short period of time can lower your credit score, even if you have an otherwise clean history. If you have your credit score, a better option may be to shop around without filling out the loan application until you’ve narrowed down your choices. If you know where you fall on the credit scale, then you can make a reasonable estimate as to the amount of interest you’ll be expected to pay and the terms of your loan. Regardless, it pays to keep the hard inquiries to your account to a minimum if you are trying to raise your credit score.
Tip 2: Be Alert for Potential Errors in Your Credit Report
This is a tip that may best be facilitated through working with a credit repair company. If you have errors on your credit report that are harming your score, you have the right to dispute these errors and have them corrected and/or removed. If you don’t recognize an account, or if there is erroneous information about the account, a reliable credit repair agency will be able to successfully contest the negative information on your behalf. Cleaning up your credit report will allow you to focus on taking care of any remaining negatives without having to worry about incorrect information having an impact on your credit score. If you believe that you may be a victim of identity theft, then you should also file a police report and notify the credit bureaus as soon as possible – minimizing the damage done by identity theft is essential to any credit repair process.
Tip 3: Work with Your Current Lenders
If you have some accounts that are in less than stellar shape, but that aren’t in dispute, consider trying to negotiate with your current creditors. This can be done through a credit counseling agency in some cases, but you may also be able to work directly with the lender if you have an established relationship that is mostly positive. One particular aspect you may wish to ask about is re-aging. Re-aging is a process that will get rid of your past due account by making it appear as “current” on your credit report. While federal laws dictate how a creditor may re-age your account, in general if the account is over 9 months old, and if you have made 3 consecutive payments and have demonstrated a willingness to continue to make payments, then re-aging should be an option for you. Creditors sometimes use re-aging to make an old debt look new, but if you’re planning to pay, it’s in your best interest to request that the account be re-aged. It’s quick, it’s free, and it gets rid of all the 30, 60, 90, and 120 days late notations for that account if you keep the payments current.
No matter what route you take with regards to repairing your credit, following these tips will help you to improve your score in a manner that is both ethical and long-lasting. Many credit repair companies can provide additional information and counseling about these techniques, and give specific advice tailored to your particular situation.
Tip 1: Avoid Excessive Hard Inquiries on Your Credit Report
If you are shopping for a loan, avoid applying to several different places and waiting to see what offers you receive. Multiple credit report inquiries in a short period of time can lower your credit score, even if you have an otherwise clean history. If you have your credit score, a better option may be to shop around without filling out the loan application until you’ve narrowed down your choices. If you know where you fall on the credit scale, then you can make a reasonable estimate as to the amount of interest you’ll be expected to pay and the terms of your loan. Regardless, it pays to keep the hard inquiries to your account to a minimum if you are trying to raise your credit score.
Tip 2: Be Alert for Potential Errors in Your Credit Report
This is a tip that may best be facilitated through working with a credit repair company. If you have errors on your credit report that are harming your score, you have the right to dispute these errors and have them corrected and/or removed. If you don’t recognize an account, or if there is erroneous information about the account, a reliable credit repair agency will be able to successfully contest the negative information on your behalf. Cleaning up your credit report will allow you to focus on taking care of any remaining negatives without having to worry about incorrect information having an impact on your credit score. If you believe that you may be a victim of identity theft, then you should also file a police report and notify the credit bureaus as soon as possible – minimizing the damage done by identity theft is essential to any credit repair process.
Tip 3: Work with Your Current Lenders
If you have some accounts that are in less than stellar shape, but that aren’t in dispute, consider trying to negotiate with your current creditors. This can be done through a credit counseling agency in some cases, but you may also be able to work directly with the lender if you have an established relationship that is mostly positive. One particular aspect you may wish to ask about is re-aging. Re-aging is a process that will get rid of your past due account by making it appear as “current” on your credit report. While federal laws dictate how a creditor may re-age your account, in general if the account is over 9 months old, and if you have made 3 consecutive payments and have demonstrated a willingness to continue to make payments, then re-aging should be an option for you. Creditors sometimes use re-aging to make an old debt look new, but if you’re planning to pay, it’s in your best interest to request that the account be re-aged. It’s quick, it’s free, and it gets rid of all the 30, 60, 90, and 120 days late notations for that account if you keep the payments current.
No matter what route you take with regards to repairing your credit, following these tips will help you to improve your score in a manner that is both ethical and long-lasting. Many credit repair companies can provide additional information and counseling about these techniques, and give specific advice tailored to your particular situation.
Labels: credit, credit reports, credit score, improve credit scores
posted by Chane Steiner at 1:48 AM | 
