Many Americans have what would be considered 'bad' credit. Fortunately, credit repair is attainable for everyone and some people are even able to raise their FICO scores over 100 points in less than a year by using these methods. And, in the world of credit scores, 100 points can be the difference between getting turned down for every credit card out there or getting a nice limit credit card from a prime level bank. So, just how can one raise their FICO scores? Below is a list of the most common repair methods.

Disputing Old or Inaccurate Accounts

Disputing old or inaccurate accounts is an essential part of credit repair because it can completely eliminate negative accounts from your credit report. How does this happen? Because if an account cannot be verified by an original creditor or validated by a collection company (where they must fully and completely, without doubt, prove that the account is yours), then it must be deleted from your credit report within 30 days of your dispute. If an account is inaccurate, then there is a chance that the company will not be able to validate the account. This can also be true of old accounts since the records may not have been kept, especially on negative accounts that have been paid.

Since FICO groups consumers into different categories (i.e those with a bankruptcy), you may actually see a drop in your FICO score during credit repair, when you lose an account or public record, if you have been moved into a different category. This category should be better for your credit profile than the last, even though your score has dropped. Your score may also drop if you lose very old account, since it was helping with the total average age of all of your accounts. In either case, your credit repair is working regardless of what your FICO score says. As many who have used credit repair methods say: It is better to have 'clean' reports with lower scores, then higher scores with 'baddies' on your reports.

Building a Positive Credit Profile

Another essential part of credit repair is adding good, positive accounts to your credit profile. This should give your FICO score a nice boost in the beginning, if you currently had no positive accounts. After so many accounts, you will begin to see a FICO score drop when a new account is open, due to the average age of the accounts on your credit report. However, as mentioned above, your score will rebound nicely as these accounts gather some age. This part of credit repair will still be shinning up your overall credit profile, even though it does not seem like it.

Letting Negative Accounts Age

On negative accounts that just won't budge with credit repair methods (usually the case with government-owned accounts, such as student loans), your only course of action may be to just wait it out. This usually means 7 years for a credit item and 7-10 years for a public record item.

If you work hard enough at credit repair, you will see changes in your credit situation before you know it. For some with very bad reports, your scores may not change overnight but things will get better. Doing something within the realm of credit repair is better than doing nothing and, the more you know about credit and credit repair, the more equipped you will be to bounce back from your credit past.