Your credit score has a major power over you throughout your life. It can help or hinder you in so many ways, however it is often not until it is too late that we actually realize this. By racking up debt with a careless attitude as a young adult, you are seriously hindering your ability to do things such as purchase a home, a car or almost anything else on credit in the future. So we get to a point where we need instant or fast and legal credit repair. Is it possible? Maybe not instant credit repair, but if you are willing to do some ground work and put in the hard yards then you can improve your credit score, at what rate is up to you and your financial capabilities at the time.
Before we go ahead and look into what you can do to better your credit score, you might be wondering if there is someone that can do it all for you? After all it is almost human nature to choose the easier option. The answer is yes, there are credit repair agencies and consultants who ideally do all the ground work for you and provide helpful financial direction. A couple of things to bear in mind before you hire a credit repair consultant though:
It will cost you. Obviously they are providing a service to you and they will charge for it. More often than not the money you are paying them can be put to better use by using it to put towards your debt. That may end up having a better affect on your credit score overall.
There is nothing they can do that you cannot do yourself. Don’t be fooled into thinking they have the power to do more for your credit score than you do. It is like paying someone to mow your lawns, you don’t have to put in the effort but the end result is exactly the same had you have done it.
Watch out for the sharks. Whether it is done intentionally or not, debt negotiators or credit repair consultants can act in a way that you do not agree with. They may have different ideas about your finances than you do. They may think it is worth a big hit to your credit score to negotiate on a repayment figure for your credit card so could go ahead with the decision. Before you know it you may have a little less debt but you’re going to be working even harder to repair and even worse credit score. Then of course there are the real sharks that are just out to make a quick dollar off your consultant fee and couldn’t care less about your credit score. They take no action until your score gets worse and worse and then bump up their fees to help you.
Now, if you are going to go down the path of fast credit repair yourself. Here are a few steps to get you starting and going in the right direction. It won’t happen overnight but if you put in the ground work you will notice your score get consistently better fairly quickly.
First you need to know why your credit score is what it is. The only way you can thoroughly do this is by obtaining a copy of your credit report from the credit bureau. This will cost you probably around $40-$50 and there is no way around that fee (no matter what the credit repair agencies tell you). The report will show all the events that have negatively impacted on your credit score over the years.
Go through your credit report with a fine tooth comb. Firstly look for anything more than 7 years old. This should be wiped from your record anyway so by writing a letter to the credit bureau requesting the old information be removed you could immediately improve your credit score by a few points. Look for any missed payments and negative comments and dispute with the credit bureau. Simply state in the letter that you need to see proof that the debt is yours, or that you don’t believe you missed that certain payment and ask them to provide proof that it is you that owe the debt. If they are unable to provide the proof to you within a certain time then they are required to remove the negative remark from your credit report. Because of the nature of their business they do not have time to reply to all enquiries within the required timeframe, so you could get lucky. This could mean another instant improvement on your credit score.
Ensure you keep a thorough paper trail of all correspondence with any collection agency or credit bureau. Ask for any conversations to be confirmed in writing for your records. Don’t accept any information unless it is also provided to you in writing.
Once you’ve tidied up your credit report you need to now work on tidying up your debt. Unless you are confident in applying a strict budget then speak with a budget advisor (whose services are often free of charge). They can help you itemize and prioritize your debt. They are experts and in order to get rid of debt quickly and help with fast credit repair there is a need for expert help at this stage.