Lyons Leadership

Your life can be complicated when you have bad credit. You are regularly denied the things that other people enjoy and sometimes it seems that no matter what you do you cannot get ahead of that dark cloud hanging over your head. If you have the time you can wait it out but if not there are steps you can take to improve or even repair your credit.

The FCRA or the Fair Credit Reporting Act is a federal law enacted by Congress in 1970. It allows consumers to know about and dispute any inaccuracies or inconsistencies on their reported credit. It also states that the consumer is entitled to a free copy of their own credit report from every one of the big three credit bureaus, one time per year. A 2003 amendment dropped the fees on this report and now you are entitled to receive it for free of charge.

The very first move to repairing and improving you credit is to get this report. There are several places online that offer you the opportunity to get this report but just keep in mind that one report per year is at no cost and you should not be paying anyone to get your one free report each year.

After you get the report you ought to verify the information and check for inconsistencies. It is estimated that up to 75% or more of all credit reports are inaccurate and have mistakes. This is in fact a benefit to you as you can dispute those mistakes and if they are not verified within a certain time period they have to be completely removed from your report.

You have the right to dispute your credit and do whatever you can to repair and improve your credit. You can do it on your own or you can hire a professional company to help you out. In no way are you required to employ someone to help you and you may find that you would choose to do it on your own. On the other hand, the process can be annoying and time-consuming and you may appreciate the fact that someone else can help you get it done. Hiring a professional credit repair service is not something that you need to do but it is a benefit if you have too much on your plate as is and you might use the convenience of letting someone else handle it to get it done in a timely manner.

In spite of of whether you do it on your own or recruit the help of a professional you need to know that it is unlawful to get fair and honest reporting removed from your credit. If the bad credit is in fact all yours you may be better off just improving the credit you now have and working on your overall financial situation.

Do your homework as you are trying to repair your credit because there are a few things that may surprise you such as the fact that it may hurt you more to pay off an old charged-off debt than to leave it alone. The reason why is because the negative credit stays on your report from the date of the last activity and when you pay off an old charge-off the time it stays on your report starts anew.

There are lots of different things you can do to improve your credit as well as repairing old and inaccurate reporting and doing things that will raise your credit score. The FCRA gave consumers the right to know and participate in what is reported on their credit report so take advantage of that fact if you have credit problems.