Bad Credit Rating - five Steps You Can Take To Fix This

Are you suffering the ill effects of having a bad credit rating? It can be a very expensive position to be in; having to pay high interest rates, paying late fees, not to mention dealing with harassing phone calls from debt collectors and experiencing the fear of rejection every time you apply for new credit. However contrary to popular belief you don't just have to live with a low FICO score. you can take steps to improve your score and without just waiting 7-10 long years. 1. find out what is on your report - you can get a copy of your report with each bureau for free by visiting annual credit report. you are entitled to a copy of this by federal law; however it is only one copy from each bureau per year. 2. Identify negative items - these items are bringing down your score. you are allowed to dispute these items. to do this you must write a dispute letter to each bureau with the reason, the dates, and any other relevant information. Next the bureaus will investigate and if the item can not be verified then it will be removed from your report. 3. Settle outstanding debts - first you should have these debts validated. This means the collection agency that is contacting you must prove that they legally own your debt. If they can not prove this then you do not have to pay the debt and if you dispute the item on your report then it will not be verified. If the debt is validated then you should negotiate with the collection agency and have them agree to stop reporting your debt to the bureaus as a condition of your settlement agreement. This is common practice and you must do this otherwise the debt will continue to hurt your FICO score even after the debt is paid. Additionally we suggest you start with a settlement offer at roughly 50% of the amount of the debt they are trying to collect. for example if it is a $500 debt then you could start your negotiations with offering $250. 4. Open new lines of revolving credit - this will give you additional items on your report that are positive. This will help to improve your score as it will create a record of a positive payment history, a very important piece of information when your score is calculated. 5. Pay your bills on time - we hear this all the time but there is never a reason why this helps. the reason is because by paying your current bills on time you are beginning to establish a good payment history. while this is being created your old delinquent debts will be aging and the older a debt gets the less impact it will have on your score. In sum, you don't just have to live with the high cost of a damaged FICO score. you can take action today to fix this situation and free up hard earned money from being spent on high interest rates and fees. Bad Credit Rating - 5 Steps You Can Take To Fix This [l]