Zach Ford asked:




Living with bad credit can be stressful, embarrassing, and cost you thousands of dollars, fortunately there is help available for people with less than perfect credit histories. There are even many steps you can take on your own towards improving your credit score and credit report. You may have made some mistakes in the past, but everyone deserves a second chance!

Request a Free Credit Report

The United States Federal Trade Commission requires that the three major national credit reporting agencies provide you with a totally free copy of your credit report, when requested, up to once a year. Your credit report consists of a detailed history of past financial activities, loans, credit cards, utility bills, etc. and whether you have made payments to them on time. These reports are maintained by three main agencies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

The main benefit of requesting a free credit report is that you can check your report for any harmful errors. Credit report errors are usually caused by identity theft, fraud, and mistakes made by the agencies themselves. Also, some information may remain on your credit report longer than it is supposed to, harming your overall credit score. Any of these errors can be reported to the credit agency and corrected.

Talk to a Credit Repair Agency

If, after checking over your credit report, you find that you are still suffering from a poor credit score, you may also consider contacting a credit repair company and requesting a free credit consultation. A good credit repair professionals will know a variety of tricks and tips that can help you boost your overall credit score. They may also be able to make suggestions about things such as debt consolidation and how to maintain your credit score once it has been improved.

A good credit repair agency will leave you with a plan for the future, which you can closely follow to avoid making any future mistakes, which may harm your credit score. The more you know about your credit the more informed your financial decisions will become.

Karl

Justin Parr asked:




If you’re about to graduate–or if you’ve already finished college–chances are you’re paying off student loans. But what exactly happens with your loan debt now that you’ve entered the repayment phase? Will they impact your ability to obtain credit? And how do they affect your credit scores?

Let’s start from the beginning

When you left school, you enjoyed a grace period of six to nine months before you had to begin repaying your student loans. But the debt was there all along–sleeping like an 800-pound gorilla in the corner of the dorm room. Once the grace period was over, the gorilla woke up and is now impacting your credit–but is it positively or negatively?

One way to find out is to pull a copy of your credit report. There are three major credit reporting agencies, or credit bureaus–Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union–and you should get a copy of your credit report from each one. Keep in mind, though, that while institutions making student loans are required to report the date of disbursement, balance due, and current status of your loans to a credit bureau, they’re not currently required to report the information to all three, although many do.

If you’re repaying your student loans on time, then the gorilla is behaving nicely, and is actually helping you establish a good credit history. But if you’re seriously delinquent or in default on your loans, the gorilla will turn into a monster and wreak havoc on your credit history.

What’s your credit score?

Your credit report contains information about any credit you have, including credit cards, car loans, and student loans. The credit bureau (or any prospective creditor) may use this information to generate a credit score, which statistically compares information about you to the credit performance of a base sample of consumers with similar profiles. The higher your credit score, the more likely you are to be a good credit risk, and the better your chances of obtaining credit at a favorable interest rate.

Many different factors are used to determine your credit score. Some of these factors carry more weight than others. Significant weight is given to factors describing:

Your payment history, including whether you’ve paid your obligations on time, and how long any delinquencies have lasted Your outstanding debt, including the amounts you owe on your accounts, the different types of accounts you have (e.g., credit cards, installment loans), and how close your balances are to the account limits Your credit history, including how long you’ve had credit, how long specific accounts have been open, and how long it has been since you’ve used each account New credit, including how many inquires or applications for credit you’ve made, and how recently you’ve made them
Student loans and your credit score

Always make your student loan payments on time. Otherwise, your credit score will be negatively affected. To improve your credit score, it’s also important to make sure that any positive repayment history is correctly reported by all three credit bureaus, especially if your credit history is sparse. If you find that your student loans aren’t being reported correctly to all three major credit bureaus, ask your lender to do so.

But even when it’s there for all to see, a large student loan debt may impact a factor prospective creditors scrutinize closely: your debt-to-income ratio. A large student loan debt may especially hurt your chances of getting new credit if you’re in a low-paying job, and a prospective creditor feels your budget is stretched too thin to make room for the payments any new credit will require.

Moreover, if your principal balances haven’t changed much (and they don’t in the early years of loans with long repayment terms) or if they’re getting larger (because you’ve taken a forbearance on your student loans and the accruing interest is adding to your outstanding balance), it may look to a prospective lender like you’re not making much progress on paying down the debt you already have.

Getting the monkey off your back

Like many people, you may have put off buying a house or a car because you’re overburdened with student loan debt. So what can you do to improve your situation? Here are some suggestions to consider:

If you have several student loans, consider consolidating them through a student loan consolidation program. This won’t reduce your total debt, but a larger loan may offer a longer repayment term or a better interest rate. While you’ll pay more total interest over the course of a longer term, you’ll also lower your monthly payment, which in turn will lower your debt-to-income ratio. Ask your lender about a graduated repayment option. In this arrangement, the term of your student loan remains the same, but your payments are smaller in the beginning years and larger in the later years. Lowering your payments in the early years may improve your debt-to-income ratio, and larger payments later may not adversely affect you if your income increases as well. If you’re really strapped, explore extended or income-sensitive repayment options. Extended repayment options extend the term you have to repay your loans. Over the longer term, you’ll pay a greater amount of interest, but your monthly payments will be smaller, thus improving your debt-to-income ratio. Income-sensitive plans tie your monthly payment to your level of income; the lower your income, the lower your payment. This also may improve your debt-to-income ratio. If you’re in default on your student loans, do not ignore them–they aren’t going to go away. Student loans generally cannot be discharged even in bankruptcy. Ask your lender about loan rehabilitation programs; successful completion of such programs can remove default status notations on your credit reports.

Javier

Paul Sarwana asked:




Every day more and more people find themselves suffering with bad credit. Having bad credit makes it nearly impossible to make any major purchases such as purchasing a car, getting a credit card, renting a car an even buying a home. Below are some easy tips for bad credit repair. These tips will help you to repair your credit status bringing your total credit score up enough to where you’re able to do things again.

Many people do not realize just how low their credit score actually is until they go apply for credit somewhere. They sit down at the table awaiting to get their brand-new car only to find out that there had to be stuck with high interest rates due to their low credit score. Well there are ways to boost your credit score. Bad credit repair is easier than you think. By using the right credit repair methods for your situation you can help to reduce your level of debt over a period of time while at the same time increasing your credit.

One of the first things you will want to do is get a copy of your credit report. Then there are three major credit reporting agencies, all of which offer a free credit report once a year. You can obtain these reports from either calling them directly, going on the Internet and requesting a copy or you can write to them requesting a copy of your free credit report. Once you get your copies of your credit reports, you’ll want to look them over thoroughly.

What you are looking for are double entries on your report’s as they will lower your credit score. With all the discrepancies that you find in your credit reports, you will want to contact the credit reporting agency directly to have them removed from your credit report. You do this in writing and you can find on each of their website the forms to fill out to dispute anything on your credit report. They make it really simple for you to work with your credit score.

There are many lenders out there today that will help people with bad credit. While you may pay a higher interest rate at first, as long as you make your payments on time over a period of time, they will increase your credit and lower your interest rate. This helps to boost your credit score after showing you can make on-time payments to a credit agency. There are many lenders that focus on bad credit repair and that is the majority of their clients.

When you apply for credit the lender is looking for your debt to income ratio and what your scores on your credit reports are. A bad credit lender will help you consolidate your debt by paying off the current debt you have and giving you just one small monthly payment that you make to them. This helps increase your credit quickly and effectively as your debt is now paid off your own just one person.

By following the bad credit repair tips above you will see that you can increase your credit score and start living the life that you want to live. Keep in mind financial freedom is not what the tips above will give you but they will however help get you going in the right direction.

Henry

Michael G. Harris asked:




Many people today are saying, “Fix my credit!” They want quick solutions to repair their credit score. Getting rid of bad credit can seem like one of the toughest things on the planet. However, if you can repair your credit rating, then you can get more out of life and be treated with the respect that you deserve. Read on and discover 3 steps to repair your credit score.

First, it’s important to obtain a copy of your credit report. Go to AnnualCreditReport.com and you’ll receive a free copy of all 3 reports. You are entitled to receive one free copy each year from the major credit reporting agencies of Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. Then, look for mistakes on your report.

Second, report any mistakes to the consumer reporting company by writing a letter of dispute. Tell them, in writing, what information you think is inaccurate. Include copies, but not originals, of any documents that back up your position. In addition, be sure to provide your complete name and address and each item in your report you dispute. State the facts and the reasons you dispute the information, and ask that it be removed or corrected.

Third, enclose a copy of your report, and circle the items in question. Send your letter by certified mail, “return receipt requested,” so you can document that the consumer reporting company received it. Keep copies of your dispute letter and enclosures.

Credit reporting companies must investigate the items you question within 30 days. They also must send all the important information that you provide about the error to the organization that provided the information. After the information provider receives notice of a dispute from the consumer reporting company, it is required to investigate, review the important information, and report the results back to the credit reporting agency.

By taking a few action steps, you can repair your credit score. Remember that credit won’t fix itself. It does require you to take action to get the results that you deserve.

Lewis

Jon Arnold asked:




It probably comes as no surprise to most people that “somewhere” there is a credit report on them that knows everything they ever did, good and bad, financially. Unfortunately, this is where their knowledge stops though, and not knowing the real scoop about how this really works is actually hurting them.

There are three companies that keep track of your financial and credit history, which are Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. They know more about you than you think or perhaps are even comfortable with, but that’s what it is. They compete with each other so they do not share information between them. Some lenders report to one of them every month, other lenders report to another one, and large financial obligations like your mortgage probably report to two of them or even all three.

So far no news alerts but it gets worse. They are in business for profit, so they want to get as many lenders as possible to report to them for their customer’s credit information. They occasionally have specials for lenders to switch to them, so Discover may have reported to Experian last year and this year they report to TransUnion, and your Exxon account may have reported to Experian last year and now reports to TransUnion. This type of change occurs on a very regular basis.

Are you starting to see where a problem could (and does) occur? What happens is that not one of these credit reporting agencies really has a complete and accurate credit picture about you. Further, when a creditor of yours who reported to one agency that you were past due and then switches to another credit reporting agency, the first credit reporting agency continues to report you as being past due on that account because they never get corrected information.

The truth is that studies have shown that the majority of people in the US have at least one inaccurate item on their credit reports. That is almost a guarantee that there are errors on your credit report. The impact of those errors means that your credit score is being calculated lower than it really should be, which means that you are paying higher interest rates than you could be, as well as the other areas of your life a credit report affects.

There is no self-correct mechanism built into the system, and these errors will never be corrected unless YOU do it. There are right and wrong ways to get this information corrected and if you don’t do it right, you could make it even worse. You need to make your dispute be legitimate, not frivolous. There are a lot of people out there with accurate negative information on their credit report who are disputing that information with the credit bureaus in the hopes that even though it is accurate, it will disappear. You on the other hand have a legitimate beef that you want incorrect information corrected.

There is no sense in having inaccurate information about you being reported as accurate and factual. Get it corrected, and this is something you can do yourself, where you do not need to spend money on a “credit fix”. This is entirely legal, and is indeed your responsibility. You are only hurting yourself if you don’t get this done.

Sherry

Hyder Khan asked:




Are you being denied credit everywhere you go because you have bad credit? Are you being offered outrageous interest rates for a loan-refinance or for the purchase of a new home? In the United States, negative items remain on your credit report for at least 7 years. Did you recently run into some bad luck?

If any of these situations have happened to you, then you are not alone:

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David Maillie asked:




Many people have and suffer from bad or marginal credit. This does not mean they are a bad person as bad credit can happen as a result of a sudden unplanned illness or emergency, a job layoff, etc… Many families do not have sufficient savings to ride out a serious and costly emergency or job loss. Actually, according to MSN, many families are living only one paycheck away from bankruptcy and this is not good. To stop this one needs to put reigns on all unnecessary spending, but we will talk more about this further on.

The first step anyone with possibly bad credit needs to take is to find out the exact extent of your credit. You may have only seen 1 credit report or only been told what might be on your record by a bank or loan manager or finance manager, but did you know there are really 3 separate credit reporting agencies and each has a different report and score? Just because one credit report shows as bad doesn’t necessarily mean the others do, and vice versa, if one is good the other two may be quite the opposite. Usually, as a rule, they are similar, but negative items or entries do tend to stay longer on some then others and some tend to have more errors in their entry reporting.

Go online to any of the three major credit bureaus (Just Google the names of Experian, Equifax, and Transunion) and pay to have your all three in one report with credit score pulled. You want all three as they can and probably will be slightly different. The report is necessary so you can actually measure and understand exactly how bad it is and what needs to be done to improve and fix it. A all three in one report is around $40 to $50 and worth it. Free reports which you can receive per recent federal laws will only give one credit bureau and no score (how do you know where you stand without a score unless you are a finance manager or work at a bank loan department?)

If your score is 600 and above your credit is marginal, but not bad. You won’t have too much to repair. If your credit is 500 or below you probably have a lot of negative entries, possible tax liens, judgments, repos (car repossessions), a possible bankruptcy, and/or other serious negative influences and entries in your reports. A low or bad credit score will take more work and effort, but you can still achieve a much higher credit rating and fairly quickly.

Now, that you have your credit report and scores, find out which is the most important credit reporting bureau for your area of the country (each bureau has a particular area of influence). The easiest way to do this is to contact your local new car dealer and ask the finance manager what credit report they most commonly use to establish credit. Usually it is only one and that is the one that will be most influential in your area and the first one you should repair.

Glen

Frances Hobsons asked:




A person with a bad credit score will find it impossible to get credit anywhere in the market. Getting essential things like insurance and utility services also becomes difficult and more expensive if your scores are lower than normal. You might find it difficult to get employment or even a place to live. Having a bad score will affect every area of your life. A bad score may be the result of one of many reasons. You may have been late in paying your utility bills for a few times. You may have been late in paying your credit card bills or may be paying only the minimum amount payable on credit card bills for a long time. You may have had some medical or other financial emergency due to which you may have been unable to clear your bills. It could even be a case of some erroneous information finding its way onto your credit report. Or you may have had to opt for debt settlement in the event of not being able to repay your debts in full. In all these scenarios the scores of an individual are affected negatively.

The importance of credit scores is such that you should take immediate measures to rebuild your credit scores. The first thing you need to do when trying to rebuild your credit scores is that you should get your credit report from all the three major credit reporting agencies. You should then identify the erroneous and outdated information on these credit reports. You should then dispute this wrong information with the credit reporting agencies. In order to do this you should fill out the form attached to the credit reports and send them to the credit reporting agency. The credit reporting agencies have up to 30 days to verify this information. If they are unable to do so in 30 days this information will automatically be removed from your credit reports. Usually this procedure itself improves your credit significantly. You can undertake this procedure yourself or hire the professional services of a credit repair company.

Lynn

Ron Barrett asked:


to get your credit scores to rise very quickly, you will need to have some sense of urgency in contacting each of the credit reporting agencies. Although each one of them uses a different method to determine your scores, the way that you contact them and the information you request to be verified will be somewhat the same.

Once you receive your credit reports from each of the three major agency and know the areas of each that are affecting your credit score the most you can create the plan of attack you are going to use to clean these areas up and get the best results possible in the least amount of time.

Using this precise method of repairing your credit reports and boosting all of your scores will allow you to complete the next steps much easier.

Once you have cleaned up your report and raised your scores the first step you must take is to secure a small loan with a local bank. Sometimes you can get this accomplished with just your signature. You will then begin making the payments on that loan. Each payment will be made on time at the very worst. Your goal is to make the payments early. This will begin to create a positive payment history. It is that history that will eventually give future lenders the confidence to trust that you can make payments and will make the paymenst as outlined.

Not only will this allow you to get better interest rates, but will also allow you to secure better rates on your insurance. The lower payments that you realize from reduced interest and insurance rates will enable you to manage them better and ensure that the payments will be made on time, raising your scores even higher. Remember, you want to make the payments on time at the worst.

Repairing your credit score isn’t quite as difficult as most people think it is. Making sure the correct steps and ensure that you don’t have any hiccups along the way where you miss payments or make your payments late.

After you have started the rebuilding plan, the momentum that you create by doing this will raise your scores much faster. You need to know that there are other areas on your reports that will significantly affect your scores and they all need to be addressed at some point if you are going to get the highest score you can.



Rosa

Michael Brazier asked:


You as a consumer have rights under the Fair Debt Reporting Act to dispute negative information contained in your credit report. You can dispute negative or falsified information on your credit report by writing a dispute letter to the credit bureau that contains the negative blemish. This can usually be done online as well, while youre reviewing your credit report. Free credit reports are available through sites like annualcreditreport.com and disputes are enabled through a simple click through feature per each entry on the report. Once a dispute letter has been mailed or submitted online the law then requires the credit reporting agencies to take action for the consumer by conducting an investigation of said issue.

With these easy to follow steps you can easily write an effective dispute letter to the credit bureau.

Obtain your credit report: You can obtain a free credit report once a year or if you have been recently declined credit. Annualcreditreport.com provides a truly free credit report that can accelerate the process of sending snail mail. I mean, it is 2009…Order a copy from all three major credit bureaus. Experian, Equifax, TransUnion.

Become Sherlock Holmes: Read through your report with a fine tooth comb…or a slow scrolling mouse…Look for falsified information that may indicate you have been a victim of identity theft. Check the history of revolving accounts for false details, negative statuses, and outdated remarks that may be eligible to be removed.

Specify the items in dispute. Be very specific as to what item youre referencing and as detailed as possible as to what the dispute involves. If you have to use snail mail, send a copy of the credit report along with your dispute, circling which mark is being referenced. Online users can take a screenshot of the online credit report.

Separate the masses: If youre disputing several items youll want to send the disputes individually. As tricky as credit can be you have to imagine the men behind the curtain arent over willing to make that extra effort and sift through pages of email gripes or a manila folder as thick as a bible pointing out mistakes their organization has posted. Make it easy on the credit bureau to review each dispute individually. This is more to your benefit than theirs, trust.

Play nice: CAPPING every word isnt going to come off as cordial. As upset as you may be that you have erroneous marks on youre credit its best not to express yourself as a demanding impatient tyrant. Make your dispute personal and professional. Be polite. They can –read- your smile, lol.

Just the facts maam: Were not writing novels here. These are dispute letters. A definitive, professional, polite, one to two liner dispute per item. You have your goal, stick to it and lay out the facts. Point out the errors and request corrections and confirmations.

This is America! Keep in mind that you have the right to dispute marks on your credit report. Credit bureaus are required to investigate your dispute and can take up to 30 days to research and reply with the outcome of the investigation.

Follow up: Upon completion, you will receive a letter or copy of your credit report that shows their findings from the review. Should you not receive a response after 30 days send another letter reminding them of their obligation to respond and satisfy your submitted dispute. If you do not receive a reply thereafter your next step is to contact the FTC and file a formal complaint against the credit bureau. In the few cases where it escalates to contacting the FTC the disputed items are usually removed immediately for negligence and lack of evidence to support the negative mark.

More Help: If youre credit report looks like gibberish a non-profit credit counseling agency will usually review your report with you for free over the phone, via email, or in person should the service be local. Contact our certified credit counselors at our BBB Rated A+ non-profit credit counseling agency for a free review of your credit report and more helpful information to get your credit back on track. We help people fix credit scores and reduce debt through free financial information and debt elimination programs. Get on the road to financial freedom with Freedom Debt Management, 800-905-1563.



Judy