If you can’t sleep at night because of bad credit, it’s time to take action. The advice provided here will help you fix your credit and ease your mind.
Financing a home is not always an easy task, especially when you have less than perfect credit. If this is the case, try to get an FHA loan, which are loans backed by federal government. FHA loans even apply for someone who doesn’t have closing costs or the funds that are needed for down payment.
Credit Card
Look at the credit card accounts you have with a balance over 50% of the credit limit. Pay those off until they fall under this number. If your credit card balances exceed 50% of their limits, it will lower your credit score, so spread your debt over multiple cards, or better, pay down the balances.
Work with the companies to whom you owe money to get your debt back under control. This will assure them that you want to handle your debt and keep you from getting even further behind. Some of your options include negotiating for a later due date, and asking for reductions in your minimum monthly payments.
Before you decide to go through with a debt settlement, you should be sure you know how it will affect your credit. Some ways of dealing with debt repayment are better for your credit score than others, so make sure you are achieving the best outcome for you before you sign anything. Most of the time they want their money and don’t care about your credit score.
Make sure to check all three of your credit reports, and pay extra attention to the negative reports when you are working on repairing bad credit. There may very likely be errors or mistakes that can be removed.
Credit Card
When you get your monthly credit card bill, check it over to see if there are any mistakes. Contact the credit card company right away if there are incorrect fees, so that they won’t be on your credit report.
If you are able to negotiate a repayment plan with your creditor, be sure to get it in writing. This will provide proof of your agreement in case any problems ever arise. You also want it in writing if it gets paid off so you can go ahead and send it to credit reporting agencies.
High credit card balances can damage your credit. The first step to repairing credit is to pay those balances down. Pay off high-interest debt first, as it grows the fastest. This can prove to creditors that you are serious about paying down your debt.
Credit Restoration
Make sure that the credit restoration agency you choose to work with is reputable. The credit restoration business has a lot of unfair and shady companies. Slimy operators are quite common, so beware of credit improvement scams. Take the time to read reviews of different agencies. This will allow you to find an honest one to work with.
When lenders examine your personal credit history, they will not consider any statements you have made about the negative marks. It may even draw more attention to the blemish.
Credit cards should be avoided. Pay for everything with cold, hard cash. When you do use a credit card, pay off the balance in full each month.
One of the biggest stressors can be bad dealings with debt collection agencies. Cease and desist correspondences can be legally used by a consumer to put off collection agencies; however they only help stop the harassing phone calls. Remember, even when the debt collectors stop annoying you by phone, your obligation to pay what you owe is not alleviated.
Part of having bad credit is having lots of debts that you are not able to pay. Be sure to give a portion of your spendable income to each of your creditors. Even if the payments you are making are the minimum ones, these small payments will still somewhat please your creditors, which will likely stop them from getting in touch with collection agencies.
Credit Score
Your credit score suffers each and every time you make the choice to get a new credit card or line of credit. When you are offered a credit card when checking out at the store, fight the urge to get one to receive the discounts that are offered to you. As soon as you open a new credit account, your credit score drops immediately.
Your credit report doesn’t need to be the stuff that nightmares are made of. You will feel in control of your finances once your credit is repaired. By following the helpful credit score improvement information in this article, you can make your credit situation much better.