If you have a poor credit report then it will interfere with your ability to borrow money; it may even prevent this altogether. A lot of us will have had debt problems in the past and this many have harmed our ability to get finance in the future or it will mean that we will be expected to pay higher rates. It is understandable that many of us are interested in any way to clean up our credit report and luckily there are some ways that we can do this.
How Can I Clean up my Credit Report?
What follows are just a few of the measures we can take that will help clean up our credit report.
- The first thing you will want to do is find out what your credit report actually says about you. In some states you will be able to get this information for free but sometimes you might be expected to pay a fee. Getting your hands on this report is crucial because you are going to need this information if you want to be able to improve your situation. Different bureaus will have their own credit report and you will want one from Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union.
- You will want to check these credit reports carefully to ensure that there are no mistakes. Unfortunately a lot of people have poor credit cards because there has been an error made somewhere along the way.
- If you find any inaccuracies in the report you will need to inform the credit bureau. You do this by writing them a letter and providing any proof that you have that the information in your credit report is wrong. This complaints process can take a bit of time but it will be worth it if it means your credit report is cleaned up.
- There may be some negative information on your credit report that is true and this can be harder to deal with, but not impossible. One solution is to apply to the creditor to see if they will be willing to remove this black mark against you. Some will be willing to do this if you are otherwise a good borrower. It could be that you just went through a tough period but have since shown yourself to be reliable at paying back money. The creditor has no obligation to remove this negative information but some will do so if they believe you are a valued customer.
- Even if a creditor refuses to remove the information that is harming your credit report it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. This information won’t stay on your report forever and will usually be removes after a few years. The only exception to this is if you have been declared bankrupt.
A bad credit report can make our life difficult, but there are some actions that we can take to improve the situation. The most important step of all will be actually finding out what this report says about us.
