How to fix my credit?

I have pulled my credit report from annualcredit reports.com. I have a few negatives on my report but I think that I can have them all paid out within 2 to 3 months. After paying my negatives and paying the rest of my bills on time will this bring up my credit score up? And what else can i do to boost my credit?

Yes, it's possible to fix your credit yourself. With a little hard work and perserverance, and patience, you could get it back up there. What you have to understand is what makes up your credit score:

1. Payment history- 35%
2. Total debt owed to avialable credit ratio-30%
3. Length of time establishing credit-15%
4. Types of credit established-10%
5. Inquiries and New accounts-10%

With that in mind, this is some steps that you should do in order to get yourself in a better financial position to rebuild your score:

1. Open a checking and savings account if you haven't already- while this won't directly affect your credit score, it does many things. It re-establishes a relationship between you and a financial institution, which by being an customer in good standing, could help make it easier to get approved for credit cards and loans. Most importantly, by opening a checking account
it gives you the single most powerful tool in building credit, to help pay your bills on time, especially if the bank offers online billpay.

2. Gather ALL your credit reports- It's important to know exactly what's on your reports. A lot of times, people believe that their credit is so bad, that they don't bother to check their reports for mistakes, and trust me, mistakes DO happen. The credit bureaus don't get paid to be accurate, they get paid to report. It's important that you gather reports from all 3 agencies to determine not just who and how much you owe, but to make sure that what's on there is even correct. If you do happen to find something that you're sure is not right, you should dispute with all 3 agencies, they all have an online dispute feature in which you can dispute the item. Once you've made sure that there's no inaccuracies on your report, then you should arrange your debts from most recent and lowest amount to oldest and highest amount. Debts that are newer than 2 years are hurting your score the worst and should be handled first. What you should know that just paying off debts, especially collection debts will not help your score. A "pay to delete" or "deletion payment", which is a payment in exchange for removing it from your report completely. I posted several links that explains this more in detail.

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/settle_debts.shtml

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/neg_rating_after_settle.shtml

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/CanCreditorSue4SettlementDifferences.shtml

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/ActualDebtSuccesses.shtml

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/debt-negotiation.php

If you're sucuessful, this will help your score.

3. Open new credit- I had mentioned in #1, about opening a checking and savings account with a bank or credit union, I'm going to tie that in with what I'm about to say. Some major banks (Bank of America, Wells Fargo, USBank, Orchard Bank) and some credit unions offer secured credit cards, which are credit cards that require a deposit to establish credit. Whatever you deposit would be the credit line, for example, if you deposited $300, then your credit line would be $300. The deposit isn't used to pay for what's purchased on the card, you would still need to either pay in full or make monthly minimum payments. The deposit is used only if the account becomes delinquent and goes to collections. A couple of good things is that you can increase the credit limit by adding to the deposit, which can help your score because it creates a much needed cushion between the total debt that's owed and the available credit, and also the deposit is sometimes linked to a savings account which earns interest while you're building credit, so the deposit isn't just sitting there. A good way to build credit with the card is to make small purchases ($20/month max) and pay it off on time every month, while adding to the deposit. Usually after a year or so, of paying it off on time, the card either converts to a regular card or it's upgraded to a better card, and most importantly the deposit isn't needed anymore and it's given back. My suggestion would be to open another secured card and repeat the process or open 2 at a time, which would speed things up. If you make small purchases, pay it off and increase the limits, that will really help your score. In the end, you'll have 2 credit cards with decent limits and an emergency fund from the deposits.

4. Enroll with PRBC- PRBC is America's Alternative Credit Bureau, providing a helpful service to the over 50 million people with limited or no credit history. If you pay your monthly bills on time, PRBC can help you build credit to qualify for a mortgage and better interest rates.On-time payments for the following bills are not reported to the traditional credit bureaus:

Rent
Cable
Phone
Daycare
Insurance
Electric
Natural Gas
Cell Phone

The only time your payments for these bills are reported to the other credit bureaus is if they're missing or late.With PRBC, your on-time payments count. You build credit for paying your bills on time, even if you have no credit history. PRBC has teamed up with Fair Issac, the creators of the FICO score to introduce the FICO expansion score which helps people build credit. Here's a link that explains more in detail:

http://www.fairisaac.com/fic/en/product-service/product-index/fico-expansion-score/

In closing, just a few more things to keep in mind.

-Don't spend more than 30% of your combined available credit on all your cards.

-Only apply for credit when necessary.

-Pay on time

Hope this helps...

Thanks for reading and...

Good luck!

First, what are your negatives? If they're collections, then of course pay them off. If you've been late on credit cards, then make timely payments - Never be late on payments on anything that is reported on your credit report, especially if you're trying to improve your credit.

If you have any credit cards do not close them because part of your credit score is calculated by the ratio of balance to limit. If you have a $1000 limit and a $950 balance, then that will drive your score down - You're essentially maxed out (obviously don't go over your limit). Try to keep the ratio of balance to limit around 40% or better yet nothing, but just make sure you use your card and keep the balance at a minimum. Keep in mind that it will take time and good credit doesn't happen over night. If you can't get a credit card, then get a secured card at a local bank - For example, you put $500 in a savings account that is used as the collateral for a $500 Visa or MC. Keep in mind if you are getting turned down by one credit card company after another, then a secured card may be your best option. Applying for too much credit will also hurt your score. Good Luck.

pay off your bills, continue to pay your bills on time, keep the balances low on your credit accounts, get one credit card and keep that balance paid down, do not inquire about anything, contact the creditors you ow, try to negotiate payments...

Here is website with lots of tips to improve credit and answer any question you might have.
www.creditscorequick.com/blogger.htm

To Repair credit score
Your credit score is based mostly on:

1. Length of credit history
2. Payment history.
3. Ratio of credit used to available credit.
4. Number of credit inquiries you authorized.

If you cancel your card, you'll be hurting your credit ratio. (#3).

You want to deliberately keep your oldest credit card open, even if you never use it.

You want to always pay the minimums of each loan on time every month.

You want to keep your available credit high, but actually only have balances equalinig 25% or less.

You want to keep your credit inquiries to a minimum. Try for no more than 3 or 4 per year for any type of loans.

You do these things and your credit score will quickly soar into the 700s.

--------------------------------------...
http://www.bestcreditrates.net

to boost your credit score get a credit card(just 1) with a low limit and use it for your everyday purchases. pay it off in full EVERY month. it usually takes about 6 months for it to help your credit score... i think it will only go up a little but for paying off the negatives. but paid still looks better than delinquent. it takes 7 years for something to be completely deleted from your credit report

Once you pay off your neg things you need to dispute them you can do this own your own or you can hire a lawyer. I have hired a lawyer and withing the first month I had four things come off. The company is called Bradley Ross Law they charge 80.00 a month. The second thing you need to do is open a credit card or get a car loan and make payments on time every month to establish a good payment history.

Theres a good book called...

Credit Scores Credit Cards
How Consumer Finance Works: How to avoid Mistakes and Manage Your Accounts Well

It was written by The Silver Lake Editors.

It has lots of information about credit cards, scores, etc.

Well....If you create an income where you do not have to rely on credit, you will be inundated by card companies, banks and others who want you to open a credit line with them.

You won't do this overnight...but it is a worthy Goal for you to set for yourself...Just to show them!
Good luck with this strategy. You can do it!

Yes, paying off these bills will help bring up your credit. If you continue to pay all of your other bills on time your score will continue to rise. Anytime you take out a loan or use credit pay it promptly Good for you for getting things on track and Good Luck.

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