The first step to repairing your credit is to get a copy of your credit report. A consumer is given three free credit reports a year from the three major credit bureaus, TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. To obtain your free copy go to www.annualcreditreport.com. Once you receive your report you need to go over it in detail to make sure all the information is accurate. In this article I will discuss a few things that can help you repair your credit.
1) Make sure all the information on your credit report belongs to you. There could be a mistake on your report that is giving you negative items. Go through and make sure everything on there belongs to you. Also make sure that accounts that do belong to you are accurate.
2) If you feel that something on your credit report is inaccurate you need to dispute with the three major credit bureaus immediately. To do this go to their websites and they will tell you how to dispute them. The websites are:
www.TransUnion.com
www.Equifax.com
www.Experian.com
3) The best thing you can do for your credit is to pay your bills on time. Late payments stay on your report for 7 years. Stop making late payments now because each year with perfect payments the better.
4) Pay off your credit card debt! This is very important because the amount of credit you have available compared to the amount of credit you use effects your score. Try to use 20% and below the amount of credit available to you.
5) Do not cancel old accounts even if you are no longer using them. Like I said before the more available credit you have that you are not using the better. So cut up old cards but do not cancel them.
6) Do not apply to a bunch of credit cards at once. Too many hard inquires, which are inquires made when someone is seeking new credit, are not good for your credit score. Inquires stay on your credit report for two years.
I hope this guide helped you to begin to understand how to repair your credit yourself. Credit repair services promise a miracle and perfect credit but the truth is there nothing they can that you yourself can not. So do not fall for their promises and start to repair your own credit today!