Help With Credit Score - what is the best way to remove negative items from my credit report and boost my fico score?

what is the best way to remove negative items from my credit report and boost my fico score?

what is the best way to remove negative items from my credit report and boost my fico score. i have late payments on there and a bankruptcy from 7 years ago and now i have no outstanding bills , but my credit score is still low , how is the best way and the fastest boost the score

Public Comments

pay your bills, thats about it. what already on there will take a couple of years to go away, your bankruptcy is hurting you a lot but if it was 7 years ago it should be off of your credit by the end of the 7th year, your score will go up a lot after it's off
Theres is no fast way really its all about history and keeping up on payments for an extended time.
I've had both. And twice. Best thing to do is tough it out. The fix it credit places are scams. They can't do anything for you except empty your wallet. Live on cash and only charge out of necessity. P. S. Chapter 7's go away after 10 years and not 7.
you can try disputing the info on the credit report by going to www.experian.com getting you free annual credit report the you can select dispute info, if that does not work then it is legit and you will have to wait the 7 years for it to fall off. What happens when you dispute it is they will ask the creditor (the person you borrowed from) to prove the debt is legit. if they can provide a bill or something similar then it will remain if the can not (within 30 days) it is dropped.) Hope that helps.
Yes, it's possible to fix your credit yourself. With a little hard work and perserverance, and patience, you could get it back up there. What you have to understand is what makes up your credit score: 1. Payment history- 35% 2. Total debt owed to avialable credit ratio-30% 3. Length of time establishing credit-15% 4. Types of credit established-10% 5. Inquiries and New accounts-10% With that in mind, this is some steps that you should do in order to get yourself in a better financial position to rebuild your score: 1. Open a checking and savings account- while this won't directly affect your credit score, it does many things. It re-establishes a relationship between you and a financial institution, which by being an customer in good standing, could help make it easier to get approved for credit cards and loans. Most importantly, by opening a checking account it gives you the single most powerful tool in building credit, to help pay your bills on time, especially if the bank offers online billpay. 2. Gather ALL your credit reports- It's important to know exactly what's on your reports. A lot of times, people believe that their credit is so bad, that they don't bother to check their reports for mistakes, and trust me, mistakes DO happen. The credit bureaus don't get paid to be accurate, they get paid to report. It's important that you gather reports from all 3 agencies to determine not just who and how much you owe, but to make sure that what's on there is even correct. If you do happen to find something that you're sure is not right, you should dispute with all 3 agencies, they all have an online dispute feature in which you can dispute the item. Once you've made sure that there's no inaccuracies on your report, then you should arrange your debts from most recent and lowest amount to oldest and highest amount. Debts that are newer than 2 years are hurting your score the worst and should be handled first. What you should know that just paying off debts, especially collection debts will not help your score. A "pay to delete" or "deletion payment", which is a payment in exchange for removing it from your report completely. I posted several links that explains this more in detail. http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/settle_debts.shtml http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/neg_rating_after_settle.shtml http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/CanCreditorSue4SettlementDifferences.shtml http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/ActualDebtSuccesses.shtml http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/debt-negotiation.php If you're sucuessful, this will help your score. 3. Open new credit- I had mentioned in #1, about opening a checking and savings account with a bank or credit union, I'm going to tie that in with what I'm about to say. Some major banks (Bank of America, Wells Fargo, USBank, Orchard Bank) and some credit unions offer secured credit cards, which are credit cards that require a deposit to establish credit. Whatever you deposit would be the credit line, for example, if you deposited $300, then your credit line would be $300. The deposit isn't used to pay for what's purchased on the card, you would still need to either pay in full or make monthly minimum payments. The deposit is used only if the account becomes delinquent and goes to collections. A couple of good things is that you can increase the credit limit by adding to the deposit, which can help your score because it creates a much needed cushion between the total debt that's owed and the available credit, and also the deposit is sometimes linked to a savings account which earns interest while you're building credit, so the deposit isn't just sitting there. A good way to build credit with the card is to make small purchases ($20/month max) and pay it off on time every month, while adding to the deposit. Usually after a year or so, of paying it off on time, the card either converts to a regular card or it's upgraded to a better card, and most importantly the deposit isn't needed anymore and it's given back. My suggestion would be to open another secured card and repeat the process or open 2 at a time, which would speed things up. If you make small purchases, pay it off and increase the limits, that will really help your score. In the end, you'll have 2 credit cards with decent limits and an emergency fund from the deposits. 4. Enroll with PRBC- PRBC is America's Alternative Credit Bureau, providing a helpful service to the over 50 million people with limited or no credit history. If you pay your monthly bills on time, PRBC can help you build credit to qualify for a mortgage and better interest rates.On-time payments for the following bills are not reported to the traditional credit bureaus: Rent Cable Phone Daycare Insurance Electric Natural Gas Cell Phone The only time your payments for these bills are reported to the other credit bureaus is if they're missing or late.With PRBC, your on-time payments count. You build credit for paying your bills on time, even if you have no credit history. PRBC offers two simple ways to start building credit today. In closing, just a few more things to keep in mind. -Don't spend more than 30% of your combined available credit on all your cards. -Only apply for credit when necessary. -Pay on time Hope this helps... Thanks for reading and... Good luck!
The late payments will not come off your report for 7 years after the last payment. Your bankruptcy stays on your report for 10 years.See if you can get a card even if it has a yearly charge use it sparingly (less than 30% of the limit) and pay it off every month, Or see if you can get a small loan, put it in a savings account (do not use it) make payments above the amount stated and pay off early. Pay all your bills on time do not let anything go 30 days late, thats when you get hit with a negative. Building your credit back up takes time and diligence there are no quick fix answers.
These are legitimate items and you will just have to ride them out. The late payment will come off in 7-1/2 years from the delinquency date. The bankruptcy will come off in 10 years, not 7.