Credit Score Repair Tips

Written by Dana Neal

The way to fix a credit score is a two-fold process.

The first part of credit score repair involves 1) understanding credit scoring and how to skew the credit rating system in your favor, and 2) using credit repair techniques to clean bad credit.

Figure 1. FICO Score Pie Chart

A quick summary of practical credit scoring repair tactics you can use.

The first part, a practical application for everyday scoring health, is simple:

keep credit card balances below 20% if you can, or 40% if that isn’t possible;
don’t apply for credit unless you need it, as inquiries can hurt your score;
pay your bills on time, as bad credit affects a credit rating in a big way;
keep existing credit card accounts open, since length of credit history affects a score positively;
vary your accounts by having both unsecured credit (such as credit cards), and secured credit (such as installment loans; e.g. auto loan);
use your credit regularly;
use different credit cards each month, and
have limits on credit cards raised as high as possible.

For a more expanded explanation of credit scoring, see my article on credit ratings.

Repairing bad credit report entries.

Of course the aforementioned tips are great for practical credit scoring health, but what about bad credit entries on a credit report? Most bad credit must be removed from a credit report, especially unpaid entries, recent entries, and any court and collection entries. Notice I said “most” bad credit, because some bad credit accounts may be holding up a score by virtue of its age more than it is hurting.

As you can see, credit score repair begins by first understanding credit scoring and then making lifestyle choices to skew the algorithms in your favor. It's followed up by a vigorous credit repair plan to delete certain types of bad credit from your credit report. For more information, check out BestCredit’s solutions, such as White Hat Credit Repair.
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Figure 1. © 2005 Fair Isaac Corporation. Fair Isaac, the Fair Isaac logo, and the Fair Isaac product and service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation.