Three Strategies for Credit Repair!

If you would like to improve your credit score then you will want to read on.  We will be discussing three strategies that you can implement for credit report repair.

Pay off those credit cards and cut them up!

One of the fastest ways you can improve your credit score is to pay off your revolving debt.  At a minimum, you want each account to be below 25% of the available credit line.  It is even better to pay the accounts off in full.  It is important to note that once the account is paid off you should not close it.  This will actually lower your credit score because it increases your credit utilization ratio.  The smart thing to do it cut the card up so that you won’t be tempted with an “emergency”.

Get a parent or spouse to add you as an authorized user!

FICO 08 was instituted in the summer of 2009.  (This much anticipated change in how credit scores are calculated was held up in court for a year.)  Many people are confused by how this law changed the piggybacking laws.

Piggybacking is the method of having someone add you to their existing account to improve your credit score.  The benefit of this is that your credit is impacted by the full history on their account.  The changes came to be because unethical credit repair companies would pay strangers to add someone to their credit file.  Because of this abuse, the only people that can add you as an authorized user are your parent or spouse.

Eliminate Zombie Debt!

Zombie debt is debt that is being reported beyond seven years and very often beyond the statute of limitations.  If an account is more than seven years from it’s date of last activity, it cannot be legally reported to the credit bureaus.  Date of last activity is defined as the last time something actually happened on the account.  This does not include which a creditor transferred the account or sold it but rather the last time you made a payment or promised to pay.  Very often, collection agencies will alter the date of last activity hoping that you will make a payment.  You can dispute your zombie debt and improve credit fast!

Follow these steps to help with credit debt repair. If you’d rather have someone else do this for you, then you can try credit repair counseling or a professional credit repair service.