One of the most common ways people try to repair their credit is by using a credit repair company. While there are some companies out there that will do what they say, the fact remains that it can be pretty difficult to repair your credit yourself, particularly if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing wrong and how to fix it. In this article, we’ll discuss some of the most common mistakes people make when trying to repair their own credit and where to go for help if your efforts aren’t panning out as well as you hoped.
1: Not Knowing Your Score
2: Being Impatient With The Process
Most credit-repair companies promise quick results, which may lead you to pay for these services, but it’s important to be patient with your credit. Fixing your credit can take months or even years of diligent work. These services can help set you on a path towards healthier credit, but you still need patience and discipline if you want your scores to improve dramatically and quickly. Read more about improving your scores here.
- Identify all debts that appear on your credit report.
- List each debt in order from highest interest rate to lowest interest rate.
- Find out who is reporting each account and request that they remove any accounts that are not yours or that have incorrect information listed.
- Pay off any debts listed at 0% interest first, then move onto those at higher rates, as paying off debt in order will save you money over time.
- Once one account has been paid off, put all extra money into paying down other debts until they are gone too.
2: Thinking you have everything under control
Credit-repair companies advertise that they can get you back on track and have you approved for loans with bad credit in no time. While it’s true that there are tools at your disposal for cleaning up your credit, many of these services just aren’t worth it or worse, may be a scam. The suggests always doing your own research before deciding if you want to partner with a company, as well as checking out its reputation and business practices.
4: Not understanding how it works
Repairing your credit is all about achieving a certain credit score. There are some things you can do to improve your score, but if you don’t understand what that number means then there’s no way for you to actually do it. In order to fix your credit report you need to be able to understand how it works and why it’s important for lenders and creditors. The first step in repairing your report is understanding how it works. If you don’t know what makes up your score then there’s no way for you to know how high of a number is needed for approval.
5: Not being prepared for what comes next
Repairing your credit isn’t necessarily as straight forward as you might think, and many of your pre conceived notions about what it entails might be completely wrong. Repairing bad credit is more than just opening a new account, it can include taking out an auto loan or mortgage. Before you get started, be sure you have enough money saved up for those next steps. If not, be sure to take out a loan that won’t impact your new line of credit (you don’t want all that hard work potentially falling apart). You might also want to consider paying off existing debt before applying for new accounts, since having several unpaid bills could hurt your chances at approval.
6: Trusting an ineffective method
The first and most common mistake newbie credit fixers make is giving up too soon. repairing bad credit takes time, so you should have realistic expectations. As a general rule of thumb, it takes about six months for every points you want to add to your score. The other mistake some consumers make is trusting any old method because they’re desperate for a solution. Just because something worked for one person doesn’t mean it will work for everyone else. Before deciding on a specific strategy, talk with someone who’s done what you’re considering doing and see if there were roadblocks or unexpected issues along the way that may affect your own success.
7: Taking on too much at once
a common mistake is to go after every single thing on your report and clean it up at once. There’s a good chance you won’t be able to keep up with it all and it will be more stressful than anything else. If you want your credit score to get better, start with one thing at a time, set realistic goals for yourself and stay focused on what you’re doing. The results are going to come in slow but steady; take your time with them and don’t rush things. In fact, slow progress is sometimes an indication that you’re getting things right as opposed to making things worse, which happens more often than not.