Would you like a quick credit score boost? Would you like to get your credit repair effort off to a fast start? Here are some of our favorite tips to get your efforts moving in the right direction. Start your engines!
Credit Repair Hyper Drive
Credit repair can take time, or not. There are many situations where you can get amazing results very quickly. Your credit scores can have a profound impact on your life, and every point counts. Here are seven potent power-packed credit repair solutions you can put to use right away. Are you ready? Let’s go!
Get Your Revolving Balances Down
Fair Isaac Corp, the mastermind behind the credit scores used by virtually all lenders, has been tinkering with the formula they use to calculate your scores. The recent additional emphasis they have put on revolving balances has taken many people by surprise. Are you listening? A maxed out card can now cost you as much as 150 points. Ouch!
Well, there is some good credit repair news here too; pay your darn balances down and watch your score rocket upward. Want to know how far to pay your cards down? Under forty percent is good, under twenty percent is the best. If money is tight you might even consider borrowing from friends and family to make this happen. If you need your scores for a mortgage or car loan you may be living with that interest rate for many years to come.
Challenge Iffy Collections
Do you have collections? Are you ready for a little credit repair magic? Collectors are very different from creditors. Collectors buy and sell collection accounts. When a collector purchases an account they can report it to the credit bureaus. When they sell an account they are supposed to remove the collection from your credit entirely. Unfortunately, there is no incentive for them to cease reporting, so you need to challenge these items. If the collector no longer owns the account you will see it vanish from your credit report. It’s credit repair magic.
Negotiate for Deletion
There is a silver lining to the recession that we are currently struggling through. Collectors are as hungry as everyone else. If a collector contacts you for payment on a legitimate debt you may discover they are willing to negotiate. Your balance is not the only thing that you can negotiate. Collectors have the ability to withdraw the entire account from your credit report. It might be a relief to get an old debt paid off, but when it comes to credit repair it is better to have no collection account on your report than a paid collection.
Boost Your Credit Limits
The credit crunch has caused credit card issuers to tighten their guidelines. Little credit blemishes may now trigger over-the-top responses from credit card companies. American Express has been on a campaign to reduce credit limits on card holders for almost any reason. So this tactic may not work, but it’s worth a try as there are still a few friendly creditors out there. Call your credit card company and ask them to increase your limit. The result will be the same as if you had paid your balance down. For the cost of a phone call you might increase your scores, and maybe a lot!
Call Mom and Become an Authorized User
Another little twist that Fair Isaac Corp added to their latest version of their credit score formula is to block the benefit of purchased authorized user accounts. Until recently you could purchase authorized user status from gray-market brokers and watch your score jump right up. Fair Isaac caught on and put an end to this iffy credit repair practice. However, their filters are still allowing the full benefit for legitimate authorized users. So call Mom and have her add you to one of her perfect credit cards for a nice credit repair boost.
Avoid Store Cards
Store cards, and more generally, consumer credit (such as furniture store accounts) are useless for building your credit, and are likely to put a big dent in your scores. So if you are shopping and are offered a new account in exchange for a discount, think twice. Saving money is a beautiful thing! But if you need your credit scores in the immediate future for any major purchase avoid these accounts like the plague. How bad is it? You are likely to lose one hundred points. It’s credit repair suicide.
Call a Credit Repair Pro
If you really want to put some muscle behind your credit repair effort, call a credit repair professional. They will proof read your credit reports, identify everything that should be done and insure that you are not missing anything. When it comes to credit repair every little bit counts. Good luck!
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