Regain Your Good Credit Standing With This Helpful Advice

Many people with bad credit need help to improve their credit rating. There are options for credit repair that you should know about before beginning. Read the advice in this article. It will help you make a plan that you can use to repair your credit, as quickly and easily as possible.

Discuss your credit situation

With a counselor from a non-profit agency that specializes in credit counseling. If you qualify, counselors may be able to consolidate your debts or even contact debtors to reduce (or eliminate) certain charges. Gather as many details about your credit situation as possible before you contact the agency so that you look prepared and serious about repairing your credit.

By paying off your bills

And debt regularly, you do not have to face the stress of phone calls from collectors. If you do not pay off your creditors, they will sell your debt to another collection agency until you pay someone. To avoid being harassed, set up a payment plan with your original creditor.

If a collection agent

Will not remove a debt that they cannot verify as yours, contact the attorney general's office where the creditor is located. Advise them that the creditor has no written proof of your debt and will not remove the item from your credit. The attorney general's office will contact the creditor for you to have it removed.

If you know that you are going to be late

On a payment or that the balances have gotten away from you, contact the business and see if you can set up an arrangement. It is much easier to keep a company from reporting something to your credit report than it is to have it fixed later.

If you notice a mistake in your credit report

You can make the corrections yourself. You will need to contact the major credit-reporting agencies and ask for assistance. This is pretty straight forward and there is no fee to do this. There are also publications that offer credit history self-help, as well.

A great choice of a law firm

For credit repair is Lexington Law Firm. They offer credit repair help with absolutely no extra charge for their e-mail or telephone support during any given time. You can cancel their service anytime with no hidden charges. Whichever law firm you do choose, make sure that they don't charge for every attempt they make with a creditor whether it be successful or not.

When working to repair your credit

It is important to make sure everything is reported accurately. Remember that you are entitled to one free credit report per year from all three reporting agencies or for a small fee have it provided more than once a year.

If you want to repair your credit score

Avoid actions that send up red flags with the credit agencies. These flags include using advances from one card to pay off another, making large numbers of requests for new credit, or opening too many accounts at the same time. Such suspicious activity will hurt your score.

An important tip to consider

When working to repair your credit is the added incentive that you will not have to pay a large security deposit when starting up utilities at a new residence. This will help to save your immediate out of pocket costs and give you more money to work off your debt.

Since passage of legislation

Known as the Credit Repair Organizations Act, companies must supply you with a required form known as the "Consumer Credit File Rights Under State and Federal Law," before you are required to sign a contract to hire them to aid you in regards to repairing your credit. In addition, they must provide you with a written contract which specifies all of your obligations and rights. Make sure you read through all documents before signing a contract. A credit repair organization cannot charge you a fee until they have fulfilled all of their promised services. Also be aware that they must wait three days after you have signed a contract before they can perform any services. During this three-day waiting period, you may void the contract at any time, without payment of any fees.

If you are trying to raise your credit score 

As much as possible, spread out your balances across two or three cards. While the total amount of debt that you have counts against you, more weight is put on the percentages of your limits that are being used. It is better to have 20% of the balance used on three cards than 60% on one.

Negotiate with a creditor

To have a negative item removed from your report, in exchange for an agreed upon pay off amount. Make sure to get this in writing before making the payment. Doing this could significantly, and quickly, improve your credit score. You may also get them to agree to accept less than you initially owed on the debt.

Make timely credit card payments

From now on. Your road to recovering from lousy credit begins now, and everything that you do from this day forward counts. You can restore your good credit rating over time with a history of on-time payments. This will also save you a fortune in late fees, which will make it even easier to make your payments on time.

You should not close or cancel

Old credit card accounts when you are in the process of trying to repair your credit. This is not such a good idea because it will only serve to make your credit history appear to be much shorter than it is in reality.

Credit repair is possible with the right information and a great plan. Do not feel overwhelmed by the state of your credit. Find out whatever you can do to make it better and then do it. Use the tips in this article to help you do that. Any time that you spend on the credit repair process will be well worth it.