When it comes to building a future with a family and navigating life challenges, having a good credit record is a huge advantage. Unfortunately, many people make mistakes early on and the problem snowballs into a poor credit rating. Once that is in place, many folks think that they are beyond help. The truth is, no credit record is totally hopeless. You might have some work to do, but you can still improve your credit rating and get back on your feet. Ready to get started?
Five Tips for Repairing Your Credit
Here are five things you can do right now to help towards repairing your credit:
Stop the Bleeding
The worst thing you can do if your credit is bad is keep spending. Stop charging things right now and concentrate instead on reducing your debt. Many people shuffle debt around…paying one credit card with another. This is a poor strategy. Focus on paying off debt and slowing your spending.
Tackle High Interest Cards First
When you get your credit report it will show the accounts that are currently open. Those accounts should be listed out on a sheet of paper and then gone over carefully. Find the accounts that are costing the most interest annually and pay those off first (while still paying minimum amounts to the others). Once you finish one account, then start paying off the majority to the next highest interest rate account.
Review Your Credit Report for Mistakes
While you have your credit report out, make sure you go over it really closely. A shocking number of errors are often found and if you dispute one that is in error, it will be removed. These types of errors are common and you might be able to raise your score quickly by eliminating a few of these. This is particularly true if you have not checked your score in a long time.
Set Up A Budget
Next, you need to put a plan in place to keep you on point. Paying your bills on time is the key to good credit and doing that takes discipline. Set up payment alerts that will help you to always be on time, but most of all….set up a budget that is reasonable and possible to follow! This is the easiest way to turn over a new leaf and succeed where you have failed in the past. Budget your bills and your spending and you will be ahead of the curve towards rebuilding and repairing your credit.
Be Patient
You have heard all the cliches, but they are true. Rome really WASN’T built in a day. It takes time to repair your credit and fix mistakes. Think about it. It took you a good amount of time to accumulate your problems, so why not take a while to fix them? Invest the time and dedication it takes and go ahead and get ready for a long trip. If you stick with it, you will get back on your feet and get your credit looking great again!
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Can you dispute a hard inquiry if you were not granted the credit?