What is the best way to fix my CREDIT SCORE?

Question

I think my credit score is funked up. I used to own a house and I missed a payment or two when I was laid off from my job. I sold it and I paid off all my credit cards. I recently applied for a credit card and was denied.

I need to fix my credit score. Any suggetions?

I dont have any bills because I PAID OFF ALL MY CREDIT CARDS. I cant even get credit to pay down the bills early.

Answer 1

Try this to improve your score:

First know that the bureau must verify any debt you dispute. If they can not verify it, it must be deleted. They have 30 days to do this.

With 7 years in the credit business, I recommend disputing them all at the same time, as you will likely need to go through several rounds of letters to get what you want done. If something is blatently wrong with your credit report, call the bureau after they write back and refuse to remove it. Go up the food chain until a manager agrees to remove or amend the incorrect info on the spot. Don't buy into their speach about re-disputing it - but make sure you have provided the information necessary by mail already to correct the error. It will not help you to insist on something being removed if you have not provided verificaiton on why.

When you mail in the dispute letter, mail in as much information as possible with it. If your verification is a bankruptcy, send in all the pages to your petition and tab the important pages for them to review.

Also mail in a copy of an electric bill and a copy of your ID to avoid any delays. See the FTC web's site for your specific rights with collectors and debt reporting:

http://www.ftc.gov/

If your problem is directly with the creditors, write to them ONE time. If they do not remove incorrect information, write to your state's attorney general's office and the FTC. This will get you the results you seek if you are in the right.

If this is a collection agency problem, write to the same people plus the ACA at www.acainternational.org. Collection agencies are generally slime, so know your rights before you call them. See your rights here:

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/credit/index.html

If you have legit items that are bad, dispute them also. If they can not be verified, they must be deleted. It is not your responsibility to prove they are inaccurate, it is the credit bureaus who must demonstrate they are.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

The reality is, that you are likely in need of re-establishing your credit. The unfortunate part of this, is that it is a costly process, but it can be done. I would recommend that you start with whoever you bank with. Go into the branch and apply for a Secured Credit Card. Most banks will allow a card secured by your savings account, i.e if you have $500 in your savings, they will allow a $300 secured limit. After a period of time of you making timely payments, they will typically drop the "secured" and raise your limit. From a credit report stand point, it won't matter what type of card it is, because that info is not reported, but it will help raise your score. The other option is to apply for a Credit Card via a subprime credit card company that grantes to people with low credit scores. I would suggest either Capitol One, or HSBC (formaly HouseHold). Just be careful not to apply to more than 2 or 3 because the inquiries will start to hurt you if they get to be too numerous. Finally, your last option, although a pricey one, is to buy a car. Most dealerships offer financing for low credit scores, and it's a good way to start the rebuilding process. You should also get a copy of your credit report and make sure that you dispute anything that doesnt belong on there. but mostly you just need some re-establishing. Hope that helps some. Good Luck.
p.s. I've been a finance manager for 12 years, and have helped lots of folks rebuild.

Answer 3

How can you fix your scores if you don't know what's contained in your reports or for that matter ... what your score is. Which credit report did the creditor pull? Did you have any judgments, collections, negative information? You may think that you were denied for a credit card because of the issues you listed above. It may not be the case because approx. 90% of the US population has in-accuracies on their reports.

Pull all 3 reports (Equifax, Transunion, & Exp.). See what the inaccuracies (if any) are. If you have any outstanding balances, contact the creditor for a "pay for delete".

Credit repair is HUGE. There are so many things that can be done to validate a debt.

There are lots of websites out there that help people rebuild good credit.

Good Luck!

Answer 4

Make sure your credit reports are correct.

Specifically, check your bad debt entries (past due, in default, etc) and income to debt ratio. Make sure you contact reporting agencies where discrepancies exist.

Open a savings account. Use the amount to secure a loan. Don't spend the money. Make regular payments in accordance with the contract. Early payments are a plus. Keep doing this as your finances permit.

Your credit score can only rise.

A good payment record will let you get money even with a high debt ratio.

Answer 5

You will need to pull your credit report and start challenging anything bad that's on there. While you're doing that, get a secured credit card - revolving credit is highly weighted in FICO scoring - and use it wisely. Don't apply for a real credit card until your score is in the 600s or so. However, if you have a secured credit card and use it wisely you will get there in no time. Look and see what's on your credit report first though.

Answer 6

Make sure that your secured credit card reports to the credit bureaus so that all of the activity will actually count towards building or repairing of your credit. A number of banks - Bank of America, US Bank, Wells Fargo - offer secured credit cards. To avoid going into debt with your credit card, you should make sure to pay your balance at the end of each month. Having a zero balance is your friend. Mark’s book-Hidden Credit Repair Secrets can help you fix your credit also.

Answer 7

The first thing you should do would be to get a copy of your credit report. You can go to https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp to start this process. You can get a free copy of your report from all three of the top reporting agencies. Once you recieve them you can then see what is showing on your report as negative. Possibly open credit cards or collections and at that point start closing or paying off accounts.

Answer 8

Just wait--it won't take long. You'll get an offer for a crappy credit card ($50 annual fee, bad interest rate, etc.) eventually--probably less than a year from now. Take it, and keep your payments on time and you'll have good credit in no time. I had a similar situation and it worked out a lot faster than I thought it would.

Answer 9

go to www.annualcreditreport.com. you are allowed one free credit report per year from each of the credit bureau agencies. the site also offers free sample letters you can use to request that items on your credit report be investigated for accuarcy. in several cases if you can demonstrate your earning income is minimal then you can work out a payment plan to slowly but surely pay back your debt. even if you can only manage $50 a month the credit agencies will report you are paying your debt (they may even settle with you for a fraction of the cost) and your score will improve b/c your back on track with your payments.

Answer 10

Secured Credit Cards work the fastest.