Let's face it, keeping one's credit perfect or even good is sometimes really difficult. If you have middle credit scores above 720, congratulations, go straight to the loan application or Pre-Qual page, you walk on water. This page is for the rest of us who have had some, let's call them credit issues and want to get past them into a low priced mortgage and other life enhancing credit based favorable financial events.
Let me say this: Getting your good credit standing back is a life changing event. It will raise the quality of your life in a major way. It is attainable but requires some serious focus and attention on things we rather usually not look at. And possible some money allocated to pay off some negotiated balances. If you ever come into some money I recommend, as one of the first order of business, right after buying a house for your mother, you immediately go clean up your credit till it shines. Money goes but credit is forever.
Why is one's credit so hard to confront? For one thing, the bureaus and creditors do not make it easy or pleasant to deal with their derogatory entries, and their intention is diametrically opposed to ours in keeping the worst stuff on there for as long as possible, truth and legal time limits not withstanding.
If credit issues are holding you back from getting what you want, in housing and elsewhere in life, I say: Don't let them. Decide to take on the damaging information and get it corrected, updated, removed or settled. It may take a bit of analysis, planning, time and money (less than you think, usually), but know this: GOOD CREDIT CAN BE HAD. Even for those of us with years of credit issues (that word again).
One point: Just like in AA, the first thing is to stop the abuse. So if you decide to improve your credit, don't add any more collections, defaults and more late payments to the mix. It will never end. If things are that bad, consult with a bankruptcy attorney. You can keep the car and the house.
If you want to do it yourself, or get some help, here are the steps (not 12 steps, this is much shorter) to go through.
1) Get a copy of your 3 bureau merged credit report. You can have a friendly (or sales hungry) car dealer or vendor pull it, or you can get a free report once a year through http://annualcreditreport.com. Sat aside an hour at least, be ready to run the gauntlet of obscure personal questions and be swamped with spam mail -- it's not really free, they sell your info to cover the cost.
2) Sign up for credit monitoring through http://creditchecktotal.com for $20.00/month. You get all the free reports you can eat, one every single day if you want. No hassle up front and no hard inquiries on your reports for any of this. You do not want a lot of hard inquiries, they drop your credit scores. There are other monitoring companies but none that I know of let you pull as many reports as you care to. If you find another one you like, check it out carefully and if it looks OK, use it. Most limit you to one report a month. If you are actively disputing items on the reports, you want to keep track of the positive changes. Once a month just will not do. This is money well spent in my book. Keep your finger on the reviving pulse of your credit as you breathe new life into it.
3) Start cleaning up your credit files. You can go over them yourself and write dispute letters (certified mail please) per the required format. Dispute of course anything not yours, inaccurate, incomplete or outdated (over 7 years old), both with the vendors and the bureaus. Anything older and unknown, dispute it as not yours. They have to dig up the records and attribute it back to you or it goes off. Anything over seven years ask to be removed. (except Bankruptcies, they get to stay for 10 years). And student loans never go away, so call the Student Loan Ombudsman and set up a reduced repay deal. After six months of usually tiny payments, you are golden.
4) You can call our office for a credit consult and we will do an analysis and a plan with you on how to get on top of things. The charge is only $100.00 and that includes the initial credit report. This will leave you with a written game plan on how to approach the credit improvement project. We'll stay in touch till we can write your loan. This is only as a help to you to get a home loan.
5) Further hand-holding: Yes we will help you further with the credit issues if you absolutely hate writing letters and getting up close and personal with the bureaus. Fees are per hour, and are affordable. We will only do what and how much you want. Again, the sole purpose is so we can move forward with your mortgage and get you into a home. Our prime directive is to help you get a home and an affordable home loan. All other side benefits of your scrubbed credit are complimentary.
Here are some links to important laws concerning your credit. There will be an insert with any response letters from the credit bureaus listing all the laws as well. Hang on to them, maybe even read them all the way through. It's your credit and you should know your rights.
