Repairing your credit rating
By: CCN.com
It's not just the negligent who can end up with having a bad
credit rating. Courtesy fraudsters, you can have a bad credit
rating even if you have been making all your payments in time
and taking all precautions. Whatever landed you with a bad
credit rating, the important question is how to repair it.
Let's start with the scenario where you have been doing
everything right and still ended up with a bad credit rating.
First thing to do in any case is get a copy of your credit
report from your national credit bureau (e.g. three major US
credit bureaus are Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) and check
it thoroughly for discrepancies, if any. If you have been
tricked by a fraudster, then report it immediately to the
bureau. There are fraudsters who somehow retrieve information
about an individual and use it to apply for credit cards in
his/her name and then obviously default on payments.
However, if you are the one responsible for spoiling your own
credit rating, then the following recipe needs to be put to use
to prevent any further damage and improve the credit rating:
If you can, then wipe off any long standing debt on your credit
card account as soon as possible. Ensure that you are making
timely payments of your monthly installments for any loans or
home mortgages that you might have taken. Do not apply for too
many loans or credit cards all at once. Do not overspend on your
credit cards. In fact try to remain within 70-75 of the total
credit limit available to you.
Opening a credit card account with a department store you shop
with frequently can also help in repairing your credit rating.
Just make sure that you make the payments with the newly
acquired credit card and pay your credit card bills in time.
Ensure that you are following all the safety and fraud
protection instructions to prevent yourselves from becoming a
target of the fraudsters. These include basic things like
signing at the back of your credit card when it first arrives
and destroying all the credit account related documents before
binning them.
If you find it difficult to handle the situation all by
yourselves, don't hesitate to take professional help. Even
though you have to shell out a small fee for such an advice, it
can benefit you a lot in the long run and save much more for
you.
Remember that a good credit card rating can go a long way in
making your future credit requests/transactions smooth and a bad
one can be an obstacle. So give it the attention it deserves.
Also, a good credit rating cannot be gained overnight but only
through a responsible and disciplined attitude towards your
credit related transactions over a period of time.