Your credit report is one way for lenders and financial institutions to check your worthiness as a potential client . That being said, having a FICO score of less than 650 can put you in that situation where you will be paying higher interest rates and your charge cards will have lower limits on the amount that you can borrow. Before you agree to any quoted rate though, try to clean up credit report by following the steps below.

Who knows? It might be possible for you to get re-evaluated and receive better rates .

The information that is found on your consumer reports can be exhausting and time consuming to clean up. Often, you will need to wait for more than a month for the records to be updated because most lenders and financial institutions only report changes on a monthly basis .

The best thing to do if you are starting a credit report repair program is to request for a copy of your credit report from each of the national agencies that gather personal financial information about you . Presently, there are 4 agencies doing this: TransUnion, Equifax, Experian, and Innovis.

These consumer reporting agencies allow your free copy every year. Get those free copies and read through the pages .

If you want to do it yourself credit repair you may want to check the AVAIL Credit Coach, the best self help credit repair on the market.

Here are some things you need to watch out for.

1.    Compare and contrast – some financial institutions only send updates to one and maybe none of the consumer reporting agencies. You need to make sure that all reported accounting you see is accurate and that it is reported properly on each credit report . Dispute errors with a good dispute letter format or have the AVAIL program generate a credit dispute letter for you .

2.    Check for inquiries that were not authorized – people looking at your reports to assess your worthiness as a borrower can also harm your FICO score. Make sure that all the inquiries and accounts on the reports are accurate. If you did not give a certain company permission to check your information, clean it up by having their names removed from the list.

3.     Make sure there are no errors – sometimes, you may have already closed an account or paid it off but it is still being taken against you. Call these companies and have them set the record straight . For closed accounts, make sure it says closed by consumer request to make the distinction that you decided to close the account rather than the lender closing it for you. Check the accounts you have charged off or made a settlement payment on. Make sure that it is reflected as paid in full to gain points on your FICO score.

It is better to take steps to clean up the credit report as early as possible and start redeeming yourself in the eyes of the lenders and financial institutions. Doing this shows that you can be responsible and it will be a great help when you do need to take out a loan or refinance your house. Just make sure to keep your credit report clean and watch your score slowly but steadily go up.

Filed under: Finance • Other Loans

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!