What it Takes?

You can hire the best credit repair company in the world, send the sharpest dispute letters ever, validate every debt you have, and still be left with crummy credit scores. Do not get me wrong, cleaning up your credit report is important, but by itself it will not get you to your goal.

The Measure of Success

In the final analysis, great credit is all about you. What makes your credit great? Your credit scores are the only measure of credit repair success that counts. Credit scores are designed to gauge your ability to repay debt, and the formula employed places by far the most weight on the way you manage your open accounts.

Learn the Tricks

So, while your credit repair company works hard at cleaning up the tangle of old errors on your report, you need to settle into a new program of thoughtful and prudent account management. For the most part this is all common sense, but there are some formula specific tricks you need to know if you do not want to accidently shoot yourself in the foot.

The Right Accounts

Are you are wondering what you could possibly need to do aside from making your payments on time? There is plenty. For a start, the credit scoring model in use by the vast majority of lenders values certain types of credit more than others. Understanding this will insure that your efforts will bear fruit. The right accounts to use for credit repair are major revolving credit cards, specifically MasterCard and Visa.

Wrong Types of Debt

Debt types to avoid, at least when it comes to building the edifice of your new improved credit, are store cards and all forms of consumer credit such as furniture store loans, and electronics and appliance financing. These types of debt can be convenient, and are essentially not bad, but will deliver a muted benefit on the positive side, while punishing you terribly if you err.

Low Balances Equal High Scores

The other major issue that you must accommodate is the weight that the scoring formula places on your account balances. If you let your balances run up to the limit your scores will be dismal. The optimal level of card usage for credit repair purposes is under twenty percent of the total limit. Depending on your limit, this may be a tiny amount, so use your debt as you wish, but beware of the correlation.

Save a Little Each Month

Many people embarking on this endeavor find it helpful to start a savings plan. If you find yourself running your checkbook down to nothing by the end of each month, you may want to review your entire budget and make room for a modest regular contribution to a savings account. Savings is the perfect complement to credit repair. When an unforeseen expense pops us you will have the resources to keep up your timely payments.

The Goal is Yours

So, although the contribution of a good credit repair company can play a big role, in the final analysis it is all about you. There are a lot of things that you can aspire to in your life. Great credit is a worthy goal. The good news is that great credit is perfectly attainable. You can do it, just make the effort and the goal is yours!

Copyright © 2010 Ian Webber. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

Author Bio: Ian Webber is an expert in consumer law and credit repair. Ian is a graduate of the London School of Economics and The University of Chicago where he earned his LLM. Ian consults with one of the leading online credit repair services and is currently based in Florida.

Category: Finances
Keywords: credit repair, credit repair services, credit report repair, credit scores, bad credit