by : John Caskey

You'll hear lots of ads today about credit repair services that can cut your debt by 20%, 30%, 40% or more. "We can stop the phone calls" they claim! "We'll negotiate with your creditors!" What they won't tell you is that they will take a hefty percentage for their service and that you can start a do it yourself credit fix program that does everything they will do to improve your credit.

If you have bad credit, and want to improve your credit score, where do you begin? To be as effective at fixing your own credit as an agency would, you need to have some help and direction.

First make sure you have realistic expectations. Credit repair agencies that claim to fix your credit within days or weeks are probably scams. The biggest resource you need is patience, along with a good checklist of steps to take to start a do it yourself credit fix program. As you go down your list of things to do to fix your credit, you will gradually see improvement your score will climb a little higher each month, and your debt will not be such a burden as you pay it off systematically.

It's very important to get a copy of your credit report. Federal law now allows you to get free copies of the three major credit reports (Experian, TRW and E). With your credit report in hand, you can find the errors that could be causing you to have a lower score than you deserve, and take steps to get that corrected.

Then you will need to prioritize your debts, and start paying them off. Knowing which ones to pay first can be tricky highest interest rate, or highest balance? Why not pay off the LOWEST balance you have, and have the good feeling of starting to get rid of your debt. Once you pay off the lowest balance account, CLOSE the account generally, it will improve your credit report the fastest to show one less account.

Once your debts are prioritized, you can start to pay off debt faster by finding extra cash to apply to your bills each month. Whether you cut back on expenses (there are some very simple ideas you can use right away) or find a second source of income to dedicate just to your bills, paying more than your minimums each month is the only way to really get rid of debt fast and boost your credit history by keeping current.

If you're having trouble paying your balances, call the credit card companies. It's likely that they have several programs to help you pay less today to get caught up, or lower your interest rate, or provide some other way for you to cope with high balances. After all, they want to be repaid! Most of the time they will work with you, and for the companies that refuse, switch your balance to another, lower rate card if you can, or make sure you pay that company off first.

If your do it yourself credit fix program includes prioritizing your debt and paying more than the minimum monthly payments, you will be well on your way to improving your credit score on your own and save cash in the process.