subject: Fix Bad Credit Report - How I Stopped Bad Credit From Ruining My Life [print this page] I didn't know how I was going to fix my bad credit report. I had been at a well paying job for years and I wasn't prepared for the lay of I had in early 2007. I had always taken care of my credit and I've never been a reckless spender. I simply found myself living from my credit cards while I looked for another job and it cough up to me. When it was all said and done I was left with bad debt and no clue on how to fix a bad credit report.
When I got back on my feet I looked into several ways of fixing my bad credit report. What I found was that, first, it was an easy concept but not easy without the right information. I didn't know anything about credit laws and how they protected me. Well it was time for a wake up call. Not to mention I didn't have much money to pay someone to do it for me. Here's some of what I learned and how I applied it.
Taking in all that credit information was great. I wasn't aware of how credit worked. I always just took it as pay on time and you're good. I was right but there's more to it. To fix my bad credit report I did three things. First I disputed accounts that I could dispute. They weren't all disputable so I learned how to tell the difference between those that were and those that, it just wasn't going to happen.
I followed it up with getting new credit. I know what you're thinking. You're getting yourself out of one hole to fall into another. We'll yes and no. I understand you need credit to have good credit. One without the other doesn't exist. Ying Yang you know what I mean. So I took on new credit. My sister has always been a great manager of money and her credit shows it. She was kind enough to help me out. What she did for me was add me to her credit accounts with high credit limits. This automatically gave me good accounts on my credit history with established history of payment and balances to prove it. Pretty sneaky, huh? We'll its all fair in love and war, and now credit as far as I'm concerned.
The last thing I did was negotiate what ever accounts I could, to pay off in settlement, and have the account deleted from my history. Although I had to pay money out and that wasn't easy, it was great to get rid of the bad credit report. In some cases I was able to settle for as low as 30% of what I owed and have the account deleted. Most creditors stayed at about 40% of what I owed.
To fix a bad credit report you need to have good information. I wasn't able to pay for someone to do it for me and it worked out. The 1,500 dollars I would have spent paying someone to do it. I spent settling a couple of the accounts I had.
