These days credit is more important than ever. The economy is doing poorly and banks and credit card companies are really getting tough on issuing any kind of credit if your score is not high enough. Unfortunately, its very easy to do things that hurt your credit, some of which don’t make sense from a logic standpoint. The credit bureaus – Trans Union, Equifax, and Experian all have their own formula that converts payment histories and credit lines into a numerical number that is supposed to rate your ability and credit worthiness

Either way, whether we think that number is right or wrong, you can only play within the rules that are setup. So its important for each person to know how to repair your credit. While some things are harder, most of it is quite easy to do. Be wary of so called “Credit Experts” that want you to pay a big fee for them to help you. Most of it you can really do yourself, once you learn the secrets of what needs to be done. In addition, there are tons of scammers out there that use this to steal information from you (worst case) OR simply really do next to nothing for the fees charged (more likely).

Here are a list of things you can do that can help fix bad credit:

1. Shred all old credit card statements, bank statements and other stuff.
2. Be careful about closing inactive accounts. In general, if there is no fee, leave the accounts open – account closing dings your credit.
3. Pay your credit card bill before the end of the billing cycle NOT by the due date
4. Be aware of balance transfer offers that seem to good to be true, often they have an unusually low rate that goes to a really high rate if the balance is not paid off in the required time.
5. Get a copy of your credit report, check for accuracy.

This is just a start, but once you learn a few things, you will realize its actually quite easy to help fix bad credit. Once you make sure there are no errors, remove stuff that should not be there, and start to watch your credit, you should start to see an increase in the credit score over time. One last tip – if you have a few credit cards but one of them is a very low limit – call that company up and request an increase in the limit. State that you have always paid on time, and paid more than the minimum balance, and that limit does not reflect your ability to pay. If they refuse, seriously consider closing that account – it is actually harming your credit if you have 1 card at $1000.00 and all the others are at $8000.00 etc.

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