Swift and Sensible Credit Repair Tips
From the archives, here is a little list of our favorite credit repair tips, all of which are designed to deliver awesome results. We can vouch for every one of these handy suggestions. There is no good reason to surrender to bad credit. Lose the white flag, stand up to the enemy, and watch them take flight. Soon enough your credit reports will be looking good.
Find a Friend with Great Credit
If you have a friend with great credit who would like to provide your credit repair effort with a real boost, ask them to add you to one of their credit cards as an authorized user. The card should be at least three years old and have a low balance relative to the limit. The day the account pops up on your credit report your scores will incorporate the entire perfect history of the card as if it were your very own.
Secured Credit Cards
This old credit repair tool is now more powerful than ever courtesy of FICO. New accounts that are initiated following a period of credit trouble now provide an even bigger credit score boost. It makes sense. By opening new accounts you are showing that you still have the motivation to manage your finances responsibly. So, if you have had some financial stress, open a couple of secured cards (we suggest two) and watch your scores pop.
Getting Serious About Disputes
This may sound like a call for more elbow grease, but it is really a call for more credit repair finesse. Sending disputes and getting them to work is more involved than just sending letters to the credit bureaus. If you are doing this on your own, try responding specifically to each unfavorable response you get from the bureaus rather than just sending the same letter again. Create a credit repair dialog. If they say nay, tell them that you are unhappy and demand more research.
The Balance Limit See-Saw
If your credit card balances hit the limit you stand to lose over 100 points on your scores. That is enough to cause real trouble if you will be applying for a loan of any significance. Reducing credit card balances is power credit repair medicine, but it can also be a difficult challenge to come up with the money. Chip away when you can. Conserve your spending, save where possible and use the extra money to reduce your balances.
Go Right to the Creditor
Taking your credit repair effort to the creditor is not usually a productive technique. Creditors are not normally receptive, and would much rather see you send your dispute letters to the credit bureaus where disputes are handled as a matter of course. But there is a way. If you dispute an item with the credit bureaus and do not get satisfaction, you have right to ask for the specific contact information of the person at the creditor that verified the account. The credit bureaus have 15 days to provide this information at which time you can send a highly targeted dispute.
Copyright © 2010 James W. Kemish. All Content. All Rights Reserved.
About the Author
Jim Kemish is the president and founder of Sky Blue Credit Repair, a leading credit repair service. Sky Blue Credit has been dedicated to providing intelligent customized credit solutions since 1989. Visit: http://www.skybluecredit.com/credit-repair-tips.htm
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