Getting Started

It is a reality today that many people are faced with the difficult task of trying to repair their credit. They may have found themselves overextended on their credit cards and have to catch up on some late payments and some bad decisions which affect their credit report.  Repairing your credit isn’t as difficult as many people might think.  It takes time, but it can be done.

First, you need to get a copy of your credit report from one or all three of the major credit reporting agencies.  The “big three” are Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.  They will provide you with a copy of your credit report. There are also companies that will monitor your credit report for a small monthly fee and notify you whenever there is any activity on your report, i.e. inquiries about your credit, derogatory information posted, etc.

The FACT Act that was passed by Congress back in 2001 allows all consumers one free copy of their credit report each year.  For this, you will need to visit either AnnualCreditReport.com or FreeCreditReport.com.  Sometimes one of the agencies will provide you with one report for free, but you are better off visiting one of the websites just mentioned.

However, if you are serious about credit repair, you will really need to obtain copies of all three credit reports.  As mentioned above, there are companies that will do this for a small monthly fee. This writer recommends and uses, MyCreditKeeper.com. Here you can get an updated credit report every 30 days which shows your credit score that is reported by each bureau (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion). MyCreditKeeper also notifies you of any activity. Creditors are not required to report to any of the agencies, and often they will just report to one.  Having all three credit reports on hand will let you monitor your credit more effectively and more thoroughly.

Once you have these reports in hand, go over them “with a fine tooth comb”.  Check for any errors such as accounts that have been paid in full but are still appearing as delinquent or accounts that you never opened or used in the first place.  If you do find errors on your report, it is essential that you contact the credit bureau to make the correction if you want your credit repair efforts to be thorough. If you use a service such as MyCreditKeeper.com, there are instructions and contact information for each credit bureau listed on the site.

After checking your credit report, the essential part of making repairs to your credit is to change the way you are using credit.  This is a must. This includes making all payments on time each and every month and not using credit the way you used to.  With the recent changes to the lawing governing banks and credit cards, banks have raised overlimit fees and late fees in order to increase their revenues. So, if your payment is ever late, your account will be hit with a high late fee and, more than likely, the interest rate you are paying will increase. And the fact that your payment was late willl be reported to the credit reporting agencies, which causes your credit score to drop. While it’s true that it’s virtually impossible to go through life today without using credit, you must use credit wisely and not end up in trouble down the line.

Repairing your credit is not a difficult task, but it does take time and patience.  Truly what you need to do is simply take steps to evaluate how you use credit and then see where changes can be made.  Then not only will your credit be repaired, your credit score will raise as well.

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