3 Steps to Fix Bad Credit

1. Get a Credit Report – You cannot fix bad credit until you know exactly what is causing the problem. A credit report can show you whether you had late payments on a credit card or mortgage that led to your credit problems. Once you see a credit report, you can fix bad credit with a little research.
2. Research – Once you have seen the specific problems on your credit report, you can begin researching to see if they are accurate. Many times, people looking to fix bad credit find that there was no bad credit in the first place. Inaccuracies are found all of the time on credit reports which is why seeing a report for yourself is so important. Through research, you can make sure that the items on your report are not works of fiction, or simply errors based on an incorrect social security number.
3. Petition – If you find errors on your credit report, you can petition to have these items removed. In order to fix bad credit that does not involve errors, you will still want to petition as many of the derogatory notes as possible. There are rules for how ling items can stay on a credit report, but typically they will not come off by themselves. If you want to get them removed, you will need to make some noise. You can do this yourself by contacting the individual bureaus or you can enlist the help of a professional who specializes in fixing bad credit.