How to Repair Bad Credit?

Your credit history is more important than you may think. The FICO score is checked by lenders, landlords, insurers, and employers. You may fail to rent the best apartment or secure a great job because of a low total. Fortunately, it may be unfair and fixable.

In the United States, two popular systems for calculation are FICO and VantageScore. They rely on a similar mix of factors. Your prior payments, the age of the records, the total size of the debt, and the variety of credit products all affect the score. Inaccuracies are not rare. Data collected by TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax may be flawed.

Concept of Repair

The FICO score range is 300-850. The system views anything under 580 as ‘very poor’. You need at least 670 for a ‘good’ score, 740 for ‘very good’, and 800 for ‘exceptional’. This is calculated based on reports generated by bureaus. According to the latest statistics, one in five Americans has incorrect reports. When false derogatories are deleted, the score rises. This is the premise of credit repair.

DIY Vs. Professional

Any citizen of the US may collect the data for free once a year, and dispute errors formally. However, this is a challenging and often drawn-out process. As you can see from this Credit Saint Review, a repair firm will do everything on your behalf, while you monitor progress through their portal or app.

Consider what self-repair requires. First, you need to understand if the score is correct. You can see the total on MyFICO, and via smartphone apps like Credit Sesame. It is always calculated based on the reports, so you should collect all three and check their contents. Why did the credit score drop? It is difficult to understand which entries are the most damaging. For an expert, this is a piece of cake.

The analysis is only the first stage in the process. Afterward, you need to find evidence to support your claims and open formal disputes. Generally, professional repair delivers the fastest results. However, do not expect any overnight changes. Bureaus have 30 days to investigate every claim, so your score may start changing after 45 days on average.

1.    Preparatory Stage

For customers who fix their scores themselves and those who hire experts, the logic is the same. Repair begins with the collection of official reports and their meticulous analysis. By law, you are entitled to one free copy of the records from Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion once a year.

Now, due to Covid-19, this service is provided weekly on www.annualcreditreport.com until April 20, 2022. Downloading the data is a matter of seconds. A credit fixing company will do it for you. All three reports must be considered, as bureaus do not share information with one another.

2.    Rules of Analysis

Most negative information stays on reports for 7 years. Clearly, waiting for derogatories to disappear from the records is unacceptable if you need to take out loans in the near future. Inconsistencies range from negative events that have never happened, such as evictions or bankruptcies to relatively innocuous mistakes like misspelled addresses. You may also find that fraudsters have used your identity.

Professionals will identify any errors and prioritize them based on the effects. Then, they will develop a strategy to improve your score faster. If the records are in order, you may get assistance with rebuilding. This requires improvement of the borrowing behavior with the help of new loans. Some repair firms have a dedicated credit line, so customers may repair and rebuild their histories.

3.    Evidence Collection

Before contacting the bureaus, the company will gather sufficient proof. It will collect bank statements and other relevant data. By sending debt validation letters, they will request evidence from the lenders. It is crucial to have enough of it to back up the claims. Otherwise, the bureaus will ask for more information instead of removing the entries, which would immediately boost your score.

4.    Disputes and Resolution

The final stage requires composing customized letters to the reporting agencies. If you handle the repair on your own, you may find the necessary templates on the website of the Federal Trade Commission. After receiving a letter, the agency has 30 days to investigate the request in cooperation with your lender.

Final Words

This explains why some repair companies have billing cycles of 45 days. You are charged recurrently, and the process may take up to six months for complex cases. Still, this is faster than the improvement of legit poor scores. If your status is low because you have missed payments or filed for bankruptcy, the only way to fix it is through better financial habits.

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