Posts Tagged ‘fast credit repair’
Fast Credit Repair: How To Get It Done
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If you have a credit score that is not so great and you are going to need more credit soon, you are very likely to be looking for a way to arrange fast credit repair. Repairing your credit history, like many other things in life, is something that is best started as soon as possible if you want to get it done effectively. In fact, the best time to start is right now.
Your credit rating will depend on the reports that you get from banks, finance companies and credit card companies on the history that they have on your account. This means that if you made some late payments in the past on any loan, mortgage or credit card, or missed any payments completely, this is going to show up on your credit history. If the reports are correct it is difficult or even impossible to get them erased quickly. In fact in most jurisdictions the items on your credit report will stay there for up to 7 years.
So the first thing to look for when you are interested in repairing your credit is this. Are there any mistakes in your report? If there are, you can usually get those fixed pretty fast and this is probably the quickest way of repairing your credit score.
You need to apply to the company that you had the debt with and send them proof of your payments (such as a bank statement) to show that you did make all of the payments. You can find form letters online that will help you be sure that you have worded your letter correctly and sent all of the required documents. Do this right now because the company has a certain time to consider and reply to your request for a correction of your credit history. So it will not be instant and the sooner you have your letter done, the sooner your credit rating can be corrected.
If you are finding it difficult to make all of the payments to your current finance providers, it is vitally important to take that in hand now too. Do not start missing payments because that will only worsen your credit score. Find some way to make your situation manageable. That could include talking to your credit card companies etc to have your repayments lowered or rescheduled, or taking out a debt consolidation loan so that you can pay off higher interest debts and have one simple repayment to make per month. At the same time, it’s a great idea to set yourself a realistic monthly budget that you can stick to, and maybe look at ways of increasing your income by taking on a part time job.
Beware of falling into a situation where your debt is sold off to a credit collection agency. Although this might not seem like anything important at the time, it looks very bad on your credit history. The best way to avoid this is to pick up the phone and talk to the people that you owe money to. The main thing they want is to get back the money that they lent to you. They usually do not care too much whether it comes fast or slow but they want your payments to be steady and they have an interest in helping you to stick to a payment schedule. So as long as they know you are communicating with them and genuinely want to clear your debt, they will usually be very helpful about creating a payment plan that works for you.
If you do hear from a debt collection agency then you need to act at once. Contact the original creditor and try to clear the debt with them. If they agree, ask them to remove the label of “gone to collection” from your credit history right away. If you have that label in your record, then getting it removed will be a valuable step in your aim of fast credit repair.
Fast credit repair? It’s a matter of definition
If your credit score is poor, you know that you’ll have to take steps to improve it if you hope to regain a footing in the world of credit. You’ve probably seen websites, or received email solicitations promising fast credit repair – for a price, of course. Your best bet is to avoid these scammers. That’s why this situation is a matter of definition. Fast means with all due speed. A good analogy might be that of a poor, tired out old horse trying to compete in a race. While the poor horse is proceeding with all due speed – going as fast as he can, he’s not going to win the race. In credit markets, digging out of a financial mess takes time.
Even if you now have plenty of cash on hand to retire old debts, this does not constitute a fast credit repair job. While satisfying old debts will make your credit picture look a little better, you need to do more. As with most things in life, improving your credit score requires a slow, methodical process built around a good plan. The only viable and truly fast credit repair job comes if you’ve come into a windfall of cash. Of course, ironically, you don’t need credit anymore.
Here’s how to approach credit repair in a sensible way that gets you to your goal, with all due speed:
1.Examine your budget and cut out all unnecessary expenditures. For example, let’s say you went for a bundled package of three telephone services, such as call waiting, voice mail and equipment repair, a while back. These may be costing you $10 a month. Are they worth it? That’s $120 each year, which might be better spent on the kid’s back-to-school clothes, or applied to a high interest credit card.
2.Open your wallet and count how many credit cards you find there. The average American sports nine of these. Stop using the ones with the highest interest rates, but continue making all of your payments, as possible, and on time.
3.Do not incur new debt. Many people fall into the trap of applying for even more credit cards, thinking they can leverage off a new one in order to make the minimum payments on existing plastic. Creditors are wise to this strategy. Instead of achieving a fast credit repair job, you’re only making the situation – and your credit score – worse. You’ll find that this strategy results in higher APRs, as well as heftier late fees if you fail to make the minimum payment. Your card may be canceled and there you are with an even worse credit score and more debt.
4.For fast credit repair – at least as fast as possible, you’d be smart to contact one of the debt consolidation services. When looking on the web, choose services with a ‘.org’ suffix to their URL, not ‘.com’. Why? Non-profits have the ‘.org’, while commercial ventures are ‘.com’. Non-profit debt consolidation services are always cheaper and their mission is to help people get out of debt. They have all the connections and expertise to negotiate lower interest rates and are sometimes able to eliminate some of those late fees. They can work out a plan whereby you make a single, lower monthly payment to retire all of your debt, over time. Creditors look favorably on a borrower who opts for debt consolidation and consistently makes those payments on time.
5.Use the money you save with a debt consolidation plan to address old debts, still on your credit report. Every old debt you wipe out improves you credit rating.
Depending on the amount of debt you owe, it can take anywhere from 12 months to three years to repair your credit and regain an excellent credit rating. As we all know – now – banks were a bit too quick to hand out the plastic and the first to run for a bailout. We ordinary folk don’t have that option, as we’ve learned to our chagrin. That’s fast credit repair, in a nutshell.
