Fixing Bad Credit - How To Repair Your Bad Credit Report

May 21, 2009

Now that you need a much higher credit score than 720 to get the best credit card rates, you need to start working on repairing a bad credit report. Lenders are getting stricter because they were too lax on what documents they needed and they got burned.Now, the banks are ensuring they only lend money to the most qualified buyers.Learn some simple steps you can take to repair a bad credit report.

Repair Bad Credit Report - There Are No Credit Repair Secrets

The first thing you need to do is get a copy of your credit report.  You can do so at www.annualcreditreport.com, and you can buy your credit score if you want to see it for $8-$10.You get your credit score based on the accounts and payment history of your credit report.Once you get your free credit report, it's time to start making sure all the info in it belongs there.  You cannot delete accurate negative items, you just have to wait those out.You can put in a dispute and get the incorrect information deleted.  So do a credit report dispute to get those items corrected and repair bad credit.

If you make late payments every few months or even just once or twice a year, your score will go down.  You need to setup automatic payments so you can have all your bills paid on time.  You won’t have any late fees this way either. 

Next you are going to want to decrease your credit utilization ratio.  This is how much of your available credit you are using.  You can increase your credit limits or decrease what you owe.  Both ways can help you.This one tip may be a challenge because many banks are hesitant to increase credit lines. 

Another way to boost your credit score and improve your credit rating is to not close old accounts.  Your credit history is a big portion of what makes up your score so if you close all your 5, 7 and 10 year old accounts, you erase this part of your past and it lowers your score.  So follow these well known steps and you can start repairing your bad credit report and getting better rates on your loans and credit cards.



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