Bad Credit Agency

Can you really repair 'bad credit' on your own, ? How?

A friend has some late payments and some old credit card bills as well as an incorrect item on her credit. How can this be repaired. She does not have the funds for an attorney and those companies that claim to "repair bad credit" are sometimes a scam. Help me to help her.

Public Comments

1. you find something to buy that you can make payments on and pay them on time and even early if possible. keep doing that.
2. Ok, first, she needs to figure out how much she has coming in and going out. Like, what she gets from pay and so forth and what bills she has. Then, she will have to figure out what all of the old credit card bills are, and which collection company they have been sent to. She will need to call them and come up with a payment plan to pay the debts off. Then, she will need to figure out what is left, and how much she can begin to save. If it is an option, she should setup a direct deposit to a high yield savings account such as Schwab, ING Direct, or similar. She should also cut up any store only credit cards(example would be a Sears Card). They are pointless and typically have the highest interest. She needs to look at any of her major credit cards, if any, and figure out which has the lowest rate, and then, she should cut the others up. One is good for emergencies. So, once she starts getting things paid off, she can increase her savings more and more. The ultimate goal would be to have 3-6 month's pay in a savings account that is fairly easy to get to in case of emergencies. Then she won't even need credit cards. Finally, if there is something on the credit report that isn't correct, it can be disputed by writing to the credit bureaus, Transunion, Equifax, and Experian. Hope this helps. Depending on how much debt, and how much she makes, she could be out of it in a year to 3 years easily, and with a much, much higher credit score!
3. Buy her credit reports online from each individual reporting agency. then you can dispute what is wrong on each individual one online by the agency. Pay off debts. Get secured credit card for what ever they can afford. Put just something little like gas on each month and pay it off. i have disputed 8 diffrent times and they all came back in my favo. usually takes up to month for disputes.
4. She can repair it all on her own, once she knows the proper way. All it takes is time, and postage costs. Any and all credit repair companies require a fee, there is no such thing as a free repair service. Avoid credit repair agencies that charge a fee to improve your FICO score by removing negative, but accurate, information from your credit reports. No one can force credit reporting agencies or lenders to remove accurate information from a credit report. Credit repair companies often take your money without delivering what they promise, or provide only temporary improvements of your score, sometimes by removing accurate information that will reappear later. Here are some links for free advice. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre03.shtm#improve Building a better credit report. http://www.ftc.gov/gettingcredit/ What you need to know about your credit. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/crdright.shtm Credit and your consumer rights. http://www.fair-debt-collection.com/index.html Hope these help.
5. sure - pay your bills, if bills are paid up to date, keep it that way, pay off credit cards, and just have to stay good over time - no quick fixes to repairing your credit score - it takes time
6. You are the ONLY one who can repair bad credit. Pay bills on time. Pay back outstandings. Don't file bankruptcy. Don't have a lot of available credit. Be fiscally conservative. I've bookmarked this site... http://debt.123thebest.info/credit_card.html All the best to you.