I really would like to repair my own credit without having to pay someone.I recently enrolled into a service online that lets me see my credit scores from all three credit bureaus but what can I do from there.Do I need to remove all or just certain ones?Any advice would be very apreciated.
First, it would help to know what makes up your score:
1. Payment history- 35%
2. Total debt owed to avialable credit ratio-30%
3. Length of time establishing credit-15%
4. Types of credit established-10%
5. Inquiries and New accounts-10%
Now, with that out of the way, here’s your plan of attack.
First, you should open a checking and savings account if you haven’t already. This equips you with a means to pay bills and to manage your money. Also it establishes and develops a relationship between you and the bank which can help get loans and credit cards later down the line. Most banks offer online billpay which can be the most powerful tool in building credit.
You should arrange the negative items on your reports from least to greatest, most recent to oldest. The most recent items are having the biggest impact on your score. Items that are 5 years or older don’t have much of a negative impact anymore. The next 4 links I posted explain how you can negotiate paying off old items hopefully in exchange for getting them removed from your report altogether
http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/settle_debts.shtml
http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/neg_rating_after_settle.shtml
http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/CanCreditorSue4SettlementDifferences.shtml
http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/ActualDebtSuccesses.shtml
This is very effective in order to get rid of collection accounts for much less than had you just paid them off. If you’re successful in getting any if not all removed, then what you should do is open new accounts to replace the old ones.
Something that you should know is that anytime that you apply for credit, whether you’re approved or not, a "hard inquiry" is created which lowers your score. Since your score is low to begin with, it’s important to open accounts that you have a good chance of getting approved for. Secured credit cards are a good example of this. How it works is that a deposit which is used as collateral is placed upfront in order to establish a line of credit. For example, if you deposit $300, then you would get a credit card with a $300 credit line. The deposit isn’t used to repay the card unless it went to collections, so you would still have to pay a balance and a minimum payment just like a regular card. 2 benefits though to a secured card is that there is more control over the credit line, meaning that it can be increased by adding to the deposit. Also, the deposit is sometimes linked to a savings account which can gain interest while credit is established, so the deposit isn’t just sitting there. It helps to increase the credit limit as much as possible while it’s secured because the high limit helps the score by creating a cushion of available credit and the total debt that’s owed. A perfect way to use the card without going into debt would be to use it to pay for that monthly online credit monitoring service every month, and that’s it. Pay it off every month, and increase the credit line. This way credit is being built by showing activity, without having to go into debt while doing it. Usually after a year of paying the balance off every month, the card either converts to a regular card or a better card is offered, and most importantly the deposit is no longer needed and is given back to you. It’s a good chances that other offers for credit will start coming in, but my suggestion would be to repeat the process with another secured company. At least with a secured card, you can dictate what the credit limt is, and not the credit card company.
These are just a few tips on what to do to get you started in rebuidling your credit.
I posted links to some secured cards as well as some credit repair sites that I think will help!
I thank you for reading and good luck!