Bad Credit Agency

ho do i clean up my credit without bankruptcy or credit repair companies?

Public Comments

1. Well the first thing would be to get a free copy of your credit report, you can google "Free" credit report and see if you qualify. Once you have your free copy of your credit report, start seeing who you owe and contacting the companies see if you can start setting up payment arrangements. If you are allowed then you need to now start budgeting your money in order to make those payments. I would suggest brown bagging it for lunch when you go to work , also if you can cut back on certain things , like if you can down grade your cell phone plan ( if you don't really need texting, get rid of it , if you have roll over minutes and your plan gives you in example 500 minutes a month , and you have 2,000 in roll over , bump down to the next smallest plan). While it will make you suffer in the short time , it will help you in the long run , you will start seeing the difference. Any extra change you have due to the savings put toward the bill you are focused on paying off. This is a trick that I actually use that assisted me in paying off one of my student loans in 3 years instead of the full term. Go to your employer and let them know you want to up date your form to have additional taxes taken out. Now once you get the form figure out how much will you NOT miss . SO if you can afford to miss 100 addtional each payperiod take out a extra hundred, if you can afford to miss an additional 50 , take out 50 etc etc. Now please keep in mind they will take out your regular taxes plus the 50 dollars. What happens is this becomes a over payment which is given back to you at the end of the tax year along with your regular tax refund. Once you have that bulk of money , start paying whats left on bills , meaning in example you have maintained the bill up until the refund comes then pay off whats left. Use the windfall as an advantage not a shopping spree. I have a few more tips if you need help please feel free to contact me .
2. Depends on your circumstances. Are you able to make this effort without Bankruptcy or a Debt Consolidation company? If you are, then pay off your debts. You will have to pay more than the minimal amount due, but start with the small ones. Starting with the small ones will give you that sense of accomplishment that will motivate you even more. Paying off debt will help your credit. Once done keep your balances at below 30% and/or try to pay off your balance every month. Keep in mind that cleaning up your credit report is somewhat of a science. Most people do not know what to do and the "rules" are unclear. Keeping your utilization (amount of credit you use) to a minimum helps. Never pay late. Never go to collections. These are things that help your credit. Order ALL three of you reports and scores and dispute those items that are incorrect . All three credit bureaus offer "on-line" disputes. I have listed the Three Credit Bureaus websites below. If this has already happened then take steps to ensure that it doesn't happen again. Negative dings stay on your report for 7 years, but over time the impact has less of an effect on your score. Between bankruptcy or debt conolidation? Well, that is a bit harder question to answer. Both of these have a huge impact on your credit scores. Remember that Debt Consolidation companies work on behalf of the credit card companies. They can help you through a crisis, but it really only depends on the situation. Bankruptcy offers a level of protection for certain people, such as home owners and those with assets that they do not wish to lose. There are 2 basic levels of bankruptcy for indiviuals that they can choose from. Due to laws from 2005 you can be forced into one depending on your level of income. Basically, Chapter 7 is a debt liquidation Chapter 13 is a repayment plan I know that all of this is all very ambiguous and can be very confusing. I have been there and have done A LOT of research on this. All of my advice is only from what I have read from very good sources or have seen first hand. I know this does not answer your question but as I said before it depends on the situation. Please feel free to post with more specific questions and I would be happy to let you know my thoughts. Great source of info is listed below. They have forums that have helped me a ton Best wishes. j
3. I suggest visiting the forums on myfico.com... they are great! lots of info about how to improve your credit score.
4. use a company it is easier and faster than doing it by yourself. www.vrtechmarketinggroup.com/SMoore3
5. I have articles on Free Your Debts, Ways to avoid bankruptcy. Get advice from Debt consolidation or Debt settlement. Will it affect my Credit Score / FICO Score? More Information on http://avoid-bankruptcy-get-debt-consolidati.blogspot.com
6. If your asking this question then it leads me to believe you're already in credit trouble. Therefore, I would not risk damaging your credit further by seekng more credit. its possible to clean your report of inaccurate information by yourself and without the help of credit repair companies or filing bankruptcy but it's going to take a lot of hard work and commitment from you. It will not be easy and cannot be done overnight. You will need to evaluate what got you to where your at in the first place. Make a budget, get current on your debts; then start by getting a copy of your complete credit reports from the 3 bureaus. Then you want to opt out at 1-888-5optout. Go to a good website and go to forums; read, reread, and reread again the newbie section. They will help get you going on your credit repair journey and you will have great pride from knowing you did it yourself and without losing money by paying a repair company for doing something you can do on your own. Good Luck. I've found some good information here too... http://debt.knowledged.info/credit_card.html Hope it all works out