Does anyone have any tips for improving bad credit?
594249
Pay your bills on time.  Yes, it's obvious, but there are no hidden secrets to improving your credit score.
411317
go to your local bank and ask for info. a lot of places will give you a loan with bad credit. don't you ever watch television??
510092
I'm one of the investing financial advisors who you don't want to talk to yet.  But I've also done some credit work in the past, and I know who you are looking for.  Be very careful, because there are a lot of crooks out there who sell fake credit repair packages.  The best place for you to go is to a non-profit credit counseling organization.  They can help explain all the issues.  Sadly, there truly ISN'T a quick and easy repair that you can make, but there are steps you can take that will gradually improve your credit over time.  If you handle things right, once your bad times are far enough in the past, it will be like you never did anything wrong.
828425
To get a good credit score you need to have credit. One good way to get a higher rating is to have a revolving credit card, or if you buy something on installment, make your payment every month and never be late. A few months before the installment note is due, pay it all off. Don't get credit cards where you must pay an annual fee in order to have the priviledge of charging with them. If you have a really bad credit card, close it, but don't open and close too many cards. If you have credit cards, put them away and don't use them. If you open and close credit cards it can adversely affect your credit rating. Do not take out credit cards with department stores, even if they offer discounts on your purchases. In fact, they will lower your credit rating. If you have them, close them, If you want to charge in a store it's better to use a regular credit card such as Mastercard or Visa. Be careful when you apply for loans because every time you apply for a loan the lender checks your credit rating. If you have too many inquiries, that can lower your credit score. If you are about to purchase a vehicle or even a home, shop around for the best interest. If you check with numerous lenders that check your credit rating, it won't lower your score because it will show that you are shopping for a particular purchase and it is good to look for the best interest rate. Once you have credit cards, it's best to keep them open, believe it or not, because if you go for a loan the lender will see that other lenders consider you a good risk. (Maybe it's because they know that if you decide to max out your credit cards and leave the country, there will be a lot of other lenders hunting you down besides them!) If you are just starting out and don't have much of a credit history, go to the bank you bank at and ask for a credit card. They will likely give you one with a low credit limit, such as $200.00. Charge on that card and pay the monthly payment on time. Before long you will have a history of whether you are a good credit risk. If you go to annualcreditreport.org you can get a free credit report once a year. They have information on their web site that will tell you  how to improve your credit rating. Put the credit cards that you already have away in a safe place. Just don't open and close them and open new ones. Use credit cards, but always pay them on time, or at the end of the month to avoid paying interest. Good luck.
654212
If you have bad or poor credits and want to re-establish your credit, these are the special cards for you such as USA Gold Shopping Card, USA Gold Optimum, or Orchard Bank MasterCard. Since you credit history is bad or poor, you will be only given a small credit line. And you might have to pay a higher interest rate than that of regular credit cards. But if you are determined to get your credit back to good standing, apply for one of those credit cards and always make the minimum monthly payment, or even better - pay off the balance every month. Your credit lender will be willing to low the interest rate and increase your credit line gradually. \n\nIf you still can't get approved for these special credit cards for bad credit, try pre-paid credit cards - These Prepaid Card does not extend you credit. Instead, accounts are prepaid for a specific amount and accounts are only good for the balance you have loaded/applied. They work pretty much like a debit card but entitle you to some benefits of a credit card.
731063
Bad credit is one of the worst problems to have... however there exists a solution.\n\nI will hereby talk from my personal experience.\n\nI did debt consolidation a couple of years ago, however If I had to do it again I would pay to some minor details,\nif someone wants to get out of debt today it is pretty easy with a debt consolidation plan, however it may get a bit tricky at times, I suggest you get as much information as possible online on this first,\n\na good place to start in my humble opinion is astraight to the point ebook with question and answer I found :\n\nhttp://umgarticles.atspace.com/debt-consolidation.htm\n\nif it helps kindly remember me in your voting!.. cheers!
103494
Try to see if you can get a better paying job. This will help and then get yourself into a better habit - pay off all your credit bills and then don't create any new ones.   Live within your means.   Good luck!!
156362
You can't.  If you have bad credit, you are a high risk.  You WILL pay more for a loan, PERIOD.
522935
Only knowledge.  Don't believe the hype.  Use the three major credit bureau sites, they provide a great deal of help and advice, and now they are required to give one free credit report per year. Get one from each today. Cut up all credit cards.  Do not buy anything on credit. Live on the income that you have. Be disciplined. Make a tight budget. Stick to it.  Reevaluate what is a want versus what is a need. Eliminate the unnecessary. Find ways to cut costs in everyday living. Pay bills on time every time.  Correct any errors of your credit reports. Errors are more common than one may think.\n\nThere is no need to pay any one else to do this for you.  They cannot do what you can do for yourself.\nYou can amaze yourself at the improvements that can be made this way.  I followed this plan and amazed myself.  I have guided many friends and relatives to do the same with great success.
763544
Credit repair services are a hoax.  Avoid them.\n\nCredit counseling services, however, aren't about your FICO, but about debt reduction. Some of these have a bad reputation, too, so only use them as a last resort and read all of the fine print.\n\nThe only way to improve your credit is to start rebuilding it over time. Get a low-fee secured credit card. Pay it off monthly, and let time heal your credit.
747130
First, it is extremely important to fix any errors on your credit report.  You can start by getting your free report from the three major reporting bureaus from:\n\nhttps://www.annualcreditreport.com\n\nClark Howard is a nationally-syndicated talk show host who talks about things like this a lot.  You might find some helpful advice in the forums at:\nhttp://clarkhoward.com\n\nOnce you get any incorrect information off your credit report, you can start looking at ways to build up credit by having a small balance credit card and always paying it off each and every month.  You may need a parent or someone to co-sign for it as you are just starting out.\n\nI hope this helps point you in the right direction.
412198
Since you saying you want to improve it, would that mean you already know what your credit score is and that you need to address it. \n1) If you have charge offs, you need to get them satisfied. Once you have, request a letter of satisfaction from the creditors. These letters will be worth more than gold to you in the next 7 years. So keep them in a safe location so you can present them if requested or if you have to dispute those charge offs. This also go for judgments and any collections.\n2) You need to re-establish your credit history. If you have applied and been denied credit, then your only alternative would be a secured credit card. You will have to supply a deposit for collateral, however you should be able to obtain one. Again, don't have a balance more than 50% of the credit limit, and always pay the minimum each month. You should have 4 trade lines (credit cards). I would not suggest that you get a department store credit card since most of them do not report to all three credit bureaus. Also it limits your ability to use them since you can only use them at the store that they belong to. \n3) Do not have your credit report pulled after you have set up your credit cards. If you are interested in knowiing your credit scores, you can always to Equafax, Extperian, and Transunion's website have pay for a FICO report that will not effect your score. If you get your credit pulled from lender, they might not tell you where you stand on the score and it effects your score at the same time.\n\nHope this helps.
219115
Sorry to say there are no "magic bullets" you can use to quickly fix your credit score.\n\nFirst step is to understand exactly how your credit score is put together.  Go to www.myfido.com and readup!  These are the folks who wrote and licensed the scoring system used by the credit agencies.\n\nNext, you need to start cleaning up your credit report.  You can get a free copy from www.annualcreditreport.com.\n\nNow you gotta fix it by removing negative entries, deleting inaccurate information, and challenging records that may be old and outdated.\n\nBelow is my "warchest" of informational sites that will instruct you how to go about it.  It also contains some sample letters to send to credit agencies, creditors, and (if necessary) government agencies.\n\nIf you need any help, advice, or encouragement contact me. I've helped a lot of people do this.
1094635
#1) Pull all your reports. Not online, request actual physical copies. They usually contain more than what an online report does. This will give you a start on where you need to go with your reports. Also, keep them. Never toss them. They are proof later on if you need them to refer to if you ever get into a legal situation regarding your credit (lawsuit etc).\n\n#2) Dispute. Dispute anything that is not correct including, balance amounts, lates, etc. If you have only one or two lates, I would call your creditor and see if you can get them removed via goodwill gesture, or send a goodwill letter. You can find some great letters on some of the credit boards like creditnet.com and creditboards.com.\n\n#3.) Collections? If you have any collections on your account or anything that should not be there, send a DV (debt validation) to the creditor asking to prove the debt. If they cannot, they have to remove the debt off of your report by law.\n\n#4.) You have rights - check out http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/031224fcra.pdf for more info.\n\n#5.) check out some of the posts on creditnet.com and creditboards.com for assistance. \n\n#6.) If you have no credit, or want a temporary boost - have a family member or really (really, really, really) close friend add you in as an authorized user on their credit cards. Make sure the balances are not high, otherwise this could hurt you more. The higher the available credit, the more your utilization will go down on your report - therefore bumping your score.\n\n#7.) Avoid unnecessary inquiries. Hard pulls can hurt you, so avoid applying for new credit cards until after you buy your home.\n\nThis of course is a shortened version of things you can try. Research info on those links I provided you. You can increase your score spending just a short amount of time per week, sending letters to creditors etc. I increased my score over 100 points in less than 6 months. Depending on your situation, this could take shorter or longer time, but at least you have somewhere to start. Good luck!
147290
Step 1.  Obtain copies of all 3 credit reports.\n\nStep 2.  Review the information on those reports carefully and dispute any inaccurate information.\n\nStep 3.  If you have credit cards with high balances, pay the down NOT completely.  Having credit card with a "0" balance is not good....they refer to it as "under-utilization of credit."\n\nStep 4.  If you don't have a savings account, open one and apply for a signature loan with the bank using the savings account as collateral.\n\nStep 5.  Pay this loan early.....not right away......if you choose a 12 month payback, pay it off in 6-8 months.\n\nStep 6.  Repeat step 5\n\nStep 7.  Do NOT apply for credit of any kind during this process, inquiries will cost you 2-6 points for each one.\n\nStep 8.  Do pay everything on time or better and monitor your credit report quarterly to ensure that everyone is reporting accurately.\n\nFollow these steps and your score will increase signifigantly.....not the fastest way, but the ONLY way to guarentee yourself improvement.\n\nGood luck and take care
945
First: the ads that say "we'll fix your credit!" are LYING. You are the one who's going to have to do the job.\n\nFirst: get your credit report. Most states now have a law on the books that requires all of the credit reporting agencies to give you a credit report once a year. Check it over. Make sure that there are no *mistakes* on it - late payments that were not late, disputed accounts, etc. \n\nLate payments and charged-off accounts stay on for 7 years, bankruptcies for 10. Generally, lenders are looking for patterns of behavior rather than once-in-a-way problems. If you find something wrong (and it's likely, unfortunately), write a letter to the credit bureau, providing documentation that you're right. They have to respond in 30 days; if the creditor can't prove that the negative item is indeed true, it comes off your report.\n\nNow you're down to real debt. If you can't afford the payments, contact the lenders and negotiate reduced payments. They will prefer to be getting something rather than having to write off the debt. Once you can afford to pay everything, commit to paying off the worst (i.e., highest-interest) items first. They cost you the most money that isn't going toward paying off the debt. Once you've killed one, the money you were spending on that one can be applied to the next-worst debt, and so on. The amount you can pay any given creditor snowballs rapidly when you follow this pattern. You have to remember, though, that when the first one is paid off, you don't have "more money". You still need to be committing that to killing your debt.\n\nIf you're out of debt, but your credit is lousy, get a secured card, use it, and pay it off every month. This will do a lot for your credit rating. In addition, open a savings account, and make regular deposits. This shows you are saving money and have a resource to pay your bills.
1084346
For the most part, it doesn't matter what country you're in. The only thing that can improve your credit rating is time and better credit history. Make your payments on time. Make extra payments when possible. Call your creditors to see if they can help you by lowering your interest rates and refinancing loans for a lower cost. My husband and I had BAD credit, and this was the only thing that could help. If you file for a bankruptcy, that will be on your credit for several years and will look worse to possible creditors than the fact that you are trying to dig yourself out on your own. You made the mess, no you have to clean it up. I know it sucks, but it's true. Make sure you keep accurate records so that when you finally pay a bill off, you can contact the credit bureaus with that information and get the bad info off quickly. We did this and we were able to buy a home, a new car, and a motorcycle within a year and a half! Good luck!