Credit Repair: Fix Your Bad Credit Card Debt Yourself

Credit repair and eliminating your credit card debt doesn’t mean you have to hire an expensive credit repair service. In fact, if you want to fix your credit, you can do it yourself for free. I can’t promise that it will be easy, but despite the glib promises made by professional services, they are not.

Don’t sign a contract committing yourself to an expensive credit repair service. Don’t buy any books or software to help you fix your credit. Instead, focus on three simple and free steps to get rid of bad credit.

First, go to the root of the matter. Run your credit reports, every consumer gets a free credit report from the three major reporting agencies every year. Also, if you have recently been denied a credit application, you can request a report at that time. You don’t need to pay off your credit report or join a program to access it. This will give you a good idea of ​​your credit standing, but you should also collect recent statements from each of your creditors. These will not only give you valuable contact information for the next couple of steps, but they usually offer the most up-to-date information on your payments, balance, and interest rates.

Once you’ve summarized your situation, it’s time to move on to step two, which is simple: empty your wallet of credit cards. Cut them up and throw them away, but then you have another important step to take. Close those accounts and don’t sign up for any more cards until your credit is good again. If you continue to increase your debt, it will not solve your problems.

The final step in repairing your bad credit and eliminating your credit card debt will take the most time, effort and stress. Now you will have to make an action plan. The first step is to stop making payments on your credit cards. Now set aside the money you would use to make those payments for a few months. When the credit card companies start calling about your late payments, be courteous but be clear that you can’t pay the bill right now even though you are working on a plan to pay off your debts. Tell them not to call again until next month. Minimum payments will never pay off your debt, and it’s best to consolidate the money until it matches an amount that can do you the most good. Once you have enough money to pay about one-third of one of your bills (assuming a few months have passed), call the company and offer to pay one-third. Some companies can take advantage of that agreement and others can negotiate for a while. Chances are that if you stick with it, consolidate your payments, and wait for them, most of your creditors will accept half or less (on average).

You can do your own credit repair and eliminate credit card debt without outside help with these three simple steps. Just summarize your situation, empty your wallet, and work on the phones. You can do it.