Not Easy, but You Can Repair Your Credit
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Get Ready, Go! You Can Repair Your Credit
By the time you've gotten yourself deeply and sadly into terrible debt, you may feel there's no way to repair your credit except bankruptcy. That's a pretty drastic solution. There are some intermediate steps that you can take to repair your credit. While you may choose to utilize a credit repair service (many of which you can find online, to your heart's content), you can do a lot of it your very self.
Creditors real-time real human beings who just happen to hold your emotional health in their hands in the form of your unpaid bills that are accruing interest as fast as the hours roll by. But these real folk would like to see you resolve your problems rather than hide your eyes and cry; they want you to be able to repair your credit. They want to see you do SOMETHING to help the situation rather than defaulting or filing for bankruptcy.
So whether you use a counseling agency or make arrangements yourself, these people want to see you repay your debts. Most will do what they can to assist you in your credit repair.
Getting Started on Credit Repair
First step, you've got to get a clear sense of your earning and your spending. This you will do by writing down everything you bring in and what you are spending. This is actually called a budget, though the word may irritate you; you could also call it a spending plan, but it all means the same thing. Write down everything -- and that means EVERYTHING -- even your custom coffees at the corner. At the end of the month, compare your total expenses with your income.
If you're overspending, you have two choices: cut back or earn more income. Most people can't easily earn much more money without drastically changing their lives (moonlighting? sending Mom out to work? ) but they can cut back their spending, promise. . . R Look for spending areas you can comfortably reduce a bit. For example, let's say you need to cut $175 from your budget. You might be spending $75 a month to eat out, but you can decrease that to $25and save $50.
Keep looking and you will find plenty of places to cut back your monthly spending. If you are seriously over limit every month, you may HAVE to make a drastic change, such as downsizing your rental.
Get a Copy of Your Credit Report to Repair Your Credit
You can use one of the many free credit report offers online or pay a moderate amount, but either way, get a copy of your credit report. Equifax (P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374, 800-685-1111, www.equifax.com), Trans Union (P.O. Box 1000, Chester, PA 19022, 800-888-4213, www.tuc.com), or Experian (P.O. Box 2002, Allen, TX 75013, 888-397-3742, www.experian.com) are all good sources. When you request your report, provide the following: your full name, your birth date, your Social Security number, your telephone number, and your current address and addresses for the past five years.
As you go through your report, list everything out of date. The credit bureaus must remove the following, which will repair your credit: Lawsuits, paid tax liens, accounts sent out for collection, criminal records (except criminal convictions, which may be reported indefinitely), late payments, and any other negative information older than seven years, bankruptcies older than ten years, and credit inquiries (requests by companies for a copy of your report) older than two years.
Now look for mistakes, like: incorrect or incomplete name, address, phone number, Social Security number, or employment information; bankruptcies not identified by their specific chapter number; accounts not yours or lawsuits in which you were not involved; incorrect entries from any accounts; closed accounts listed as open; and any account you closed that doesn't say "closed by consumer." Every single one of these needs to be fixed and that will help repair your credit.
Posted by jonathan on February 03, 2005 at 07:10 PM