How do I fix my credit?

[Dannyboy1]

I was young and never got around to fixing it. How do I get a free credit report? Everyone says they're giving you a free one, but they all charge you. Also, what do I do next?

[SomeRandomGuy]

I was trying to post a link to the FTC Page with information about the authorized free credit report, but it seems that the forum doesn't like part of the address. The site for the Free Credit report is: www.annualcreditreport.com. If you want to read the FTC info before visiting the site, google "free credit report gov" and follow the first ftc.gov link.

[ar81]

Credit is never free, for you pay interests.
Depending on how much money you ask, you might face financial trouble.

The business of a bank is to make money, and the only source of money is their customers.
People having accounts supply extra money to the bank so they can lend money and make profit with interests.
I worked for a bank. Banks are no charity NGOs. Banks never lose. So be carefull and analyze your decisions very well.

[verifiedtrading]

annualcreditreport.com, Its sponsered by the government and you get one free report per year here.

[Dannyboy1]

I got the reports. Now, how do I improve my credit?

[Savage]

Sign up for Stephen Snyder's newsletter at Personal Bankruptcy Information | After Bankruptcy Foundation. It's a non-profit foundation to help educate you about credit and improve your FICO scores. Get access to the archives and read the back issues that interest you. Stephen Synder is awesome and is one of the few people who tell the real truth about credit. Erin and I went to his seminar years ago. He saved us a lot of time and money.

Most of the free credit reports you can get online are bogus -- little more than a marketing gimmick. Read the fine print to make sure you're getting the same reports the banks and credit card companies actually use. You need to get individual reports from Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax to get the real truth. A combined or summary report is no good.

Stephen Synder offered a deal to help you learn what your FICO scores are (one score for each credit agency). Your FICO scores are the most important numbers when it comes to getting approved for credit.

[Dannyboy1]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Sign up for Stephen Snyder's newsletter at Personal Bankruptcy Information | After Bankruptcy Foundation. It's a non-profit foundation to help educate you about credit and improve your FICO scores. Get access to the archives and read the back issues that interest you. Stephen Synder is awesome and is one of the few people who tell the real truth about credit. Erin and I went to his seminar years ago. He saved us a lot of time and money.

Great! Thanks a lot Steve. I'll check this out!

[tracyrtwyman]

Or just wait 7 years and it all goes away. Just like in the Bible.

[Jim11]

In Canada equifax or transunion credit bureaus will give you a copy of your credit report for free if you mail in a request. You can find it on their web site

They heavily advertise the "instant online report" for a fee of ~$20. The free report is usually harder to find but it should be there. It's likely the same in the US

[AirBreather]

Originally Posted by Jim11

In Canada equifax or transunion credit bureaus will give you a copy of your credit report for free if you mail in a request. You can find it on their web site *snip*

Really? Neat! I'll need to look that up.

Thanks for pointing it out.

[teatree]

How to fix it - there's only one way, and it's hard.

First make sure you pay all your bills on time, creditors look for this.

Then start paying down your debts, starting with the highest interest ones. Once you've paid it off, cut up the card. Creditors hate it if you have too many credit cards and store cards. Just one or two should suffice, and you should aim to clear all your debts so that you have just a couple of credit cards which you pay on time.

How to get the money to do the above? Take a second job, blog to make money, cut expenditure, do whatever you have to. The longer you leave it, the worse it gets, so you might as well bite the bullet and start now.

[MyEyeIsOpen]

That's not exactly right, tea. Not using credit accounts is probably good advice, but actually closing them will hurt your credit score:

Part of your score is the ratio between the amount of credit you have, and the amount you've borrowed. If you close accounts, you're making that ratio worse for yourself.

The ideal thing to do is use cards enough to keep it alive, and ask for an increase every 3 months or so, so your total credit expands while your total debt stays the same (zero!).

[steve0617]

Originally Posted by MyEyeIsOpen

That's not exactly right, tea. Not using credit accounts is probably good advice, but actually closing them will hurt your credit score:

Part of your score is the ratio between the amount of credit you have, and the amount you've borrowed. If you close accounts, you're making that ratio worse for yourself.

The ideal thing to do is use cards enough to keep it alive, and ask for an increase every 3 months or so, so your total credit expands while your total debt stays the same (zero!).

To a point. If you have TOO much credit at your disposal, you are assumed you will become reckless with it and that might hurt your FICO score.

The trick is knowing how much to have that you aren't using. You want to look responsible but not have too much at your disposal.

And God knows what that exact blend is. I would guess (total guess) that no more than two Visa/MC cards with around 10K available, a gas card and one dept. store card, all with perfect payment history and occasional usage would be about right.

My own story - my MC bank doubled my credit available (from 10 - 20K) and my FICO score dropped about 8 points. That's not much of course, but just having the credit available to me caused a drop.