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Seven Simple Steps That Will Quickly Improve Your Credit Score.

By Michael Redbourn

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 29May2009 Word count: 726 Viewed: 528 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

1, The first thing that I want you to do is to get two new credit cards, and if you know that you can't get approved, then get two secured ones! Anybody can get a secured credit card, sometimes called a debit card, because you deposit a sum of money to the bank, and the card is only good for that amount.

Not only are debit cards easy to get, but the wonderful thing is that nobody knows if your cards are secured or not, and it only says on your credit report that you have credit cards that are in good standing.

2, If you don't have one already, then I want you to get a Triple or Tri-merge Credit Report, and you can obtain one on line from any of the major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. The cost will be around $20.00 and it will be money well spent. It easiest to apply on line but you can also contact any one of the following at,

Equifax, P.O. Box 740243, Atlanta, GA 30374, Ph. 800-685-1111

Experian, P.O. Box 2002, Allen, TX 75013, Ph. 888-397-3742

Trans Union, P.O. Box 1000, Chester, PA 19022, Ph. 800-916-8800

A tri-merge credit report is a credit report that allows lenders to see a combination of all three separate credit scores as reported by the three main credit bureaus.

3, Once you have your report, I'd like you to read it very carefully checking for errors. More than 50% of all credit reports contain mistakes, and they're often major ones.

In particular, check to see if some of your credit card limits are being underreported, because a person's credit score is heavily affected by the relationship between the person's credit limits and their revolving balances. You might even find debts being reported that you've already settled, and even worse, debts that are not even yours.

4, Report the errors immediately by registered mail, and include copies of any supporting documents if you have them. Your report will be quickly updated, and the only thing that you'll have to pay for is the postage.

5, Start using your cards right away, and always keep your available credit at less than 20%, but never let it get down to zero because the difference between a maxed out credit card, and one that's in the above range can make a difference of 150 points to your credit score, and that's a huge amount.

6, Be sure to follow the above advice for at least sixty days before you apply for any new line of credit, because it's important that you don't get any refusals added to your report.

7, You've probably heard, or read that creditors will often accept settlements for much less than is owed, and you might wonder if it's true, and also ask yourself why they'd do it.

The reason is what is known as the 'statute of limitations', and learning about them will enable you to get a lot of debt removed from your credit report for very little money.

A statute of limitation is the period of time that is allowed for a debt to be collected through the courts, and how this works in the debtor's favor is that the amount of time allowed is nearly always much less than the reporting period limit, for either credit or debt.

The law varies a little from State to State so check to find out what the law is in your State, and once you know what it is then check your report and see if any of your debts are outside of the statute of limitations. If you find some, which is quite likely, then contact the creditor and asked for the debt to be removed. The creditor will more than likely refuse, because he'll figure that you won't want to spend money on going to court, and he's playing a game.

Simply ask him how much he'd be prepared to settle for, and cut the best deal that you can, and you'll be amazed at how little creditors will actually accept.

None of the above is very complicated or difficult to do, and if you carry out the seven steps to the letter, then you should see a change in your credit score of at least a couple of hundred points in around nine months, even if you still have several negative things on your report.

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