How To Fix Poor Credit – Essential Steps (Part 2)
Posted in Finance on 04/15/2010 03:45 am by
D Ellenwood asked:
As was mentioned in Part One, having good credit is very
important. It affords us the ability to own a car or home,
take out a loan or have a credit card. Of course, these
same advantages may also be the avenue by which we
find ourselves with bad credit. One or more payments
missed or a default on a loan is all that is needed for a
creditor to report these to a credit bureau, who will in
turn add it to your credit history. Once this happens it
can be very difficult to fix poor credit. It may stay on
your credit history for up to seven years.
Once you are in the position of having poor credit, you
must go on the offensive.
It is essential to understand that as soon as you run into
trouble with a debt that you contact the creditor holding
your debt. This may be a little embarrassing, but it will
prevent a lot of problems down the road.
One of the first things to do when you have fallen behind
on one of your payments is to contact the creditor. The
key is to contact your creditor before too much time has
elapsed, to prevent them from calling a collection agency
and then the credit bureau. In many cases the creditor
will be open to discussing options for payment.
Before you contact your creditor, have a plan in mind of
how much you are able to pay off monthly. It must be
realistic from both ends, manageable for you to pay each
month, and enough to keep the creditor “happy.” It is
very important to adopt a plan that you are able to stick
with, but even more important to actually stick to the plan
once the terms have been agreed upon. The worst thing
that you could do at this point is to default on these
payments.
In closing, if you find yourself in the position of falling
behind on your payments, contact the creditor to make
arrangements for getting them to a current status. It
may be a bit uncomfortable to admit that you have fallen
behind on your payments, but a little discomfort to
straighten things out will immensely help in preventing
a poor mark on your credit report.
Claude
As was mentioned in Part One, having good credit is very
important. It affords us the ability to own a car or home,
take out a loan or have a credit card. Of course, these
same advantages may also be the avenue by which we
find ourselves with bad credit. One or more payments
missed or a default on a loan is all that is needed for a
creditor to report these to a credit bureau, who will in
turn add it to your credit history. Once this happens it
can be very difficult to fix poor credit. It may stay on
your credit history for up to seven years.
Once you are in the position of having poor credit, you
must go on the offensive.
It is essential to understand that as soon as you run into
trouble with a debt that you contact the creditor holding
your debt. This may be a little embarrassing, but it will
prevent a lot of problems down the road.
One of the first things to do when you have fallen behind
on one of your payments is to contact the creditor. The
key is to contact your creditor before too much time has
elapsed, to prevent them from calling a collection agency
and then the credit bureau. In many cases the creditor
will be open to discussing options for payment.
Before you contact your creditor, have a plan in mind of
how much you are able to pay off monthly. It must be
realistic from both ends, manageable for you to pay each
month, and enough to keep the creditor “happy.” It is
very important to adopt a plan that you are able to stick
with, but even more important to actually stick to the plan
once the terms have been agreed upon. The worst thing
that you could do at this point is to default on these
payments.
In closing, if you find yourself in the position of falling
behind on your payments, contact the creditor to make
arrangements for getting them to a current status. It
may be a bit uncomfortable to admit that you have fallen
behind on your payments, but a little discomfort to
straighten things out will immensely help in preventing
a poor mark on your credit report.
Claude