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Credit Repair For Yourself |
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Written by Martin Sumner
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Monday, 22 January 2007 |
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Word Count: 558 Having a bad credit rating can be a serious problem affecting people's lives
in all kinds of ways. Quite apart from making it more difficult to obtain
credit, a poor credit rating will mean that the costs of the credit you manage
to be approved for will be much higher, meaning you'll have less money to spend
on the more enjoyable parts of life.
There's no doubt that most people with credit problems would happily clean up
their credit ratings if they could, and there are indeed thousands of websites
claiming that it's easy to repair your credit. Some of these claims are at best
dubious, while others are even downright illegal.
Unfortunately, there's no 'magic bullet' you can use to repair an impaired
credit rating, at least while staying within the law. That doesn't mean,
however, that you're stuck with poor credit and that there's nothing you can do.
There are a few simple strategies you can use to begin to improve the situation.
Firstly, you need to get hold of your credit record. The big credit reference
agencies share data among themselves, so it doesn't really matter which one of
them you request a copy of your file from - they'll all contain much the same
information.
Once you've obtained a copy of your file, look through it and examine every
entry. Is there anything on there that looks wrong? It's not impossible for your
file to have information on it that's out of date, or simply incorrect. It's
your legal right to challenge any incorrect details on your file, and have them
corrected if neccessary.
Make sure that any unpaid debts listed actually apply to you and not someone
else - a previous occupant of your address, for example. Also make sure that any
defaults you've since cleared are listed as being satisfied. While this won't
remove the default from your file completely, it will lessen the impact on your
rating.
The next step is to look if you have any outstanding debts which you could clear
without too much trouble. Often, a debt will go unpaid during times of financial
troubles, which could be paid off later on when your money situation improves.
Clearing these small debts will also greatly improve your creditworthiness.
Once you've cleaned up your credit file as much as possible, and removed as much
negative information as you can, it's time to start focussing on the positive -
you need to get some 'good' entries on your credit file to counteract any 'bad'
entries that remain.
The best way to do this is to apply for some kind of financial service that
you'll be approved for, such as a credit card aimed at people with poor credit
scores, or even one of the secured or prepay cards which offer close to 100%
acceptance, also making sure that the company issuing the card reports back to
the credit reference agencies.
As you use the card responsibly in the future, keeping up your repayments, then
this will be entered onto your credit file. Over time, you'll find that your
credit rating will begin to improve, allowing you to move on to more mainstream,
cheaper, credit options.
Article Source: www.webraydian.com
About the author: Martin writes for bad credit advice website
http://www.bad-credit-solutions.co.uk/
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