Blogging From The Desk of Alicia Lagarde-Craig
Open New Accounts Now
A tour of the top credit repair services websites will reveal a plethora of great financial tips. One of the best is the importance of opening new accounts now, rather than waiting until your credit report is all cleaned up. New accounts show that you are capable of getting back in the game and will have a dynamite impact on your score. Are you afraid of getting denied? No worry, secured cards are a perfect credit repair tool.
Reduce Your Credit Card Balances
You have heard it a million times, but it bears repeating. All of the legitimate credit repair services stress the importance of watching your credit card balances. Do not just nod your head knowingly and move on, please heed this advice. The difference between an account topping out at over 80 percent of the limit and an account under 20 percent can be a difference of 100 points. Okay?
Add an Authorized User Account
Often recommended by credit repair services, this is an easy way to get a new credit card along with an instant bump in your FICO scores. Call mom or dad and ask them to add you to one of their perfect, low balance credit cards. In fact, they do not even have to give you a card for you to get the score benefit. This is not a replacement for opening your own cards, but it is a quick way to get credit repair traction.
Check Your Statutes of Limitation
If you are confronted by a collector, the first thing that any of the good credit repair services will suggest is to check your statute of limitation, or SOL. If the SOL is over, the collector has no legal leverage. They could try to sue you but if you raise the SOL defense they will have no case. Check your SOL and you may be excited to find that you have nothing to fear.
Negotiate Collections
The economy is rough. Most good credit repair services agree that now is a great opportunity to negotiate with collectors. Everyone is hungry, and here are some guidelines that can help you capitalize on the opportunity. Make your offer on the last Friday of a month. And make your offer as tempting as possible by figuring out how to get your settlement money to the collector instantly. Let them know that you are ready to push the money button.
Dispute Redundant Collections
It is a funny thing about credit reports. The majority of collections on all credit reports should not be reporting at all. That is right. By law, when a collector sells a debt to another collector they should remove their account at once so you are not double-hit. This little tidbit is often ignored and the result is a whole lot of bogus collections. Review your reports. Find the duplicates and dispute all but the most recent. Try this great credit repair services tip and watch your report shine.
