Have you been through a rough patch? Has your credit suffered and your scores fallen to sub-prime levels? You do not have to wait seven years to see your credit scores improve. There are many credit repair strategies you can put to use today that will get your scores back on track before you know it. Don't make the mistake of letting your credit languish while you hope for the years to pass quickly. Now is the time to get proactive. Take these few simple steps and start pumping up those scores today.

Many people who go through hard times find themselves with no open credit cards. If your credit cards have been charged off, gone to collection, or just closed by the creditor, now is the time to regroup. Forget the past for the moment and focus on today. You need to have at least two open credit cards to get your scores moving in the right direction. I know there is little hope of getting approved for a regular credit card, but there is an option that is every bit as powerful for building your scores; secured cards can rock your world, and in a good way. Here is some motivation. If your scores are in the 500s, or below, and you do not have any open accounts, two secured credit cards can be worth as much as 150 points on your scores. This is credit repair gold, but you need to do it right.

There are a few subtle pointers to be aware of as you get your secured credit card plan underway. The amount of the card limit does not matter. Preserve your capital and open the account with the minimum requirement. Usually this is two or three hundred dollars. What does count is the relationship between your balance and the limit. Keep your balance under twenty percent. Read that carefully; keep the balance under twenty percent of the limit. If you have a card with a two hundred dollar limit you should keep the balance under forty dollars. Also, don't let the balance go to zero; zero balance cards are depreciated by the scoring model. And credit repair rule number one: make those payments on time, every time.

Not all credit types are created equal; at least not as far as your credit scores are concerned. While you are in credit rebuilding mode you should avoid all forms of consumer debt. This includes store cards, furniture store loans, as well as appliance and electronic store loans. The credit scoring model has a built in bias against these forms of debt. This is the case regardless of how well you manage your payments. There is logic behind this oddity; these forms of debt are typically inferior and are statistically correlated with poor payments, so your scores get punished to warn other prospective lenders that you might be risky. Sorry, I'm just reporting the news. From my perspective, store cards can be convenient and may sometimes even provide great discounts. So, if you must utilize consumer debt, go right ahead, but please pay it off as soon as possible.

If you have had accounts sent to collection you may be a victim of a very sneaky type of reporting error. Collectors buy and sell debt all the time. It's part of the business. When a collector sells a debt to another collector or passes it back to the original creditor they are supposed to withdraw the account from your credit report, but they rarely do. As a consequence, there is a significant likelihood that some of the collections on your credit report should not be there. Read your credit reports very carefully and dispute any collections that don't look right. Look for multiple collections for the same debt, old collection accounts, and any collections that you don't recognize. You will be surprised how many vanish from your report for the price of a first class stamp. A quick caveat: this credit repair technique is not a means of eliminating legitimate debt, and it is not wise to dispute active collections that you know for sure are accurate, as you may trigger increase collection activity.

Credit repair is not expensive. You can afford to hire a professional to do the job for you. In fact, if you are a busy person and feel that you don't have the time to do this highly detail oriented job properly, don't do it! Pick up the phone and find someone that will do the job right. Your credit is very important and the difference between doing half the job and doing it all the way may be a world of difference. Good luck!

Copyright © 2009 Ian Webber. All Content. All Rights Reserved.