Tricks to Fix Your Credit

Bad credit haunts you when you try to get new accounts from banks and other lenders. The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco explains that your credit reports tell a detailed story of your financial dealings, including delinquent payments and excessive debts. You can use a few tricks to clean up those bad records and make yourself more attractive to creditors.

Dispute Negatives

Credit bureaus frequently make mistakes in their files, and the Divorcenet website advises that you can use this tendency to fix your credit. Every small error in spellings, dates and amounts gives you cause to dispute the entire item. Order free credit reports from annualcreditreport.com, which provides them yearly upon request. Dispute anything and everything that you find wrong. Experian, Equifax and TransUnion all let you file online complaints. The Federal Trade Commission advises that they have 30 days to verify their information as correct. Otherwise, the law requires them eliminate the disputed items from your files. Divorcenet explains that this trick is effective because companies often ignore verification attempts.

Boost Minimum Payments

You fix your credit in two separate ways by paying more than the minimum requirement on your credit cards every month. The MyFICO credit score website explains that two of the biggest factors in score calculation are timeliness of payments and amounts owed. Your score is helped every time you send a payment by the deadline, and adding extra money reduces your debt load significantly because much of the minimum payment goes toward the interest. The Motley Fool financial advice site recommends putting the extra money onto your card with the highest interest rate for the most impact.

Get Retail Credit Cards

Retail credit cards from places such as department stores, electronics sellers and gasoline companies give you a revolving credit line, just like name brand cards such as Visa and MasterCard. The catch is that you can only use them at the specified store or gas station chain. Retail cards are easier to get than general credit cards, according to MSN Money writer Liz Pulliam Weston, making them a good option for initial credit fixing. Use them regularly, pay on time and keep the balance low, and your credit score will rise.

Get Secured Credit Cards

Secured credit cards are an option if your credit is too bad to qualify you for traditional accounts, including retail cards. Secured accounts are given to anyone because you put up enough money to cover the credit line. Your deposit is as little as $300, and your credit limit is the same amount. The card issuer can take that money if you stop making payments. Secured card activity is reported to the credit bureaus, so you fix your credit over time if you make all your payments by the due dates.