Credit Repair is probably one of the most abused practices out there. You can find companies advertising credit repair all over the web. Being a lender for 8 years and knowing the facts, credit repair by credit companies typically will be a huge let down.

You cannot remove a debt you owe unless that debt has reached its expiration date. This is what most of these credit repair companies promise.  In other articles I have discussed this expiration process; here is the way that works. In this article I wanted to discuss the how credit repair can be done fore FREE with your own efforts. Don’t waste your money and time with “credit repair companies” you can take that money and repair your own credit report.

Step 1: Getting your credit report

There are free trial credit report offers all over the web. You probably are asking which one is actually FREE. Well www.annualcreditreport.com is the only credit report site that does not ask for a credit card unless you want your credit scores with the report. We recommend getting your credit report with credit scores, that way you have an idea what your scores are. You can do that through our site if you want your scores. We also have provided a comparison site of all the top free trial credit report offers at our sister company www.freecreditscorequick.com. So check that out as well.

Step 2: Determine incorrect information on your report

Most credit reports have inaccurate information on that report. You need to determine what debts should be taken off and what debts are inaccurate. To determine collections or slow pays that need to be removed from your credit report, you can use this link to find out expiration dates.

Step 3: Dispute inaccurate information

Once you have determined what is inaccurate and expired, dispute that information on-line. In our professional opinion it’s much faster to dispute on-line than write letters. You can dispute online here.

Step 4: Determine budget to settle on collections

This is probably the most frustrating part of credit repair. It is also the quickest way to increase your credit scores as well. Take note of each collection and the collection company’s number. Add up t he total amount of money you owe to each creditor. One you have that total determine how much you can pay to either settle or pay in full the collection that is owed.

Step 5: Call collection companies to settle on debt

You will find that these collection companies can be difficult to work with, but they will usually settle pennies on the dollar to get payment.

Example:

Collection amount: $500.00

Offer Amount: $250.00

Remember you have already determined what you can afford to offer each collection company. Also make sure you meet the agreement that has been arranged. Don’t tell the collection company you are gong to pay and blow them off. This may take some time, but will be the quickest way to repair your credit.

Step 6: Collect letters from collection companies

This is very important, once you have released money to a collection company make sure they get a letter stating you have either settle or paid in full on the collection. Keep these letters in a folder. You may find that the Collection Company or bureau did not update the collection properly. This letter is proof you took care of collection.

Step 7: Reestablish credit

I am going to assume you have no good credit reporting on your credit report. All the good credit you had went to collection. You will need to re-establish good credit. You are going to find that most banks will only allow secured lines of credit to establish good credit. The quickest way to do this is with secured credit cards. You can get the top secured credit cards through our site. You will need a minimum of 2 cards. Most of these credit card companies require you to send them $200 to $300 dollars of your own money to secure that line of credit. The reason I recommend this is because this line of credit will report to all 3 credit bureaus as good credit. Make sure once you have received a couple of cards you keep the balanced owed extremely low. Credit Cards are not credit lines to go out and charge up above and beyond what you can pay off that particular month. Also make sure you are not late on any payments. If you charge up your cards or are late on payments, you credit scores will plummet. With your new secured cards you will establish higher credit scores and this process will take about 6 to 12 months.

Step 8: Pull your credit report

Once you have done all the above and it has been around 6 to 12 months re-pull your 3-in-1 credit report. You want to make sure that the collection companies have reported everything properly like they should. Remember you have letters to show you paid or settled on your collections. If you find that these collection companies have not updated the credit bureaus like they are suppose to, remember you can dispute online to get update or call the collection company to ask what is going on.

Conclusion:

Remember credit repair is not a quick and easy process. If you follow the steps given, you will be like the individuals we have helped get a mortgage over the years that had credit issues. Don’t fall prey to credit repair companies, most of them will disappoint you.

CreditScoreQuick.com

This entry was posted on Friday, November 27th, 2009 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.