Taking Your Credit to the Cleaners
By eliminating damaging credit card debt with the help of Quick Debt Consolidation, you'll be on the road to financial freedom and a secure future. That's not to say the entire trip will be problem-free. Along the way you may encounter some potholes and bumps, which could appear in the form of negative marks on your credit report. Clearing the path ahead will make your journey that much easier.
'Dirty' Credit Cleaning
You might have seen advertisements for companies that claim to have the ability to "clean" your credit report by removing derogatory items--for an exorbitant fee. The truth is the only entity that can permanently expunge a negative mark is the creditor that reported it in the first place. What these repair services do is file a dispute with every creditor that has reported a delinquency, counting on bureaucratic red tape to delay the responses. By law, if a creditor doesn't respond to a dispute within 30 days, the item in question has to be removed from the consumer's credit history. While that might sound like a surefire loophole, unfortunately there's a loophole within that loophole: There's no law that prevents a creditor from putting the disparaging item back. So, as soon as the credit giver looks into the dispute and realizes there's no basis for it, the cleaned up credit report suddenly becomes dirty again. In the end, the only thing that gets cleaned out is the customer's wallet.
The Waiting Game
The truth of the matter is the only reliable method to fix a damaged credit history is waiting. Late payments of 30, 60 or 90 days disappear from your credit report after two years, while delinquencies hang around for seven. However, lenders are more apt to give someone with past problems a break if they see a healthy stretch of time during which no late payments or delinquencies occurred. It should be no surprise that credit card accounts are the biggest source for negative credit report marks. Given the nature of revolving lines of credit, you can easily be surprised by a bill that doesn't fit into your budget. And because each credit card has its own monthly due date, it's easy to confuse one with the other and make a late payment. So enlisting the aid of Quick Debt Consolidation to replace your revolving credit bills with one low-interest monthly payment is the easiest way to make sure your credit stays clean.
Can Your Cards
Of course, securing the help of Quick Debt Consolidation won't do a thing for your credit score if you promptly run your paid-off credit cards back up to their limits. Since most financial experts recommend keeping two credit cards for emergencies, set aside the two with the lowest rates and get rid of the rest. That doesn't mean just cutting them up and throwing them away; pick up the phone and officially close each account, making sure to ask for written confirmations that the balances have been paid in full. Closing excess accounts does more than just remove the temptation of using the cards; too many open credit lines can make you look overextended to a lender, resulting in a rejected application.
Look Out for Number One
Given the volume of reports taken in every day by the three major credit bureaus, it stands to reason that an error is going to turn up on some credit histories from time to time. In accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you have every right to request a copy of your credit report so you can examine it for inaccuracies. If you find something that doesn't seem right, you can file a dispute via certified mail. Make sure you include an explanation of the discrepancy, a copy of your credit report with the area in question highlighted and copies of documents supporting your claim. When the credit bureau sees the error of its ways, ask it to send corrections to everyone who's requested your history within the past six months.
