A credit report is run on a buyer when he or she needs to buy something that will take a long-term loan, such as an automobile or a house. The credit report can come from one of three agencies – Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union. Each of these three agencies uses their own techniques of arriving at a credit score and receiving credit information, so attention should be paid to all three. A credit report score can go up to 800, and an increase of 50 points is a big one, enabling borrowers to get loans they previously were denied, and getting loans at much better interest rates. A 1% drop in an interest rate on a $150,000 house, for instance, may drop a payment by over $100 a month, saving the borrower over $35,000 over the life of the 30-year loan.
Each of these credit agencies have taken all the financial information they can find about you and tabulated a credit score from those results. Information will include your current and previous home addresses and employers, the credit cards and loans you have, and any late payments made over the last ten years. These agencies' credit reports will be very similar, but there will be differences, as they all make mistakes, and the banks and credit card companies giving them the information make mistakes, too.
Here's where you can improve your credit score. Any request for a change in information in a credit report must be answered and corrected within 30 days because federal law regulates the credit bureaus. If you write in to a credit bureau complaining that one of the late payments on your credit report is wrong, they must investigate and correct the information within the 30 days, or delete the information. Because this deadline is very difficult to make, often the late payment report is simply deleted off of the credit report.
This procedure is very slow and time-consuming, and you can either do it yourself or hire an agency to do it for you. Each letter should only request one change, otherwise the credit bureau will usually declare the request to be frivolous and thus they are not required to do anything. Each letter should be written to all three credit reporting agencies. These agencies, Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union, all have PO boxes specifically set up for complaints, but they change the PO Boxes often to make it difficult for customers to find. Every month you, or the agency you have hired, should send out another letter referring to a different mistake in your credit report. After many months, your credit report will show many fewer late payments, perhaps even none, and your credit score will have improved dramatically.
How To Repair Credit Report
Nowadays, more people are on the verge of damaging their credit, if they haven't done so already. When this happens, they will not be able to fix it quickly. Having damaged credit is akin to getting a divorce from your spouse. It leaves a terrible stain. Not only that, you feel ruined. However, there is a way that you can implement credit repair strategies to get this fixed.
When your credit is damaged, one of the first things you will need to do is to analyze why it happened in the first place. Look at what problems caused this to happen. In other words, you need to go back to the root of the problem. Did you have financial problems prior to this happening? Did you have a job? Did you have any money saved? How were you paying your bills? Were you paying them on time or were you consistently late? Did you try to contact your creditors and set up payment plans? Did you make any type of attempt to initiate an effective plan of credit repair?
These are questions that should come into your mind as you do your financial soul searching. Doing this can help you to see what issues you had and why you didn't do things different. Credit repair is important when you need to resurrect your credit to a decent standard. With damaged credit, you must find ways to change your unsuccessful financial habits. Look at where you can make improvements and implement plans in place for you to follow. Having a plan is a great start, but if there is no follow through, then it's just a waste.
Handling credit repair after your credit has been damaged can be a delicate situation for some. Depending on the damage done, your credit can suffer for several years. If you fell into Chapter 7 bankruptcy, this will stay on your credit report for 10 years. If you faced a foreclosure on your home, it will stay on your credit report for 7 years. Neither of these situations is proud to have, but since the damage has been done, the only thing you can concentrate on now is starting over to repair your credit.
Handling credit repair will require you to create a spending plan. Since undisciplined spending and lack of financial management was probably the cause of your damaged credit, you need to start there. Find out where you can cut spending and how you can better manage your money. List your expenses and income. Subtract your expenses from your income and see how much you have. If it's not enough to carry you over, then you'll have to make some changes. In addition to eliminating some spending habits, you may have to get a part-time job, or you can start your own business on the side.
Another thing you can do to help your credit repair is to start paying your bills on time. Whatever extra money you may have after you cut your spending can be used to apply to other bills and debt that you have. The more money you apply to your debt, the faster you can get rid of those bills and improve your credit. However, the damage to your credit will still be there until the required time has expired.
There's something else that can help you with your credit repair—don't use credit cards. Credit cards are any easy way to get trapped back into the debt cycle. If possible, do not use them unless you are at a point where you can pay the bill on time every month without having to strain and struggle. These guidelines are important to have because they can help you rebuild and revitalize your credit.
Both Tom Coleman & Joseph Feross are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
