Clean Up Your Credit

Your credit score can be the key to better financing, better rentals and any number of other things that are based on your credit. If you've struggled making payments or paying bills on time, those things can be on your credit report. As well as things related to having your identity stolen. There's hope for everyone from the worst credit score to the almost perfect credit score. The key is making a good credit score your priority.

Everyone should know their credit score. You should pull your credit score from the three major credit bureaus. You can get a free copy of each of your reports from the Annual Credit Report website or by calling them at 877-322-8228.

Once you have your credit reports, you need to look at them closely. You need to look for accounts you never opened or had, delinquent bills or payments that have been reported and anything that is not related to you. When you're a victim of identity theft, often accounts are opened in your name. Be sure everything on your credit report, good or bad, is something you know about and are responsible for.

If you find a mistake on your credit report, you need to contact the credit bureaus. You need to explain that there is a mistake on your credit report. The credit bureaus may ask you to contact the company reporting the mistake. You need to log and report anything they tell you regarding that account. Often the credit bureaus will ask you to provide more information to them, as they work with you to remove the mistake. This can take a considerable amount of time but needs to be taken care of, as many things depend on your credit score.

Now that you've received your reports and taken care of the mistakes, you need to clearly understand your credit report and how good or bad it is. If things look good, you may need to be careful in your financial future, including making sure payments are made on time or credit is being used and paid for as intended.

If there are fresh debts reported on your credit report, you need to work hard to pay those and get those cleared on your credit report.

If you've forgot about accounts or avoided them for years, after about 7 years things fall off your credit report. While this is true of debts, it's also true of good things reported to like paying your bills on time. It's good to use your credit appropriately.

If an item is close to falling off your credit report and you're unable to pay the debt, doing nothing to that particular item may be a benefit to you. Be aware of the Statute Of Limitation for debts in your state and the state the debt is located.

A Statute Of Limitation does not keep a debt collector from filing a lawsuit against you. A Statute Of Limitation does not erase the debt, you still owe it. The debt just is not on your credit report. A statute Of Limitation does not prevent the debt from being reported on your credit report again, chances are in most cases it won't be unless you contact that company regarding the debt or asking for services or credit again.

Now that you've taken the time to locate and pull your credit reports, clean up the errors and know where you stand with your credit score, it's important to keep moving forward toward good credit. While this means dealing with your past financial issues, it means being more financially responsible in the future. This means using your credit as intended, making loan and bill payments on time and keeping an eye on your credit score to guard against identity theft.