subject: Repairing Credit Is Extremely Possible - Here Are Five Keys To Doing So. [print this page] I had a bad credit score for many years, (almost 7 to be exact) and simply didn't know how to go about improving it. When I started the process of fixing bad credit items that I had on my report, my scores were in the low 500's. In the spring of 2008 I started working on the different areas of repairing my credit and I've been pretty successful so far. As I've come to find out the hard way, rebuilding a credit score is far more than just having bad information deleted off of a credit report. There are a ton of pitfalls and mistakes that I made when I went about fixing bad credit items and improving my overall credit score. I want to help people avoid these pitfalls.
I've realized that I'm no different than most people. My credit problems were because I didn't make good decisions financially when I was younger and didn't realize how much those decisions would effect my life until I started getting into my adult years. Fixing bad credit credit is such a popular topic right now because there are so many unforeseen circumstances that we go through, especially in our society right now to create credit issues.
A few absolute keys to fixing bad credit are:
1. By far the most overlooked aspect of improving a credit score is establishing good lines of credit. If you are working on getting information deleted, but aren't working on having new lines of credit open then your progress will be extremely slow to come in terms of seeing your credit score improve. This is extremely easy to do if you know where to look.
2. It's important to understand exactly what is on your credit report, how to read it properly, and know how to initiate the dispute process. Without understanding this, it's going to be very difficult to get results. This is just the beginning though and.
3. Go after the low hanging fruit first. If an item is clearly being misreported, then start with these items to get them removed.
4. Knowing how to work with the creditors and collection companies is going to be important as well. You may not need to do this much, but some of the information may indeed be yours and get confirmed. If you want to get your credit score where you deserve it to be, then this will be handy.
5. Having some patience is going to be necessary. Unfortunately the credit bureaus don't move quickly in the dispute process, and are going to throw up plenty of roadblocks along the way that are going to drive you crazy. Understanding this ahead of time will help you quite a bit. The worst outcome possible is to give up.
These are the basics to fixing bad credit items and improving a credit score. There is so many different tactics that I've learned over the years that will be effective as you go through the process such as using the Better Business Bureau and the Fair Trade Commission to get those real pesky items to go away or at least escalate the dispute process, but it all starts with a solid understanding and developing a game plan to start fixing bad credit
