You can clean up your credit reports, increase your credit scores, and reap all of the benefits that come from great credit. For most people good credit translates into self-confidence, inner peace, and the financial rewards of lower interest rates and better loan terms. Credit repair can deliver all of these things, but you need to take the initiative. Credit is resilient, and there is no derogatory credit event that cannot be offset with an intelligent application of credit repair principles. Regardless of your current situation, if you take action now you will soon be rewarded with measurable improvements. Stay the course, and before you know it you will have credit that you can be proud of and which will serve your financial life well.

The Value of Credit Repair Services

The first step in the credit repair process is a detailed examination of your credit reports. There is more involved than simply spotting items that do not belong to you. Many of the errors on credit reports may look familiar but should not report as a matter of law. These legal compliance issues require training to identify. Doing the job on your own can be rewarding, but unless you have the time to learn the applicable laws you should consider hiring a reputable credit repair service. A good service will quickly spot the issues that should be challenged as well as providing a plan of action for rebuilding and optimizing your scores. Take your time to find a company that you are comfortable with. Do not be afraid to pick up the phone and interview a couple of services.

The Importance of Rebuilding

Tough times may have left you financially traumatized and either reluctant to open new accounts or fearful of being denied. And yet, there is nothing more critical to credit repair success than rebuilding your credit. Many people are under the impression that they should wait until their credit has recovered before applying for new accounts. Do not hesitate. Now is the time to rebuild. The current condition of your credit is not an obstacle. Secured credit cards are the perfect solution. Your credit will recover most quickly if you get two cards. A comprehensive credit repair service should be able to recommend good low cost cards with no income or credit requirements that will report to all three bureaus.

Debt Management for Credit Repair

Now that you are getting back on your feet, credit-wise, it is essential that you manage your finances extremely carefully. Budget yourself prudently, do not let your obligations exceed your ability to repay, and establish a solid plan for paying your bills in a timely manner. It is crucial for your credit repair program that you do not fall behind on your payments. It is equally critical that you manage your new secured credit cards in a special way, a way that will optimize your scores. Use your cards regularly, but do not use more than 20 percent of the cards limit. And when you make your payment each month, leave a small balance, even ten dollars, on the card. This requires a little attention, but it will be worth it.

The Payoff of Financial Prudence

It is a wonderful feeling to watch your credit reports improve and your scores increase. And the new confidence and self-esteem you will experience will carry into many parts of your life and relationships. But there are fantastic financial benefits to credit repair as well. As your credit scores increase you will be eligible for low rate, favorable term financing. This does not mean that you should go into debt, but when financing is needed for something like an automobile or a home purchase the difference can add up to hundreds of dollars each month, and thousands each year. The lower payments that you will qualify for can easily mean budgetary comfort. Soon you will discover that your credit repair success has built on itself and transformed your life.

Copyright © 2009 Sky Blue Credit Repair. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

Credit repair works. Great credit can be yours, along with the wonderful benefits it offers. It just takes a little planning. Take the first step today and experience the joy that comes from regaining control over your financial life. Here are our favorite ten steps to credit repair success!

1. Proofread Your Credit Reports

Credit repair is necessary for millions of Americans. The credit reporting system involves the credit bureaus, creditors, collectors, court houses, and all the software that ties the system together. Errors happen. Credit repair is the cure. You cannot assume that mistakes will correct themselves. Proofread your reports and identify every questionable entry.

2. Dispute, Dispute, Dispute

The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires the credit bureaus to process consumer disputes about credit report accuracy. Put your legal rights to work and dispute every questionable item you find. If you encounter resistance, if the credit bureaus do not respond favorably to your credit repair effort, do not give up. Write back and demand that they have the creditor research the issue properly. Patience pays.

3. Challenge Collectors

If you receive a collection letter, open it right away. You will be shocked to hear that half of all of active collections are for accounts that were previously paid, belong to another person, or are, for some other reason, not valid. Under the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act you have the right to validate a debt within 30 days of getting a collection letter. This is a powerful credit repair tool. Ask for proof they own the debt and documentation of the balance claimed.

4. Learn About Statutes of Limitation

Collectors have a limited time in which they can enforce collection through the court system. When this time limit, known as the statute of limitation (SOL), expires, they can try to collect, but they no longer have leverage. The SOL is almost always far less than the reporting period limit. Knowledge of the SOL is critical to your credit repair effort. Research the SOL for every debt. If the SOL has expired the debt should be very negotiable.

5. Manage Your Revolving Accounts

Your credit card balances can ruin your credit scores, even if you make all of your payments on time. Proper management of your revolving accounts is important to your credit repair success, and can swing your credit scores by over 100 points. For the best results make sure that your credit card balances are as low as possible. The FICO scoring model will give you the biggest score boost if you use less than 20 percent of the available limit. Do not neglect this essential tip.

6. Avoid Consumer Debt

While your credit card balances can make or break your credit repair effort, the type of debt you utilize is equally important. Do not count on store cards or consumer debt, like furniture store credit lines, to contribute to your good credit. In fact, the FICO scoring model has a built in partiality against consumer debt. If you want to build your credit, stick with mainstream cards like MasterCard and Visa.

7. Monitor Your Credit

An online credit monitoring service can be a valuable credit repair tool. If you join a service like the TrueCredit 3-Bureau Credit Monitoring Service you will be notified of all material changes that occur on your credit reports instantly via email, including inquiries, new accounts, and the appearance of derogatory information. Once you are alerted to the appearance of something you disagree with you can react in a timely manner.

8. Refinance Costly Loans

Once your credit repair program is underway, your credit report is tidy, and your scores are climbing, it is time to cash in on your newly improved credit. Examine all of your debt from your credit cards to your mortgage. All high rate loans are candidates for refinancing. You can start by contacting your current lenders to see if they can offer you more favorable terms. If not, you can shop for the best rates elsewhere.

9. Save Your Money

Your newly improved credit, and the lower payments that lenders have offered you, should allow you to start a savings plan. A savings plan is the perfect complement to your credit repair program. Money in the bank provides a cushion when unexpected expenses arise. You have put effort into restoring your credit; do not let an unexpected expense cause you to fall behind on your bills. Savings is smart.

10. Learn to Invest

Make financial stability and personal wealth the capstone of your credit repair effort. Personal wealth will insulate you against events that once would have caused stress and damage to your credit record. Put the past behind you and realize your true potential. As your saving account grows, explore your investment options. Read and study. Learn everything you can about investment and personal financial management. Your time has come!

Copyright © 2009 Sky Blue Credit Repair. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

Successful credit repair involves a broad approach to cleaning up your credit report and restructuring your credit. Everything matters. But some aspects of credit repair are more potent than others. Among all of the techniques you can use to boost your scores, the proper management of credit cards is the most powerful. Proper use of your credit cards can easily yield a 100 point improvement in your scores. Put these powerful techniques to work today.

Getting New Cards

If you do not have credit cards, now is the time to get them. If you want your credit repair results to really shine you cannot overlook the power of properly managed plastic. If you have had credit issues in the past you may be concerned about being approved. If you are unable to get approved for regular credit cards try secured cards. Secured credit cards are the ideal credit repair tool. If you have no open credit cards right now, two new secured cards will be adequate to get your scores moving up!

The Right Cards

Not all credit cards will benefit your credit repair effort equally. In fact, some credit cards can hinder your progress and may even be harmful. Department store credit cards and consumer credit cards, such as gas cards, are of no value for your credit repair and should be avoided. For score building purposes you should stick with mainstream cards like MasterCard and Visa. Small limits are fine! The key to success is keeping the right balances.

The Right Balances

The credit scoring model used by most lenders is called the FICO model. FICO places a significant amount of weight on the relationship between your account balance, as reported to the credit bureaus, and your limit. For credit repair success it is imperative that you keep your balances low. The FICO model recognizes card limit capacity utilization in 20 percent increments. If you run your balance over 80 of your limit your scores will tumble. But use less than 20 percent of the cards capacity and you will be richly rewarded with higher scores.

The Right Timing

Managing your credit card balances for credit repair success is an art. In theory there is no harm in using your cards to their limit as long as you manage to reduce the balance before the date that the creditor reports the card balance to the credit bureaus. This is not as easy as it seems. Many people pay their balances in full when they receive their monthly bill, only to be shocked to see that their credit report shows that their cards are maxed out. It is unlikely that the billing cycle and the creditors schedule for reporting to the credit bureaus will coincide. For credit repair purposes you may want to reduce your balances and keep them low.

Putting it All Together

Would you like to give your credit scores a powerful boost? Now is the time. Employ these credit repair techniques to harness the power of your credit cards. If you do not have any open credit card accounts, open two new accounts today. If you do cannot get regular cards, get a couple of secured cards. Stick with MasterCard and Visa, and avoid store cards and consumer accounts. And keep those balances low if you want your credit repair effort to pay off. You can do it!

Copyright © 2009 Sky Blue Credit Repair. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

Never before has your credit score been so important. And never has credit repair offered such dramatic financial benefits. There was a time, not long ago, when it was enough to pay your bills on time. Lenders would glance at your credit report, and if it looked okay you would be approved. And the interest rate you would receive would be the same as all of the other candidates that were approved.

Changing Times

Credit repair may have made your report look good, but unless there were dramatic problems with your reports you may have gotten little, if any financial benefit. This is no longer the case. Even a small credit repair tune up will pay noticeable financial dividends. The credit markets have changed dramatically, largely as a result of the stress of the post-2006 real estate and mortgage market failures. Lenders now consider every single point on your credit score when evaluating your loan application.

Optimizing Your Scores

To make a credit repair tune up all the more important, the credit scoring model is trickier and less logical that you might think. Once upon a time you would have great credit simply by making your payments on time. This is now far from the truth. You can make all of your payments right on time and still have dismal credit scores. A credit repair tune up will insure that all of the components of your credit report are in proper balance.

Subtle Issues Can Add Up

Your credit repair tune up will include a thorough examination of all three credit bureau reports. Given the importance of each and every point on your credit score not a single item can be ignored. There are a number of reporting issues that many people miss when they proofread their reports. These are compliance issues which should not be on your report as a matter of law, and which can have a significant influence on your scores. All of these subtle little items must be spotted and removed. Included in this category are revolving accounts with underreported account limits, paid accounts reporting a balance, closed accounts reporting as open, and duplicate accounts.

Dispute For Success

The next step in your credit repair tune up is the dispute process. In addition to the tricky compliance issues already mentioned, all questionable issues should be examined. If they cannot be made sense of, they should be disputed. It is important to keep in mind as you continue the project that the credit reporting system is error prone. And it is not self-correcting. Unchallenged errors can easily linger on your report for years pulling your valuable scores down and costing you money. The credit bureaus do an important job, but given the volume of data, and the number of participants in the process, errors are to be expected. If you do not take action, no one else will. Credit repair is about looking out for you.

Persistence Pays!

The final and essential ingredient in a successful credit repair tune up is persistence. The credit bureaus are large cumbersome bureaucracies. They are not the enemy, but it is helpful to see them just as they are, potentially difficult. You may not get a satisfactory response the first time you send a dispute letter. This does not means that you should give up. Credit repair requires a can-do attitude. If you believe there is a mistake on your report do not take no for an answer. Be organized, remain focused, and you will succeed.

Copyright © 2009 Sky Blue Credit Repair. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

Credit repair can be shockingly effective. And it is not difficult. In fact the biggest barrier people face is not in the technical detail of credit repair, it is in their attitude. A small attitude adjustment can make the difference between mediocre results and a life changing outcome. You must approach your credit repair project with an attitude that combines a skeptical view of the accuracy of credit reporting with faith in your own ability to prevail against the corporate machinery of the credit bureaus.

The Shocking Truth

More than three quarters of all credit reports contain errors. This may not make much of an impression, but combined with the following fact you may start to perceive the importance of credit repair in a new light. Errors are not only tolerated by regulators, they are overtly accepted. A close reading of the Fair Credit Reporting Act will reveal that Congress values the viability and the ongoing profitability of the credit bureaus over the absolute accuracy of the reporting system.

The Scope of the Problem

This means that the credit bureaus will only go so far in their quest to eliminate the errors that appear on the credit reports of over one hundred and fifty million Americans. In other words, you must look out for yourself. Credit repair is the answer. Without active intervention on your part the mistakes on your reports are most likely to linger for years, and depending on the severity of the error, this may cost you both money and opportunity.

The Necessity for Credit Repair

Once your attitude about the power, and even necessity, of credit repair in your own life is aligned with reality it is time to confront your credit reports. Let your new perspective light your way. As you examine your reports you should expect to find mistakes. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt. If something does not ring true you should make plans to dispute it. The importance of this cannot be overstated. Every error may be causing you harm.

It is Your Money!

Do not overlook anything, regardless of size or age. Credit repair should be employed liberally. Most lenders utilize some form of score based pricing when determining what interest rate you will pay on any loan you apply for. Even a small difference in your score can make a difference in the cost of the money you borrow. To ignore even a small innocuous looking item today may translate onto an increase in the monthly payments you will make tomorrow. A little attention to detail in your credit repair effort will pay dividends for years to come.

Success is Yours

Lastly, it is essential that you embark on your credit repair project with self-confidence. You can do it! The importance of a can-do attitude will become clear as the process continues. You will find that the credit bureaus are stubborn and cantankerous in their handling of your disputes. You cannot let this stop you. Be resolute in your determination and you will prevail. Expect resistance and do not take it personally. The credit bureaus do not get paid to read your credit repair letters, much less to act on them. But stick with it and you will find that you have more control over your credit life than you ever thought possible.

Copyright © 2009 Sky Blue Credit Repair. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

There was a time when the credit repair industry was focused exclusively on sending dispute letters to the credit bureaus. Those days are over. There is no question that intelligent and well structured dispute letters are very effective in cleaning up erroneous derogatory information, and it is a thrill to see these bad accounts removed or corrected. But, as important as credit bureau disputes are, unless you put equal emphasis on building new positive credit you are missing the vast majority of benefit that is available from the credit repair process.

Money in Your Pocket

It is no exaggeration to say that well over fifty percent of the benefit of a smart credit repair program will come from careful building and management of positive credit. Why would you ever settle for a one hundred point increase in your score if you could get a two hundred point increase? The right approach to credit repair can easily mean a difference between loan approval and denial, or the difference between a low interest rate and one that will strain your budget. Over the last few years credit markets have shifted almost entirely credit score based pricing. Your credit score translates directly into dollars and cents, your dollars and cents.

Getting Secured Credit Cards

If hard times have left you with no open accounts you should get back on your feet with two new secured credit cards. Secured cards are the perfect credit repair tool. They will require a small savings deposit, usually two or three hundred dollars. This money is used as collateral to secure the limit on the card and will be returned to you when you close the account. Because these cards are collateralized you will not be denied unless you have previous unresolved issues with the card issuer. They are easy and cheap, and for credit repair purposes, they are every bit as good as a larger unsecured card.

Consider Authorized User Accounts

If you are interested in giving your credit repair program a little extra boost there is another credit building strategy you may consider. If you have a family member with excellent credit that would like to help your endeavor you can ask them to add you to one of their credit card accounts as an authorized user. Once they do this the account should appear on your credit report within sixty days and your credit score will inherit the full benefit of the account as if it were your own. On a cautionary note, you should not consider purchasing authorized user accounts as the software used to calculate your score has a way of blocking these brokered accounts.

Cautionary Notes

If you were choosing between secured cards and authorized user accounts, secured cards are the best long term credit repair option for the simple reason that they belong to you. Authorized user accounts come with notable risks. If your card donor runs his balance up your score will tumble due to no fault of yours. And if for any reason the account goes bad you are likely to have trouble removing yourself, as card issuers usually will refuse to make any changes to the account until it is healthy again. But, if you have the ability to include both secured cards and trusted authorized user accounts in your credit repair program, by all means do it.

Picking the Right Type of Credit

When it comes to credit repair you should build credit with mainstream credit cards such as MasterCard and Visa. There are certain forms of credit that can harm your credit more than helping it. The credit scoring software that calculates your score has a built-in bias against consumer debt including store cards and furniture store loans. So do not assume that because you have a store card that you have the credit profile that you need. This type of credit can be convenient and may have certain benefits, but while you are in a credit repair program it should be avoided. Stick with the basics.

Managing for Credit Repair Results

Once you have your credit cards open it is crucial that you manage them properly. This is where you credit repair effort can really shine. The credit scoring model places great weight on the balances that you keep on your credit cards and the newer the card the more important the balance becomes. For the best score benefit use less than twenty percent of the total credit line on the card. If you let your balances run up to the limit your scores will fall, as much as one hundred points depending on the overall content of your credit report, so spend carefully. If you have this problem, do not worry. Just pay those cards down and your score will pop right back up. Good luck!

Copyright © 2009 Sky Blue Credit Repair. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

Credit repair can eliminate many of the bothersome errors on your credit report. This is an exciting and wonderful thing, but it is only half the benefit that a properly implemented strategy is capable of delivering, and to neglect the true potential of credit repair is to sell yourself short. Go the extra mile and you will see your scores reach unexpected heights and your credit report become so attractive to lenders that you will be able to secure the best, low cost financing available. Your credit is far too important to settle for anything less than the best.

The Power of New Credit

Everyone loves to watch negative items get deleted from their credit reports. It is liberating and exciting, but by itself it may not do much to raise your credit scores. Your credit scores do not have natural resilience. In other words, the absence of derogatory information on your report may eliminate the dead weight that was holding your scores down, but without positive credit to create loft, they will remain dormant like a deflated balloon awaiting inflation. You must have positive open accounts to provide this loft. Without positive credit your credit repair endeavor, and scores, are sure to disappoint.

The Right Type of Credit

If you do not have open accounts that are reporting in a positive manner you should remedy that state of affairs immediately. Building new credit is essential to your credit repair success, but not all forms of credit will benefit your scores, and some will be downright harmful. For the right outcome, stick with MasterCard and Visa. American Express and Discover are also fine, but harder to get and less widely accepted, so choose wisely. If you cannot get approved for standard cards, you should apply for secured cards. They are inexpensive, every bit as valuable and you will not get denied. Avoid store cards and consumer debt, like furniture store loans catalog credit lines. The FICO scoring model carries a bias against this type of debt and your scores will suffer.

The Importance of Balance Management

For the right credit repair results you must keep a close eye on your revolving balances. This cannot be stressed enough. Your scores will swing wildly based on your balances. Many people make the mistake of getting a couple of new secured credit cards and running them up to their limit. The intention in getting the card was right, but letting the balances run up can cost over 100 points. This is an easy error to make, especially if the limits on the secured cards are low. Credit repair requires diligence. Watch those balances!

Patience and Victory

Once you start your credit repair process you must be patient. The credit bureaus are required to process your disputes, but they do not do so willingly. The systems they have set up to manage the voluminous number of dispute letters they receive are designed to move the letters through the system with little emphasis on accuracy. Do not get flustered if your initial complaint gets ignored or denied. Remain calm and keep sending your request until you are satisfied. Statistically, the odds are that they will eventually process your credit repair request properly.

The Strength of Savings

In our experience those that start a credit repair program simultaneously with a small savings plan are most like to succeed. Unexpected events will arise. And with these events often come expenses. If your budget is too tight you will find that these occurrences stress your ability to make your payments on time, and suddenly you will find another new late payment on your credit report. Do not put your credit at risk. Find a way to start a savings plan. Budget for it. It will provide a buffer in hard times and insure that your credit repair results are safe.

Credit Repair Resources

Confused or overwhelmed by the prospects of investing the time needed to launch your credit repair effort properly? Do not be discouraged and do not give up. Nothing is more important. If you cannot handle it on your own, find a reputable credit repair service to take up the cause on your behalf. Do a little homework, check out the options, interview your top choices and make your decision. A professional credit repair company will insure that the job is done right. You will succeed!

Copyright © 2009 Sky Blue Credit Repair. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

Credit repair requires a critical eye. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt. Question everything on your credit report that you are not completely sure of. It is no longer sensible to believe that the content of your credit report is accurate just because it is in writing. The entire credit reporting system, with its many participants, is prone to error. And these errors have the ability to depress your credit score and cost you money. Take your time, find every error, and get ready to dispute.

Question Collections

When examining your credit reports, give special attention to collections. Collectors buy and sell debt every day. If your account does not pay off, the collector will package it up and sell it to another collector who will try their luck. And each collector in turn will report your collection to the credit bureau. By law, when a collector sells a debt they must withdraw the account from your credit report. Unfortunately, there is no real motivation for them to do so and these erroneous accounts can linger needlessly for years. Now is the time for action!

Dispute Intelligently

The credit bureau dispute letter is the heart of credit repair. It is not hard to write a dispute letter, but is it challenging to make that letter effective. When it comes to credit repair simple is best. It may be tempting to tell your whole life story in your dispute letter, but your heartfelt tale will fall on deaf ears. The bureau dispute processing centers handle a significant volume of letters on a daily basis. The goal of a dispute clerk is to translate your letter as quickly as possible into a two digit code summarizing your concern. For best results, just say what is on your mind and nothing more.

Build New Credit Today

As important as the dispute process is, it is even more essential to your credit repair that you have open positive accounts. Your credit scores are based on everything on your report, both the negative and positive. Removing the negative will eliminate the burden on your scores. But your scores will not automatically rise. You need something good on your reports for your scores to improve. If you cannot get regular credit cards, get secured cards. They are the perfect credit repair tool and can improve your scores over 100 points within six months, if managed right.

Manage Revolving Debt Right

Your credit scores are very sensitive to the balances on your credit cards. This fact cannot be stressed enough. Many people working hard at credit repair are discouraged when their scores continue to languish in spite of perfect on-time payments. For the best credit repair results you should only use twenty percent of the amount available on your cards. To underline the importance of this matter it is worth noting that your revolving balances can move your scores over 100 points. A maxed out credit card will have a devastating effect on your scores. Watch your balances!

Budget and Save

For long term credit repair success you need to make sure that new problems do not arise. A fresh late payment will be a major setback. The best way to avoid the kind of financial stress that can lead to late payments is to have a financial buffer in the form of a savings account. When unplanned expenses arise they will not become unmanageable. If you do not seem to be able to save money you should start by creating a written budget. Examine all of your expenses and make sure that there is room for savings each month. Even a small contribution will do the trick.

Get Credit Repair Help

Professional credit repair help is very affordable! For a small monthly fee you can have someone review your credit reports, manage the entire dispute process, and guide you through the process of building and managing credit for credit score optimization. If you feel intimidated by the task, just reach out. You do not have to do it on your own. And your credit is too important to ignore another day. Do it yourself, or hire a pro, but take action now. You will succeed!

Copyright © 2009 Sky Blue Credit Repair. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

Are you interested in credit repair? Would you like to have a beautiful credit report and awesome scores? You may need to make some lifestyle changes. But there is good news, although credit repair success demands a financially responsible lifestyle, it does not demand a life of austerity. Many people embarking on a credit repair program begin making changes out of necessity, only to discover the joy of living a life of simplicity.

You Can Do It

The days of living beyond one’s means are over. The time has come to balance your budget, build your personal wealth, and live a life of confidence and clarity. It can be done, and it is the perfect complement to your credit repair program. The inner power you will experience when your life is in balance far outweighs the short-lived pleasure that comes from driving off the lot in a car that will force you to skip meals to make the payment.

Control Your Finances

Now is the time to make good decisions. Once your finances are stable you will be able to start a savings plan; this financial buffer will insure that you can weather the storms of unexpected expenses without falling behind in your payments and risking your credit repair results. It boils down to getting control of your finances and finding a way to balance your budget.

It Can Be Fun

Starting a budget does not have to be a torturous process. Think of it as an adventure or a game. Begin by listing all of your expenses. Leave nothing out, from the big monthly costs to the little daily incidentals. Even include your lunch money. And don’t forget the occasional expenses like quarterly insurance bills. Now it’s time to put on your thinking cap and figure how you can reduce your expenses. Remember that this can be fun. You should be able to cut costs without becoming a monk.

Simplification Tricks

Many of our credit repair clients have simplified their lives and reported back to us with these inspiring tips. Several people have successfully traded in their automobiles for lower costs options, saving hundreds of dollar per month. And you would be surprised that there are many low cost cars that are great to drive. Try eating at home a little more often. Restaurants are expensive, and if you eat out two or three times a week it adds up. Several people have taken cooking classes and discovered a whole new outlook on dining at home. Entertainment is important, but how much are you spending at clubs or the movies. Explore the options of entertaining yourself at home; rent a DVD, break out a board game, take a walk in nature.

Beyond Credit Repair

A lifestyle change offers benefits well beyond supporting your credit repair project. You will experience an increase in inner peace and personal self confidence. And you will be surprised how successful so many of your efforts become when you approach them with confidence and inner strength. You can do it. Good luck!

Copyright © 2008 Sky Blue Credit Repair. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

Credit repair can do more than clean up your credit reports. It can raise your scores, help you prevail against collectors, guide your debt negotiations, and transform your financial life. But you must do it right. Too many people jump into the process head first without taking time to learn the rules. As powerful as credit repair is, an uninformed effort is almost guaranteed to produce disappointment. Here are the three most common blunders you must avoid if you want awesome life-changing results.

Don’t Believe Your Eyes

Shake off any ideas that you have about the infallibility of the credit bureaus. Your credit repair effort will start with a detailed examination of all three credit bureaus, and you better approach this task with a critical eye. Almost three-quarters of all credit reports contain mistakes. Look very carefully. Expand your area of focus. Score damaging errors include underreported credit card limits, accounts reported as open with balances that are really closed and paid, duplicate accounts that overstate your debt load, and collections illegally reported by collectors that have sold the debt. Your mission is to hunt down and dispute everything that does not look right. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt. Every point matters.

Don’t Wait to Open New Accounts

Many people are puzzled by the injunction to open new accounts now. Your credit repair effort is destined to fail unless you have open accounts in good standing. You need to act today. But there are caveats. Not all forms of credit are useful for improving your credit scores; stick with MasterCard and Visa. In the current credit environment it is likely you will not be approved for regular credit cards. This is not an obstacle. Secured cards are ideal for credit repair; they are inexpensive to open and you will not be denied. Small secured cards are every bit as valuable as high limit cards. But you must manage them right. Here’s how.

Watch Those Credit Cards

The FICO credit scoring model puts so much emphasis on the relationship between your card balances and their limit that a lapse can cost you over 100 points. It does not matter if your limit is high or low, if you let your balances approach the limit your credit repair project will suffer. The FICO scoring software measures your card usage ratios and adjusts your scores accordingly. The lower your balance relative to your limit, the higher your score will be. So get those balances down. And don’t make the mistake of thinking that it is sufficient to pay the cards off at the end of each month. The creditor is unlikely to report to the bureaus at the exact moment that your balance has been paid. If you need your credit scores to be good in the next 60 days get your balances down now and keep them there as long as your scores matter.

Summary

The quality of your credit has never been so important. Your credit will affect your ability to borrow money, get insurance, rent an apartment, and even get a job; you cannot afford to ignore it or take it for granted. Take action today to insure that your credit report is as good as it can possibly be. If you don’t feel up to the task just hire a credit repair service to do the work for you. A professional credit repair service will see that every opportunity to sharpen your reports and boost your scores is taken advantage of. Don’t let your credit life languish. Wake up and do something. A little effort on your part will pay dividends for years to come. Good luck!

Copyright © 2008 Sky Blue Credit Repair. All Content. All Rights Reserved.