Credit repair isn’t an overnight process, but it can take as little as 30 days to a few years to rebuild your score and restore your financial reputation. Your credit score impacts a lot of aspects of your life, from your ability to open new credit cards or loans to the interest rates you pay on those debts. And it can even affect your employment, mortgage and rental applications.
In fact, a low credit score can prevent you from getting the loan you need, or force you to accept higher interest rates on your mortgage and car loans. It can also deter insurance companies, landlords and employers from insuring, renting to or hiring you, which can impact your finances.
That’s why it’s important to keep your credit scores as high as possible. To do this, you’ll want to monitor your credit and address any negative items that may be hurting your credit score. In this article, we’ll talk about what factors in your credit score are most likely to need fixing and how you can make that happen.
The most common cause of a bad credit score is errors on your credit report. In fact, one in five Americans has an error on their credit report that could be negatively affecting their credit. This includes missed payments that you’ve made on time, inaccurate information about a paid-in-full account, and even “re-aging” of accounts (when creditors change the “purge-from” date, keeping the debt on your report for longer than it should).
One way to correct these errors is by pulling your credit reports on a regular basis. This will give you the opportunity to see the errors and immediately challenge them.
Another way to fix your credit is by reducing your balances. The amount you owe makes up 30% of your credit score, and the lower the balance, the better. To do this, focus on bringing any past due accounts up to date and making minimum payments on time every month. You can set up email or SMS alerts on most credit card accounts to receive notifications when your minimum payment is coming due, and you can use auto-payment features on most credit cards to avoid missing a payment.
You can also try to keep your oldest revolving and installment accounts open, as they help lenders determine how responsible you are with credit by increasing your average credit age. Lenders prefer to lend to people who have a long history of maintaining good credit, so you’ll need to resist the temptation to close your old lines of credit. Lastly, work on lowering your credit utilization by charging only a small amount each month and paying it off in full promptly. Then your credit will improve, and you’ll be on the road to a great credit score. credit fixing