Fix My Credit History

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One way to help you fix your bad  credit history and get a credit card if your bank has cancelled yours, is to apply for a secured credit card for bad credit.  These cards sometimes allow for balance transfer, no credit check, no bank account required and would give you a credit range of between $200 and $10,000.

There is a monthly fee ranging from $3 to $10, interest rates range between 10% and 23%.  It is very difficult to function without a credit card.  You can’t book or order anything online and some companies will not accept a secured credit or debit card but this is better than having no card at all.  Of course, you have to deposit the funds up front and some banks will require a co-signer anyway.

Getting a secured credit or debit card will help you to rebuild your credit.  Make sure you are working with a company that reports regularly to the consumer agencies.  If you make on-time minimum payments and maintain your balances under the credit limits with all your creditors, your credit scores will improve.

For more information on fixing your credit through the use of secured credit cards, check out www.creditcards.com

Contact the reporting company (Experian, TransUnion, Equifax are the main ones) about any mistakes you see on your credit report.  Also about any outdated information.  You must contact in writing and it is a good idea to send Certified Mail so that you can track your request.  Make sure to include your own contact information.  Make copies of everything and to be helpful, send in your credit report with a circle around the item you are disputing.

You will want to include copies of any documentation proving that the information on your credit report is incorrect.  Politely ask the agency to investigate.  By law, they have to investigate within 30 days and whatever proof you sent the agencies, they have to forward to the company that posted the information to your credit report.

If the investigation finds that in fact the disputed information is incorrect, the company that posted that information to you credit report is responsible for correcting that information with the credit reporting companies.

You have to know what the story is so first of all get your credit report.  You can order this for free at www.annualcreditreport.com or phone 877-322-8228.  This credit report is available to you for free once per year.  If you have been turned down for credit, insurance or employment, the company would be sending you a notice to that effect.  You have 60 days to ask for your report.  The notice will give you the contact information of the consumer reporting agency.  You are also entitled to a free report if you are unemployed and plan to look for a job within the next 2 months, if you are on welfare or if you are a victim of identity theft or some other fraud.

Read the report carefully and make sure there are no errors, not only in regard to transactions but also to your personal information.

For people with a mortgage a bank taking over your lender can make your credit worse.  For example, if you had a mortgage with Countrywide and a bank account with Bank of America, when the take over happened, your financial standing could have changed.  If you were behind on your mortgage and yet had a stellar record with Bank of America, no late fees, no ‘over limit’, had a history with Bank of America going back years or decades,  there is an excellent chance that Bank of America would have cancelled your credit card with them.  The new attitude is that they have already lent you enough.

Not only would your credit history reflect the late or non payments on your mortgage but now you would have a cancelled credit card account to add to the record.

To be on the safe side, if you know your credit record will be in trouble, open an account at a bank that has nothing to do with your mortgage or with your car loan or other major loan you already have.  At least, you are not risking having your card cancelled if your bank is taken over.

You know that you have fallen behind on payments to your credit card company or to your mortgage lender.  You also know that your credit report is updated at the end of the month so the last night of the month can be painful.  But the next morning, the sun till shines and the coffee is as good as it was the day before.  You have options to fix your credit score whether you decide to do it yourself or find a reputable company to do it for you.

The first step is to get a copy of your credit report.  You can go to www.annualcreditreport.com and get a copy.  There are other sites out there where you don’t have to use a credit card but if you do use your card, make sure you cancel the subscription as soon as you get your credit reports from the agencies.