I recently got a credit report and am starting to repair my credit.  Can anyone suggest a good site with tips on how to repair credit or if anyone has any good advice it would be appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

Honestly I don't believe in credit. Credit just means you are buying something you can't afford.

You don't need credit to buy a house which is the only thing that is ok imo to be financed  

pay it off on time and over time youll be good

Just stop using credit and pay everything off. Pretty simple. Keep a card or two but if you use it make sure you pay it off every month.

Find out which agency is reporting what and dispute any innaccuracies. We have to do this for lots of clients because Federal tax liens are self releasing after the 10 year statute runs out. The big three keep reporting the liens even though they have expired.

I made the decision to buy a house a while back but had never had credit (didn't need it). In just over one year I went from a zero Isaacs Score to 798. In the same time we increased my wife's score from 750 to 805. Getting a loan couldn't have been easier.

Our credit was bad... REAL bad... wanna know the easy way to repair it?

Get one of those secured credit cards... One with a limit of 300.00-500.00 and use ONLY a 1/3rd of it to buy something... So if you have a 300.00 limit buy something for 100.00 when you get the bill, pay only 1/2 of what is owed then next month pay the other half... then do it again.

What they are looking for is that you have discipline. When you run a balance and have credit left over it shows restraint. Also, when you pay it off in partial payments, the credit cards are making money off the interest and they like that (of course). Our credit score has gone up quite a bit in a short amount of time.

Yes you have to pay fees to get one of those secured credit cards, but if you want something fixed, you gotta pay.

Owe about 1000.00 on a couple of credit cards..Even though I could have paid it off right away. Pay just the minimum. Watch your credit rate get better in a year. Then when your satisfied pay off your credit cards and close em.

Naaah...screw all that...get as many credit cards as you can, max 'em all out, then declare bankruptcy!

Time is your best friend in paying off CC

This is a pretty good article.

www.investopedia.com/printable.asp?a=/articles/00/091800.asp


Tips to Improve or Maintain a High Credit Score:

Make loan payments on time and for the correct amount.


Avoid overextending your credit. Unsolicited credit cards that arrive by mail may be tempting to use, but they won't help your credit score.


Never ignore overdue bills. If you encounter any problems repaying your debt, call your creditor to make repayment arrangements. If you tell them you are having difficulty, they may be flexible.


Be aware of what type of credit you have. Credit from financing companies can negatively affect your score.


Keep your outstanding debt as low as you can. Continually extending your credit close to your limit is viewed poorly.


Limit your number of credit applications. When your credit report is looked at, or "hit," it is viewed as a bad thing. Not all hits are viewed negatively (such as those for monitoring of accounts, or prescreens), but most are.


Credit is not built overnight. It's better to provide creditors with a longer historical time frame to review: a longer history of good credit is favored over a shorter period of good history.

www.daveramsey.com

Quoted: You cannot "repair" your credit.  You can only pay your bills on time--and the passage of time will improve your score.  PAY THE BILLS YOU MAKE ON TIME!!  It's the only way.

Good advice for living, but wrong about credit repair.

First of all, don't fall for one of these "scams" that promise credit repair. They can only "contest" certain items on your report and get the items removed while the authenticity is being researched. That being said, per the Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1968 (hereafter referred to as "The Act') credit report items have a statute of limitations of 7 years, and 10 years for bankruptcies. So, if the debt is over 7 years old even if it is unpaid, you can contact the credit bureaus and demand that the individual items over 7 years old be removed.

NOTE: THIS MEANS 7 YEARS PAST THE LAST ACTIVITY! That means that the debt could be 6 years and 364 days old and if a collection agent talks you into making even a small payment in the 11th hour, the clock starts all over again for another 7 years!

Additionally, UNSECURED DEBT, ie credit cards, medical debts, and other debts that cannot be repossessed or foreclosed upon usually have a statute of limitation of only 2-3 years in the state courts. (Check your individual state laws first!) This means that if you have a credit card debt that is over 2 years old, they can sue you with one hand and pizz in the other and we'll see which hand gets full first! Of course, the creditor will threaten to sue you, but they get paid only if they collect and letters are cheap. They usually won't really sue if the debt is over 2 years old because their chances of collecting their fee is almost nil and they know it.

YOU CAN FIRE YOUR COLLECTION AGENT! That's right, all you have to do is send them a "Cease and Desist" letter telling them politely but firmly that you have chosen to settle your debt with the original lender. And, if they call you again, you will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law through your state's attorney's general consumer protection division. (The bill collector will threaten you with death when you pull that trick out of your sleeve, but the bill collector is "firing blanks" and their bullets can't hurt you!)

When you have them over a barrel like this, call up the original creditor and offer them 10 cents on the dollar to settle the debt. (No, they won't accept it but when asking for a kitten start with asking for a pony!) They will counter this by asking for the amount in full including interest. DO NOT PAY INTEREST, PERIOD!!! And do not negotiate anything more that 50 cents on the dollar. They will usually accept your offer and say that they will have to have that amount by Fed-Ex the next day paid in certified funds. Tell them that you will send the amount immediately AFTER you have received a written agreement that THE WHOLE DAMN THING WILL BE REMOVED FROM YOUR CREDIT REPORT AS SOON AS IT IS PAID, AND NOT ONE PENNY BEFORE YOU GET IT IN WRITING!
They will say that they can't do that, then YOU hang up the phone! GUARANTEED, They will call you back in a day or two and agree to your terms. This gets the mess off of your report and your report is "Repaired"   Note: Before paying-off ANY bad report on your credit bureau report, GET IT IN WRITING that they WILL REMOVE THE ITEM FROM YOUR REPORT AS SOON AS IT IS PAID. GET IT IN WRITING!!!

and last, but not least, if they CAN repossess or foreclose, they will...If they can't, use the above.

There used to be a great book called "Back-Off!" by Benjamin Dover (pseudonim) that went into great detail about most of what I wrote here. I don't think that the book is in print anymore, but I've got 3 Platinum cards in my wallet and a composite credit score over 700 that says it works.

pale_pony,

One bad thing about the settle for less plan is that the original creditor will probably issue a 1099 for the difference.

Quoted: pale_pony, One bad thing about the settle for less plan is that the original creditor will probably issue a 1099 for the difference.

That is a distinct possibility, then you have to return the 1099 to the issuer marked "returned" and then send a copy of the 1099 along with a letter to the IRS demanding that the issuer either retract it as a "Sham Legal Process" (felony) or prove that you actually owe the debt, line-item by line-item. Most credit cards carry only "balance" statements, meaning that they purge the actual charge data after a year at the most and then only list the outstanding total balance on their computer records that adds the previous month's balance from month-to-month.

BUT, that's a damn good point innocent_bystander

Quoted: www.daveramsey.com

+1.3147

If you owe someone, anyone, any thing, pay it back in a timely manner.  Pay your bills.  Personal responsibility.  Then repair is no issue.  

best thing I've done is get a personal loan from the credit union and payem off. I'd rather have good credit from one bank than ok credit with a few cc companies.

Quoted: Naaah...screw all that...get as many credit cards as you can, max 'em all out, then declare bankruptcy!

I know this guy who just did this..........known him for years and he starts in on me one day about how things are bad for him etc etc  I didn't really know where it was going but he was just trying to get a vote of assurance and reinforce for himself exactly what he was going to do.  I thought to myself.........what an asshole......this is why people have so much trouble getting and keeping credit......people that act just like that.........WTF? Ran the shit all the way up to over 30K and then decides this is what he's going to do..... He's still my friend but WTF?..............

Thanks for all the great advice.  I am now living by the 'if I can't pay cash for something, I do not need it" reasoning.   But unfortunately when I first entered college I was suckered into all those credit cards they bombard you with. I am finally at a place where I can take a pro-active stance to redeem my past debts, but also look for the most financially sound way to do it.