Can You Really Improve Your Credit Rating?

Your credit rating is a vital factor in determining what kind of loan or credit card you can expect to receive, or indeed whether you have a chance of having an application approved at all.

Unfortunately for many people, it is all to easy to cause damage to your credit rating either through financial misfortune such as losing your job, or perhaps more commonly, by building up debts in the naivety of youth which then become difficult if not impossible to repay in a timely manner.

Missing payments on loans or credit cards will leave a black mark on your credit file, thus lowering your credit rating, and defaulting on finance altogether will have an even worse effect.

If you find yourself with a poor credit rating, you may be tempted by the advertisements you'll no doubt have seen plastered across the web which promise to rebuild your credit rating and solve all your credit problems at a stroke. Does this maybe sound too good to be true?

Many of these schemes are at best dubious and unlikely to achieve the promised results, while others are at worst outright illegal as they advocate the use of fraudulent techniques to leave your old credit persona behind. So is there anything you can actually do to improve a damaged credit rating?

The first thing to do is to obtain a copy of your credit file from one of the major credit reference agencies. There will be a small fee for this, but you have the legal right to see all the data which is held on it. Check it over carefully to see if there are any small outstanding debts which you've overlooked, and can be repaid without too much difficulty, removing these default notices from your file.

Also ensure that all the information on your file is correct and complete, paying special attention to any debts marked outstanding which you think you might, in fact, have cleared - it's far from unknown for a cleared debt not to be accurately reflected on your file, leaving your credit score worse than it really should be.

If you find any such errors, and can prove that a mistake has been made, the credit reference agencies must by law correct the information.

Now that you've cleared any overlooked debts and made sure that your file is up to date and correct, you need to start to take active measures to improve your rating. It is unfortunately impossible to remove genuinely adverse information from your file until it expires naturally, which can take up to seven years depending on the nature of the offence.

What you can do, however, is to add 'good' information to balance the 'bad'. The most effective way to do this is to take out a form of financial service which you are almost certain to be accepted for - a high APR credit card specifically aimed at people with poor credit is a good example. A no-frills bank account which allows no possibility of going into debt is another.

The trick is to make sure that this new product you take out reports your activity to the credit reference agencies. Thus, by operating the account responsibly and not missing any repayments or otherwise getting into trouble again, you will slowly begin to build up the number of positives in your file.

It's by no means a magic bullet and it requires time and patience, but slowly your credit score will begin to improve to the extent that you can consider applying for a more advanced form of credit, and steadily work your way back towards a neutral or even good credit rating.

Article Source: http://www.articlesinsight.com

Martin writes for ADM Online, who offer bad credit loans, both secured and unsecured, to people from a wide range of circumstances.

Please Rate this Article

Not yet Rated

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Credit Articles Via RSS!

Additional Articles From - Home | Finance | Credit

Introduction to High Risk Merchant Account - By : DSS Boxes500 DSS Boxes500
How Your Credit Score Affects Your Mortgage Rate - By : Stephanie Larkin
Find Out The Top Benefits Of A Debit Card - By : raffick marday4455 raffick marday4455
Credit Card Debt: How to Reduce Your Credit Card Debt in 3 Simple Steps - By : Tim Godfrey
Fix your Credit Report - By : Dennis54 Ventura 54
Credit Score Monitoring and Cheaper Credit - By : L Keshav
Why You Must Monitor Your Credit Score - By : L Keshav
Choosing the right account provider - By : DSS Boxes500 DSS Boxes500
Student Credit Card Applications - By : Cristina Angueta
A Credit Card Merchant Account Online - By : balwinder kour

	Print This Article
	Post Comment
	Add To Favorites
	Email to Friends
	Ezine Ready

Member Login
Submit Articles
Top Authors
Most Popular Articles
Submission Guidelines
Article RSS Feeds

New Stuff
About Us
Site Blog
Links
Link to Us
Contact Us
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service
Sitemap

articlesinsight.com » Copyright © 2006
Links | Terms of Service | Submission Guidelines | Contact Us | Improve google rankings| Privacy Policy | About Us