Credit Report Inaccuracies Tip

Money Management
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I highly recommend using a credit building website to monitor your credit such as CREDIT KARMA or CREDIT SESAME so you can monitor your credit.

Doing this allows you to see how tour credit actions have consequences, both good and bad. Almost in real time, usually weekly or monthly as it updates.

This is important, and they are free. You can monitor credit inquiries, reporting, balances, accounts, payments, spending and lots of things.

I had a delinquent account on my credit for 7 years, it finally was removed but a year later it came back. Because I monitor my credit, I saw it came back and was able to have it removed. They cannot add an account back once it falls off unless its a new account or delinquency. Had I not monitored my credit, I would not have known this was added back.

Also. The 7 year rule is 7 years from the first reported date of delinquency not the date it was opened.

Also, the more AVAILABLE CREDIT you have, the more you can spend and not dramatically hurt your credit. Example, if you have $50,000 in availabil credit, you can spend $5,000 and not kill your credit. I have found that anything over 10% of available credit will take a big hit on your score. They say 30% but I have seen huge changes at 10% or more. So if your available credit is only $10,000, which sounds like a lot, if you spend over $1,000 your score will take a big hit. It is temporary and will improve as the balance decreases, but keep that in mind. Especially if you need to open a new account you want a high score so paying that down may be a good idea.

Credit scores vary based on which bureau the lender uses and what type of account you want. There are different scores for auto, home, cards, etc. So it is not one score fits all. You can get your specific score from the 3 different agencies but they are not free, but they do offer them online.

I have learned a lot from repairing my own credit over the last 5 years, feel free to ask me questions and if I can I will happily help.

Rick

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Hi Rick, I understand there is no “quick trick” to get out of bad credit. But I just found out my knee surgery from 2014 has exploded to $51,000- half of that is interest alone. I have been delinquent with bills in the past which has hindered me establishing credit through an unsecured c/c or a loan to pay off bills. My score was mid to high 600 and it has dropped to low 500’s quickly. Suggestions?

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Steve, you could try negotiating on the interest. Delinquent credit takes a while to recover from and improve your credit scores. Credit scores are supposed to be an indication of your worthiness for getting credit from a lender. If you have a record of not paying back the money you borrowed (and a bill is borrowing money) you’re going to have trouble convincing other lenders to loan you money. If you can negotiate better payment terms, possibly a relief from some of the interest owed (you’re going to have to be awfully good at negotiating to accomplish this) and start making regular payments, it will gradually give you a better credit rating. If you can’t negotiate any better interest rate now, try paying on the bill regularly every month for a year and try again when you’ve established a pattern of sticking with a payment plan and therefore might be considered a slightly better credit risk worthy of a lower interest rate.

There’s likely not going to be a miracle that will erase your bad credit history all at once, but if you stick with your payments and show over time that you keep your credit agreements, your credit score will improve. It’s unlikely you’ll see your score jump back up as quickly as it jumped down, just FYI.