CREDIT REPAIR

You know it’s important to have good credit; it has bearing on the interest rates you pay and whether or not you are even approved for a loan. A prospective employer might want to look at your credit report, and insurance companies want to know what kind of credit you have in order to help determine your premium rates.

Having good credit can make a big difference in your financial situation and help you save thousands of dollars over your lifetime. So if your credit is in need of help, here are 5 things you can do to change it for the better:

A new study has released its findings that less than 1-percent of consumer credit reports contain errors that lead to significant changes in scores. The report, which was commissioned by the three largest credit-reporting companies, said that after surveying 2,338 people the vast majority of credit reports are accurate.

Significant Reporting Errors Don’t Occur Often

Wouldn’t it be great if you could pay a couple of bucks to make your credit woes disappear? Well, there’s an entire industry out there that claims to do just that. In her video above, Erica Sandberg, contributor to Go Banking Rates, outlines why this may not be your best option. Here’s why:

This article was written by Odysseas Papadimitriou, CEO of CardHub.com, a website that helps consumers compare credit cards, store credit cards, and gift cards.

If you have bad credit, it might feel as if you’re out of options. Your credit score is so important (most lenders and even some employers use it as an evaluative factor) that having a low score could seem almost like an invisible jail cell, trapping you and preventing you from getting a new car, apartment or job.

Struggling with bad credit can be daunting and frustrating. The negative impact on your financial future can overwhelm even the most optimistic of people. Don’t lose hope; there are legal ways to get back on track and improve your credit score. Read on for some helpful information.

Are There Laws Related to Credit?

Under law, you are allowed to dispute any inaccurate information with the credit bureau and get it removed from your credit report. If you dispute the error, both the credit bureau and the information provider are responsible for correcting any inaccurate information, and must investigate any disputes within 30 days and notify you of a resolution.

What Happens If There is Inaccurate Information on Your Credit Report

Ryan Guina is an entrepreneur and writer. He has worked for Fortune 500 companies and served six years in the USAF. He writes about money management and small business topics at Cash Money Life and military money topics at The Military Wallet. You can follow his twitter feed.

Like it or not, your credit score is important. It is used by lenders to determine your eligibility to get a loan, the interest rate and terms you may be eligible for, and it can even be used as a screening device by landlords, employers, and cell phone companies.

There’s nothing a credit repair agency can do for you that you cannot do for yourself in regards to contacting creditors and removing inaccurate information. However, there are two reasons why you might consider hiring a professional credit repair agency to help:

1. You don’t have the time to deal with writing the letter and contacting creditors yourself.
2. You have no writing skills whatsoever and will only end up embarrassing yourself.

If number 2 might apply to you, think twice about writing that credit repair inquiry yourself. It might end up looking something like the one we found below:

For better or for worse, American society is geared towards shopping, shopping, and more shopping.

Whether it’s for cars, clothing or gadgets, we’re urged to spend as much as we can on stuff we’re told we need. For many people – especially people with credit cards – those urges can get the better of us, and we end up with massive amounts of debt we can’t repay.

The net result is bad credit, and when you’ve got bad credit, you’ll find that your options for borrowing are severely limited — if not impossible. Want a mortgage loan so you can buy a new home for yourself and your growing family? Not going to happen. Need a new car because your old beater died? You won’t get the car loan you need.

Money is, for most people, one of the biggest issues in their lives. It’s all about how much you make, how much you spend, what you have, how much you have saved. Thinking, worrying, stressing, planning, hoping and dreaming about money take up a huge percentage of our mental space.

For people with bad credit, having massive anxiety about money can take up 100% of their mental space because their situations have become so dire – and their creditors so insistent – that it’s not possible to think about anything else. When your credit report is bad, you know you’re paying for it in psychological terms – and you’re also going to be paying for it in other ways. When you’ve got bad credit, life can become unbearable.

If you’ve got a bad credit report, you may have arrived at this tough, anxiety-inducing place through no fault of your own.