What are the steps in building up and repairing your credit?

request your credit report from all three of the major credit reporting agencies, they will supply them free on the first request. Upon receipt of your credit bureau's, review each of them for erroneous information. Write letters to each of the agencies requesting any and all erroneous or old (over 7 years old) information be removed from your report. It is a tedious and time consuming process but well worth it in the long run.

#1) Pull all your reports. Not online, request actual physical copies. They usually contain more than what an online report does. This will give you a start on where you need to go with your reports. Also, keep them. Never toss them. They are proof later on if you need them to refer to if you ever get into a legal situation regarding your credit (lawsuit etc).

#2) Dispute. Dispute anything that is not correct including, balance amounts, lates, etc. If you have only one or two lates, I would call your creditor and see if you can get them removed via goodwill gesture, or send a goodwill letter. You can find some great letters on some of the credit boards like creditnet.com and creditboards.com.

#3.) Collections? If you have any collections on your account or anything that should not be there, send a DV (debt validation) to the creditor asking to prove the debt. If they cannot, they have to remove the debt off of your report by law.

#4.) You have rights - check out http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/031224fcr... for more info.

#5.) check out some of the posts on creditnet.com and creditboards.com for assistance.

#6.) If you have no credit, or want a temporary boost - have a family member or really (really, really, really) close friend add you in as an authorized user on their credit cards. Make sure the balances are not high, otherwise this could hurt you more. The higher the available credit, the more your utilization will go down on your report - therefore bumping your score.

#7.) Avoid unnecessary inquiries. Hard pulls can hurt you, so avoid applying for new credit cards until after you buy your home.

This of course is a shortened version of things you can try. Research info on those links I provided you. You can increase your score spending just a short amount of time per week, sending letters to creditors etc. I increased my score over 100 points in less than 6 months. Depending on your situation, this could take shorter or longer time, but at least you have somewhere to start. Good luck!

Make sure that you have all your bills and other items paid off (ON TIME) other things you can do is if oyu have a credit card, pay more then the minimum amount, and also pay some onto the bill before it comes due.

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- pay bills on time
- keep the balances low
- negotiate with your lenders to reschedule your loan to have affordable monthly payments
-

1. Get the credit reports from Equifax, Transunion and Experian.
( can request it online), find out what your credit score is. A poor score is below 400, fair 500-600, good 600-700, excellent above 700

2. Review report for errors and send in a dispute letter for each of them. The credit agencies have excellent websites with tools to help you do this.

3. Pay off the creditcards with the highest interest first and so on.

4. Do Not close your accounts, do not use your cards and only use the one that you have had the longest for just emergencies. The reason for not closing the accounts is because if you have a total credit line between three cards of $5000 then this looks good but if you close one card then your total credit line will go down by that one card.

5. Do not apply for any more cards or loans or anything that will touch your credit report. Everytime there is an inquiry on your credit, your credit score goes down.

6. Pay your bills on time.

7. Do not fall into the trap of credit services offering to clean up in a short amount of time.

8. Once you have pay off a debt, obtain a letter so you can send it to the credit services as proof.

Good luck, it takes patience, discipline and time.

Go here and register for your "FREE" credit reports that you
can get once a year. Don't pay any money unless you want
to take advantage of the other offers:
http://www.freecreditreport.com/

Credit Cards are dangerous (spending money you wished you had),
so be careful and be wise.

What is your creidt score. YOu can get a free creidt report once a year. After you know your score you will see if you need to improve it

Raising your credit score is a bit like losing weight â€” it takes time and there is no quick fix. In fact, quick-fix efforts can backfire. The best advice is to manage credit responsibly over time. Follow these suggestions from Fair Isaac Corporation, the creators of the FICOÂ® score.
Improve your payment history
Pay your bills on time. Delinquent payments and collections can have a major negative impact on your score.
If you have missed payments, get current and stay current. The longer you pay your bills on time, the better your score. But also be aware even if you pay off a collection account, it will stay on your report for seven years.
Contact your creditors or a legitimate credit counselor if you're having trouble making ends meet. This won't improve your score immediately, but if you can begin to manage your credit and pay on time, your score will get better over time.

Lower your amounts owed
Keep your balances low on credit cards and other "revolving credit." High outstanding debt can affect a score.
Pay off debt rather than moving it around. The most effective way to improve your score is by paying down your revolving credit.
Don't close unused credit cards as a short-term strategy to raise your score. Owing the same amount but having fewer open accounts may lower your score.
Don't open new credit cards you don't need, just to increase your available credit. This approach could backfire and lower your score.

Make the most of the length of your credit history
If you've been managing credit for a short time, don't open a lot of new accounts too rapidly. New accounts will lower your average account age, which will have a larger effect on your score if you don't have a lot of other credit information. Also, rapid account buildup can look risky if you are a new credit user.
Getting new credit
Do your rate shopping within a focused period of time. FICO scores distinguish between a search for a single loan and a search for many new credit lines, in part by the length of time over which inquiries occur.
Re-establish your credit history. Even if you'd had problems in the past, opening new accounts responsibly and paying them off on time will raise your score in the long term.

Manage the types of credit you have
Apply for and open new credit accounts only as needed. Don't open accounts just to have a better credit mix â€” it probably won't raise your score.
Have credit cards â€” but manage them responsibly. In general, having credit cards (and paying them on time) will raise your score.

Many lenders use a FICOÂ® score â€” a numeric calculation of your credit report calculated by Fair Isaac Corporation â€” to obtain a fast, objective measure of your credit risk. By understanding the factors that can help or hurt your score, you'll have a better understanding of how lenders view you as a credit risk â€” and how you can improve your score.
Here are the five factors that determine your FICO score. The levels of importance shown here are for the general population, and will be different for each individual:
1. Your payment history: what is your track record? (approximately 35% of your score)
The most significant impact on your score is whether you have paid past accounts in a timely manner (on or before the date the payment was due). However, an overall good credit profile can outweigh a few late payments, and late payments have less impact over time.
2. Amounts that you owe: how much is too much? (30%)
Part of the science of credit scoring is determining how much debt is too much:
In some cases, having a very small balance without missing payments shows you've managed credit responsibly, and may be slightly better than having no balance at all.
While you don't want to have too many accounts open, it's good to have more than one, so that you're not using too much of one account's available credit limit.
Owing a lot of money on numerous accounts suggests to lenders that you may be overextended and more likely to make late payments â€” or make no payments at all.
3. Length of your credit history: how established is it? (15%)
In general, a more seasoned credit history will increase your FICO score. Lenders want to see that you can responsibly manage your credit accounts over time. However, even those people who have not used credit for an extended period of time may get high scores, depending on how the other information in their credit report appears.
4. New credit: are you taking on more debt? (10%)
Opening several credit accounts in a short period of time can represent a greater risk, especially for those with newer credit histories. According to Fair Isaac Corporation, FICO scores try to distinguish between an attempt to obtain many new credit accounts and an attempt to obtain the best interest rate. FICO scores generally do not associate higher risk with shopping for the best interest rate.
5. Types of credit in use: is it a "healthy" mix? (10%)
Your FICO score will reflect your mix of credit cards, retail accounts, installment loans, finance company accounts and mortgage loans, etc. While a healthy mix will improve your score, it's not necessary to have one of each, and it's not a good idea to open accounts you don't intend to use.
What does not affect your score
Lenders look at many things when making a credit decision, including your income, employment history, and the kind of credit you're requesting. But none of those factors are included in your FICO score. And neither the lender nor your score considers your race, religion, sex, marital status, age, or if you receive public assistance.
FICO scores also ignore self-inquiries, so checking your own credit report will not lower your credit score. In fact, it's a good idea to check your credit report once a year to make sure there are no mistakes.
Related Articles:

There is a lot of good info on this subject right here.

Request A Copy Of Your Credit Report

Review it for erors/mistakes etc.

Contact The Credit Reporting Agency to correct any errors

Contact the credit company to correct errors

Contact the credit company to close open accounts not in use and ask that Accounts in Good Standing Be Reported

Practice Good Credit - get rid of revolving credit like credit cards, charge cards, financing credit etc.

Pay more than the minimum payments

Limit applying for credit

STOP USING YOUR CREDIT CARDS.

Try creditboards.com for detailed information. Some of the steps you can take is to dispute erroneous and out dated information in your report...seven years from the original date of delinquency for debts, ten years for judgments...creditboards has a ton of information so give them a shot.

The best way is to keep your balances on credit cards NO MORE THAN 30% of the high credit limit. This will show the lenders (creditors) that you have control over your credit and your not living exclusively on credit cards.

It takes a lot longer to build up and repair credit than it does to destroy it. You will need to pay all bills on time (this is extremely important) and have as little credit card debt as possible. Every inquiry done on your report (like if you apply for a loan) affects the score negatively. You can charge items every month - but not more than you can pay off at the end of every month. It can take years to repair damage and only one or two months of negligent bill-paying habits to destroy it. I do loans for a bank and I know how all of this works. Best of luck to you.

make sure to pay every month your bills, if possibe more than the minimum amount.

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