What are the best ways to repair a poor credit rating?

Question

I'm looking to repair my poor credit rating. I owe 10k+ to various creditors. I'm married, we both have a decent paying jobs. My spouse has credit problems as well. Here are my concerns:
1. Are there any immediate steps that I should take to get started?

2. What is considered a "good" score to have when buying a house?

3. What short term steps (6 months to 1 year period) can I take to bring my rating up to a "moderate" level?

4. What long-term steps can I take to make for the future so that I do not fall back to where I am now?

5. I know that some credit counselling services are predatory in nature, and actually put people into more trouble than they had to begin with. Are there any reputable credit counselling services out there (preferably non-profit)?

Answer 1

You can make a settlement with all of your creditors and pay 50% of what you owe. Creditors wont tell you but they will make a settlement and except half of what you owe and then close that account and u cant use that company for 7 years. If you need another credit card there r many other companies to use. When u ask for a settlement they WILL try and get more than 50% but be firm and let them know that 50% ia all that you have. You will have to pay the settlement in full no payment plans. they will then report it to the buearu and your credit will be updated with in 60 -90 days. So if u have 10k+ u can pay 5k+ and be done with them. As for a house u should have at least 650 or better to get a decent mortgage rate. the higher the better and u can get comfortable lower payments. So start by calling creditors asking for a settlement for 50% and ask them to send u a comfirmation of payment so that you can make copiers yourself and send to the 3 buearu the company is suppose to send it for you but sometimes they drag their feet and this way you will make sure that your credit is on its way to repair. good luck

Answer 2

Hi there... I haven't bought a house so I don't know a good score to have... the higher the better obviously. Some good ways to repair credit are to: pay all your bills on time, keep checking accounts in good standing, pay off credit cards as soon as you possibly can and avoid the high-interest store ones, and just use common sense. I don't know what kinds of vehicles you drive, but if you can keep car payments to a minimum by driving an economy vehicle it will help to be paying a couple hundred extra on credit card bills every month. As for counseling and financial advice, I would start by talking to someone at your bank or credit union. That would keep your fees to a minimum, if they even charge you for it at all. Good luck, and be patient. Don't give up... good credit doesn't come back quickly. One more thing- if you use the online free credit report services, your rating can actually go down, because that is considered an inquiry. Hope that helps!

Answer 3

The first thing you and your husband should both do is go to AnnualCreditReport.com and pull your credit reports from all three credit bureaus. (it's free)... Look over them and make sure there are no errors, like accounts that don't belong to you, or accounts that are old and should have fallen off by now. If you have errors, go to all 3 credit bureau web sites and dispute all the errors. It's easy and fast, but you have to have a copy of your credit reports to do it. They will investigate these accounts for 30 days. If they are found to be errors, they will be deleted from your credit and that can help to raise your scores.
Make sure that you pay any accounts on time if not early. They want to see they you have credit that you are paying on time every month. If you don't have any open accounts, get a charge card from Orchard Bank or one of those bad credit credit cards. Pay it on time. If you have a $300.00 limit, keep your balance at about $150.00. Keep making monthly payments on time or early. This will help to establish some good credit.
Also, keep in mind that you don't have to have great credit to buy a house these days. I work for a mortgage lender and you can have a minimum score of 520 to get a mortgage. Of course the better credit the better rate. I'm just saying that you don't have to wait 5 years to get a mortgage.

Answer 4

The first thing you should do is to pay off your debt first. With a debt payment and a poor credit, I don't think you can buy a house in the very near future.

Most credit counsellors in Canada are bonded and are very reliable. They can help you to negotiate a settlement with your creditors. They can help you to consolidate your debt and bring the interest rate to zero.

One of the non-profit organization is nomoredebt.org. Give them a call and see if they can come up with something to help you solve the problem.

Once you pay off your debt. You should get yourself a secured credit card. Make your payment on time. Do not charge anything you cannot afford to pay off right away. Within a year or so, your credit will improve gradually.

Answer 5

None of the credit counseling services are good.... Even the non-profit ones will hurt your credit.

The quickest ways to get your credit score to raise is by paying down all of your revolving credit balance i.e. mainly credit cards. By paying those down it shows that you have available credit at your disposal and that you do not have a lot of high interest debts to pay off.

All of the other normal steps help as well, such as paying bills on time.

Answer 6

the quick answer is which you would be able to not. there is not any rapid fix to repairing a a undesirable credit status. You did not mess it up rapidly and you will't fix it rapidly. Pay your expenditures on time and save mastercard debt under 25% of your shrink, in case you have credit playing cards. in case you nevertheless have collections or judgments attempt to paintings something out to pay them off. it is going to nevertheless take time, yet you would be shifting in the wonderful direction. If there are issues on your credit that are incorrect, you may dispute them. in the event that they're valid expenditures they gained't be bumped off for as much as 7 years from the final interest.

Answer 7

Go check out books by Suze Orman- they will answer all your questions and stear you away from any scams. Be careful because you want a quick fix and there isn't one.

Answer 8

1. Yes, you can try to stay on top of your current payments
2. 640
3. For this answer please reply back with your contact info at [e-mail]
4. STay on top of your payments
5. Yes, i work for one. Contact me.