Credit Card Tips Blog
Needed advice – desperately trying to fix credit score
By Credit Card Tips | April 30, 2009With economic crisis, it happen to everyone that they drown in debt with sudden loss of job or job that is paying less. As you miss payments, you have problem with creditors and collection agencies contacting and demanding money. With actions of the collection agency your credit score get damaged and you may want to repair your credit but don’t know how to do.
Many of us fall prey with ads on television, magazines, newspaper and also on internet. Those ads are fantastic and immensely appealing to every one of us. Beware of the promises made to repair credit by these companies and the fee they charge for their services. They claim that they will clean up your credit report and which will allow you to get loan for home, car or for any other purpose. Using these services of false companies will not improve your credit score in turn it will worsen your credit score.
You should be very careful when you decide to choose these types of services because you can become trap of credit repair scams. If the company wants you to pay up front there are chances that they will disappear with your money. They tell that the upfront fee includes the cost of information they should obtain to provide service to you; but the fact is they get all that information for free. Regardless of what this companies offer, there are ways to get your credit repaired and can do it by you with out the help of credit repairing companies.
A few credit repair tips can help you get out through difficult period.
Always get a copy of your credit reports from three major credit bureaus. Through this you can become aware of where you stand in term of credit score. By knowing your credit score you can find out the entries that affected your credit score and try to fix them to improve your credit score.
Check for the identity theft: once you receive your credit report check for any identity theft entries that affected your credit score. Once identified dispute your company for the false identified entries.
Dispute negative entries: send validation letter to your creditor or collection agencies that made negative entries on your credit report and ask them to validate the entries. Make sure you send validation letters to them before you send them dispute letters. If they are not able to justify the remarks then those will be removed by the credit repositories.
One must make sure that the validation letter you send were received by the collection agencies or creditors and wait for 30 business days. If after 30 business days you do not receive any response then start issuing dispute letters so that the creditor or collection agencies remove invalidated entries from you credit report.
One most important advice is to raise a dispute on all valid debts reported on your credit report with the credit repositories. As all the negative remarks must be validated with in 30 business days the companies may not be able to back up even if you really owe some of your debt, those remarks will also be removed naturally leaving your credit score undamaged.
As your credit score is most important, every one is looking out for ways to repair their credit score.
| Filed Under: Credit Card News |
When should I apply for credit cards after chapter 7 bankruptcy?
By Credit Card Tips | April 30, 2009If you had filed bankruptcy and looking to start life again and manage finance more effectively, then you need to get right back and apply for credit cards. Credit cards have different balance limits, but you have to maintain discipline when you again apply for credit cards. You have to make small purchase and pay amount on time by the end of every month. Remember that you keep control on your spending habits, do not spend more than what you earn and end up in bankruptcy again.
If you wish to acquire assets and have a good credit, you have to avoid those pitfalls that led you to file bankruptcy earlier. The best idea to start with secured credit card after you filed bankruptcy. This type of credit cards one must have collateral cash deposit. In this case the amount you put down will be the credit limit for you. Once you repay your credit balance every month on time then the credit company will give you a bonus of extending your credit limit with out asking to raise your collateral deposit. In case you do not repay the balance you owe your collateral deposit will solve this purpose.
When trying to get credit card then look for the company that does not charge you with annual fee which is disgusting.
The other way to get the credit card is to get a co-signer and he requires having a good credit ratings. If you take the benefit of co-signer, remember that you pay your credit on time. If you miss your payments than you co-signer will be liable for that debt.
One should follow few steps to ensure you need not file bankruptcy again.
Plan to stay out of debt: if you looking to manage your debt, then you need to plan to become debt free. Then implement the plan and stick to it until you get out of the debt. One must make sure that they must pay their credit card debt on time and learn to manage them properly.
Monitor your credit reports: one must regularly continue to monitor your credit report with three credit reporting agencies. If you require any corrections to be made to your credit report then make request to credit reporting agencies to correct errors on time, so that they does not make much damage to your credit score. After receiving the credit report you look at following things. If you obtained bankruptcy discharge cross check that the accounts included in the bankruptcy claim are marked as satisfied or paid in full or not on you credit report.
Check for the limits of you credit card and they are noted correctly on your credit report.
If there are any negative entries on your credit report that are incorrectly noted on your credit report then you must request credit repositories to correct them because they will cause majority of damage if they are not corrected.
| Filed Under: Credit Card News |