Finance and Law

How to Fix Your Credit: Essential Steps to Successfully Repair Your Credit

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Looking for ways to improve your credit&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Trying to figure out how to fix your credit score&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Having a bad credit score can make many things in life more difficult&period; It can make it harder for you to get a mortgage&comma; to find an apartment to rent or to get a car loan&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">If you want your financial life to be as simple and easy as possible&comma; you need to work on improving your credit&period; Luckily&comma; there are ways to do it&period; However&comma; it will take some time and effort to bring your score up where it needs to be&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Below we&&num;8217&semi;ll tell you about the essential steps you need to follow to successfully repair your credit&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">1&period; Know Your Credit Score<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Before you start trying to repair your credit you need to know exactly where you stand&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s important to check your credit score before you get started&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">You&&num;8217&semi;re legally allowed to get a report each year from the three credit bureaus for free which you can easily do using AnnualCreditReport&period;com&period; You can also get a report in other ways as well&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s very easy to check your score with various online services&period; Many credit card providers and banks also have a feature within your online account that allows you to check your score&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Credit scores range between 300-850 so you&&num;8217&semi;ll want to see where your score currently falls&period; Here are the approximate credit score rankings&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&NewLine;<li><strong>800-850&colon;<&sol;strong> Excellent<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>740-799&colon;<&sol;strong> Very Good<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>670-739&colon;<&sol;strong> Good<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>580-669&colon;<&sol;strong> Fair<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>300-579&colon;<&sol;strong> Very Poor<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Once you know what your score is you&&num;8217&semi;ll be better equipped to start fixing it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>2&period; Fix Errors<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">It&&num;8217&semi;s important to know that everything that&&num;8217&semi;s on your credit report may not be accurate&period; Sometimes errors are made by credit card companies or credit and credit bureaus&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Because of this&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s important to carefully look over your credit report to see if there are any errors&period; If the report claims you have missed payments that you didn&&num;8217&semi;t miss or if there are accounts on your report that aren&&num;8217&semi;t yours&comma; then you may have a problem&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">If you notice any errors then you can <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;myfico&period;com&sol;credit-education&sol;credit-reports&sol;fixing-errors" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">dispute them<&sol;a> by contacting the credit bureaus&period; You can do this online or you can send physical mail to do this&period; You may also choose to contact the bank or financial institution hat put the false information on your report&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">By disputing any errors on your report you&&num;8217&semi;ll eliminate anything on your report that&&num;8217&semi;s bringing your score down but shouldn&&num;8217&semi;t be&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>3&period; Educate Yourself<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">In addition to knowing your personal credit score you also need to know anything you can about credit in general&period; There are <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;investopedia&period;com&sol;articles&sol;pf&sol;10&sol;credit-score-factors&period;asp" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">several factors<&sol;a> that determine what a person&&num;8217&semi;s credit score is&comma; so you should know what these are and pay attention to them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The amount of missed payments on your account&comma; credit utilization&comma; and the age of your credit are all important factors that will affect your score&comma; but there are other factors as well&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">By doing your research and understanding how credit scores are made&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll do a much better job of repairing it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">4&period; Tackle Past Due Accounts<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">If you have any credit cards or loans that you&&num;8217&semi; past due on&comma; you need to remedy that immediately&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s important to get your accounts up to date and current&comma; as carrying past due balances can affect your credit in negative ways&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">While a month or more can be harmful&comma; even worse is if your account is 180 days past due or more&period; When an account is 180 days past due it will be considered a charge-off which is especially bad for your credit score&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Make sure you get your account paid and current as soon as possible if you&&num;8217&semi;re serious about improving your credit&period; Getting your past due accounts into a current status is the first thing you should do to get your credit score pointed in the right direction&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">5&period; Control Your Credit Utilization<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">One factor that has an effect on your credit score is credit utilization&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s important that you&&num;8217&semi;re not using too much of your credit at once as this can make it appear that you may be unreliable&period; Having a high utilization of your available credit can make your credit score go down&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">If you have any accounts that are currently over the limit or close to the limit you&&num;8217&semi;ll need to get those back down as soon as possible&period; Ideally&comma; you should keep your credit utilization at around 35&percnt;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Make sure that you&&num;8217&semi;re making regular payments to your credit cards and consider paying more than the minimum amount each month in order to get your utilization down more quickly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">6&period; Get New Credit<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Believe it or not&comma; even if you have bad credit there are ways to get new credit cards&period; However&comma; you won&&num;8217&semi;t have as many options as people with good credit scores have&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Getting new credit can help you build your score because it could improve your credit utilization&period; Additionally&comma; having more accounts open is a good thing to some extent&period; If you use a new card responsibly then there&&num;8217&semi;s a good chance it will help improve your score&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Secured credit cards are one of the best options available to you if you have bad credit&period; These cards will require you to deposit the equivalent amount of the credit line that they will give you&period; Secured cards can be very helpful for improving your credit even if your score is currently less than ideal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">There are some other credit card options available for people with bad credit as well&period; Store cards are often relatively easy for people with bad credit scores to get&period; Some unsecured cards exist as well&period; You may want to check out <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bonsaifinance&period;com&sol;credit-cards-for-bad-credit-with-no-deposit&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">this helpful website<&sol;a> to see some of the cards that may be available to you if you have bad credit&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>7&period; Give It Time<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Once you know your credit score you&&num;8217&semi;ve followed the steps above&comma; you need to make sure that you maintain any credit that you have&period; Building your credit will take time so it&&num;8217&semi;s important to adopt good habits and to stay responsible&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Always make payments on time and try to keep your credit utilization around 35&percnt;&period; Don&&num;8217&semi;t make purchases that you don&&num;8217&semi;t need or that you won&&num;8217&semi;t be able to pay back quickly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">By being careful with your credit and giving your score some time to improve you&&num;8217&semi;ll eventually find that your credit score is starting to go up&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Figuring Out How to Fix Your Credit Once and For All<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">There is a lot to think about when you&&num;8217&semi;re trying to figure out how to fix your credit&period; However&comma; repairing it is not as difficult as it may seem&period; Make sure that you follow the steps above if you&&num;8217&semi;re ready to improve your credit score once and for all&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Want to make sure you maintain your credit score&quest; Click here to learn about the common financial mishaps that can damage your credit&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Hardik Patel

Hardik Patel is a Digital Marketing Consultant and professional Blogger. He has 16+ years experience in SEO, SMO, SEM, Online reputation management, Affiliated Marketing and Content Marketing.

Share
Published by
Hardik Patel
Tags: Credit

Recent Posts

5 Key Considerations When Using Bottle-Top Dispensers in Pharmaceutical Labs

Bottle-top dispensers are essential tools used in pharmaceutical labs because they allow and accurate dispensing…

16 hours ago

How to Budget a Home Renovation Like a Pro

Renovating your home can be both exciting and overwhelming. Whether you’re updating a single room…

1 day ago

Stream2Watch Alternatives For Watching Sports Online 2026

Are you Finding Stream2Watch Alternatives Websites? Here are 18+ Websites like Stream2Watch to watch live…

3 days ago

Best Einthusan Alternatives 2026 – Sites like Einthusan for Streaming Free Movies

Are you finding Einthusan Alternatives websites? Here are Top 9 Alternatives of Einthusan. Sites like…

3 days ago

What to Gift a RC Car Driver

Choosing the perfect gift for an RC car driver can be surprisingly fun once you…

5 days ago

58 Top Best SEO Tools for Content Marketing

We publish a selection of top best SEO tools for content marketing that will help…

6 days ago