10 Steps to Repair, Rebuild, and Protect Your Credit

Have you had one or more financial misfortunes over the past several years and now have a less than ideal credit score? If so, you’re certainly not alone. Credit scores have been one of the biggest victims of the financial crisis and the recession. Unfortunately, that number can determine not only whether you can get credit and what interest rates you’ll pay but they can also affect your insurance premiums and even your ability to get a job.

1) Fix any errors in your credit report. It’s bad enough if you’ve made your share of mistakes in the past so you certainly don’t want to be penalized for ones you didn’t make as well. About 70% of credit reports have them so there’s a good chance at least one of yours does too. You can get a free copy of each of your 3 credit reports every 12 months, at creditchecktotal.com . Once you get your report, you can then correct any errors you find that could be hurting your score.

2) Catch up on any missed payments. If you’re having trouble making payments, you can try to work out a payment plan with your creditors or consult a non-profit credit counseling agency to negotiate on your behalf.

3) Make sure your payments on any debt and other bills like rent and utilities are on time going forward. After all, payment history is the biggest factor in calculating your credit score. You might also be able to get letters of recommendation from these companies when you apply for credit. For those reasons, you may want to consider having your payments automatically deducted from your checking account. Just be sure not to overdraw the account. If you do miss a payment, contact the creditor as soon as possible and ask if they would be willing to remove the late payment from your account as a courtesy and gesture of good will.

4) Of course, you can’t build a positive credit history if you don’t have any credit.  The problem is that it takes credit to get credit. A good place to begin would be to see if your bank will allow you to open a secured credit card. These cards require you to deposit an amount of money usually equal to the credit limit into a special savings account that the bank can collect any missed payments from. This helps to minimize the bank’s risk so it’s relatively easy to get but there’s a chance you may still need a co-signer to qualify.