Repair Credit Report Help

Help! I want to repair my credit.?

My credit score is bad and I would like to buy a home. I got a credit report, should I start making payments on the companies that were on my credit report or do I have to call them up to make payment arrangements? Please help. I can't get anything in my name and I am soon to be married which I know will effect my fiances credit. Any advice? Is there any services that help you for free? Websites?

Public Comments

1. you can do it yourself...pay off your credit cards in full, do NOT get anymore credit. Get your copies of your reports and make sure they're correct. Clean them up yourself. (it's free...) The fewer credit cards you have the better, try to get it down to 2 max. Make sure your car (if you own one) is up to date on payments...that goes for all your bills. If you need to make arrangements for smaller payments, do it yourself. (don't pay for something you don't have to.)
2. If your in the uk and you have over £15000 worth of debt they can write it off with an IVA...i made the mistake of running from my debts..thinking they would disapear - they dont!!! your best bet ould be to arrange an IVA...or ring a debt management company - i know its a pain in the a*** and it seems easier to run...but talk to someone about it they may be able to make ytour debt smaller...also try the citizans advice who will write to your creditors for you!!! x
3. Grab some nails, a hammer, and some other tools, and get repairing..
4. Awesome non profit company ~ free counseling ~ great help~ cccssf.org ~ they can assist you with any credit questions, review your credit report with you and give you some options on where to go from here... Check it out!
5. What ever you do don't go to one of those consolidated type loans. That will make it worse. Yes they pay off all your credit cards, but it shows up on your Credit report, that you consolidated your loans and Banks don't like that. You best bet is to somehow pay them off yourself. The other way is to take a Personal loan out if you can. (you don't own property so you can't take a second out). Take a personal loan out for the amount all your credit ads up too. If you get approved pay all of your cards off but one. PAY ALL OFF BUT ONE !! You don't need any more than one card. When you go ahead and get credit you may need in the future, future creditors don't like to see too much revolving credit !! So you retain one card and only use it for emergencies. Now instead of making 3 to 5 payments that probably add up to $400.00 or so you are making the one payment at about half of that. These are the 2 best ways. Good Luck !!
6. Go to the forum section of www.creditboards.com and READ READ READ
7. Ok first things first. Check to see what the statute of limitations for credit reporting is in the state you live in. If it is past statute you can report it to all three major credit reporting bureaus and have them dropped off. Also dispute anything that is not valid, correct or was not of your doings. If you have anything on there that you didnt do...file a police report and forward a copy to the creditors and bill collectors. If they are not past statute and are valid...you need to get them paid. A credit institution will charge you money to do the same thing you can do. Start by calling the collection agency try and cut deals to settle the accounts. Some agencies will take as low as 30% to settle. Others will request more. Very rare but some creditors will not accept a settlement at all. Try and make them to agree to delete from your credit report as well. Some agencies may require that you pay the entire balance for them to delete it. Others will agree to delete with the receipt of the settlement amount. Get the deal in writing before you pay and than more on to the next one. One by one...next thing you know its done. Good Luck.
8. law is that if your credit report has negative items that arent correct...........so if it has neg but was never paid late...if it has a wrong balance...etc then you dispute it with all 3 credit bureaus and the bureaus will write to the company to ask them to prove the validity of the bad debt. if they are not able to validate the debt (good or bad) then they must change the status to what you say it should be. if the debt is old then chances are it wont be validated because it's either not worth their time to search for old boxes of records and make copies and mail it or it's too old and they cant find the documents. Either way, the credit gets changed to what you say it should be.
9. First, it would help to know what makes up your score. 35% payment history 30% outstanding debt vs. available credit 15% Length of credit history 10% Types of credit 10% Inquiries and New Credit 1. What's affected the most is delinquencies. So by either negotiating "payments for deletion", disputing inaccurate information, and asking creditors to re-age light to mild delinquencies for goodwill, that will make the biggest difference next to... 2. Paying down the outstanding balances. There's a rule of thumb that you should keep your credit card balances at no higher than 30% of your available credit. I believe it should be slightly less than that, around 15-20%. By having a low utilization debt:income, it shows that you don't rely on credit heavily and are in a good position to get out of debt. 3. Be sure to show some kind of activity on all revolving accounts. Revolving accounts are credit cards, lines of credit. There should be light activity every month to show that the credit's being used but at the same time taken care of. Even though an account maybe paid off, using it and not showing any activity doesn't help your score. 4. Having a good mixture of revolving and installment credit. A mortgage, car loan, signature installment loan, line of credit, 3 major credit cards, department store, and a gas card is an example of a good mixture of credit. 5. If you have a close friend or family member that has excellent credit, ask them to add you as an authorized user. Make sure that the balance is fairly low, and that it's never been late. By adding you, the activity from the account reflects on your report. 6. And lastly, but not least... PAY ON TIME!!!!!!
10. yes do it you self and pay off all debt and after that make payments on time.. and then try to dispute the ones that are negative
11. I was in a similar situation (about to get married as well) and I got a book called the "Credit Secrets Bible" and I've raised my scores by almost 100 points in a few months. One of the things they recommend you do is add yourself to someone's credit cards as an authorized user and it will give you all of their credit history for that card on your report. I did that with a few cards and my score jumped immediately. If you subscribe to their list they even email you some tips and things you can use. After the emailed me a few it seemed they knew what they were talking about so I bought it.
12. To boost your credit score: The first thing you will need to do is call the three major credit reporting agencies and request a free copy of your credit report. www.equifax.com www.experian.com www.transunion.com Then once you get those in the mail (7-10 days) there will be a dispute form attached to the reports. Fill those out for every negative account on your report regardless. Fax, mail go online whatever it takes to get those submitted as quickly as possible. Then those companies must answer your dispute within 30 days or it is removed from your credit report completely. So that will eliminate some things, hopefully. Then make sure you pay all your revolving accounts to below 50% of your credit limits. Make sure that you make all your payments no more than 20 days from the date it is due. Good Luck!