You must’ve seen the ads promising to fix your credit and have your score up 200 points overnight. They’re on the TV, the radio, newspapers and there are no shortage of fake "Top Credit Repair Company Review sites". As if some wand is going to magically fix all of your credit & debt woes. So let’s get the deception out of the way:
You won’t be able to fix your credit problems in 24 hours!
Unless you’ve been perfect, every month for your whole financial life, no excessive credit card debt, your credit card balances are all at about 10%, you have money in savings, and you’re lucky enough to be part of the 21% of Americans that don’t have an error on their credit reports, then maybe you can fix your credit in 24 hours. It’s not too difficult to fix what isn’t broken.
For the rest of you, get ready to devote some time and energy to credit repair and debt relief. It’ll be well worth it when you’re paying the lowest interest rates allowed and you’re getting pre-approvals on everything from mortgages to credit cards.
What’s a Realistic Time frame?
This depends largely on how much there is to “repair.” Generally 3 to 6 months is a good benchmark. You should have an idea of what’s going to be on your credit reports. If you’ve maybe missed a payment or two and allowed one account to go to collections, it could take 2-3 months. If you’ve spent the last couple of years borrowing from anyone who would lend you a dime and not paying them back, it could take over a year to get everything paid off a listed correctly on your reports.
What’s on My Credit Reports?
You won’t know that until you pull them for yourself or have someone get them for you. All of the major credit bureaus offer a free report every 12 months at annualcreditreport.com. It’s free! There’s no reason that you shouldn’t do that as soon as possible. The sooner you have your credit reports in front of you, the sooner you can fix your credit.
How Do I Read These?
If you’re new to credit repair, then the codes and abbreviations might be a little difficult to read the first time around. What you may want to do is find a trustworthy credit repair company that gives free consultations. They will analyze your credit report, explain what’s helping and what’s hurting your score, as well as lay out a plan for you. It’ll give you an idea of how to get the ball rolling.
What If I Don’t Have Time for This?
Make time! If you need support, credit repair experts can do all of the legwork for you. That’s not to say that you should completely forget about it. Worthwhile credit repair is going to take some work on your end whether you hire someone or decide to go it alone. If you’re serious about maximizing your credit scores, you need to educate yourself as to what’s going to help you get to where you want to be financially.
When Should I Start?
Right now! Finish reading this paragraph and go get your free credit reports. It shouldn’t take you more than 10-15 minutes to have all 3 saved to your computer or printed and ready to go. Learn the federal and state laws, or have someone that knows them take a look at your reports, and get started gradually. You know it’s not going to take 24 hours, so plan ahead.
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