How to Fix Your Credit Score?

Your credit score is a brand by which you will be judged for just about everything in your adult life. It is what lenders look at; it is what credit card companies look at. It is even what some employers look at. Believe it or not, there are employers out there who will do a credit check just as readily as they will do a background check and a drug screen. Now that you know just how many people are going to want to know your credit score, you see why it is important to make sure that your credit score is accurate. Here is how to fix your credit score in the event that it is not where it should be.

Validate your debt. Get a copy of your credit report and make sure it is accurate. An extremely high percentage of Americans (more than half of the country's population) have found mistakes on their credit records. Contact each credit reporting agency or go to freecreditreport.com and get your annual free copy of your credit report and if you find that it contains mistakes, report these mistakes to the credit reporting agencies. The company is required to investigate any mistakes that are reported and to correct them. Once you have a copy of your corrected credit report, make sure that it is actually correct. Sometimes you will have to report the mistakes more than once to get them corrected.

When you have finally gotten all the mistakes corrected on your credit report, contact all of the companies that owe you money-especially if the credit report says you owe more money than your records say you owe. Send a validation request letter to each company and ask for proof that you actually still owe that money, your agreement to pay the money owed and get a current outstanding debt amount. Make sure you send these letters via certified mail with a signature delivery confirmation. The company will have thirty days to provide you with proof that you owe what they say you owe. In the event that they do not provide proof or that they do not respond, send a copy of your validation request and the delivery confirmation signature to each of the three credit reporting agencies. If a debt cannot be validated, the law requires that the account be deleted.

Now that you have an accurate report of how much you owe, start paying on it! Make payments on time every month and try to pay more than the minimum amount due each month. This will decrease your debt much faster than just paying the minimum amount. Just the simple act of paying your bills on time each month will increase your credit score.

Knowing how to fix your credit score is important, especially because there are often mistakes made on credit records. Once you know how to fix your credit score, those mistakes won't be nearly as stressful for you.

Credit in Minutes Tip #1

Stay on top of your credit report. Most credit reports contain errors. Make sure you check your credit report every year (you get one free credit report every twelve months) and if there are errors make sure to challenge them with the reporting credit agency. Credit agencies are required to investigate each and every challenge that gets reported.

Credit in Minutes Tip #2

Just because you qualify for all of those credit cards does not mean you should get them. A person with too many credit cards looks sketchy in the eyes of a potential creditor. Think of it this way: if a person is financially stable does he or she need ten different credit cards? Wouldn’t just one or two suffice?

Credit in Minutes Tip #3

The best way to raise your credit score is to make all of your payments on time. It sounds too simple to be true, but that’s all there really is to it. Staying out of debt and/or making all of your debt payments on time will keep your score up where it should be.