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Sucessful Tips for Credit Repair (Guest Post)

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It has been a while since we’ve had a guest post. Today, Veronica from Credit Magic would like to share an article about credit repair. Please enjoy.

There are various attorneys and repair clinics which professionally repairs credit reports. There are various tricks and tips to remove false records from credit report. Few tips for credit repair are –
 
·  Check credit report

Credit reporting agency moves together all credit report electronically. These reports have information from where one live to details of their paying habits, arrest information and bankruptcy. This information compiled will be used for verifying whether one would be adequate borrower or not. Contact credit bureau who is having your file. You entitled with a free credit   report each year and also entitled to free credit report only if you denied credit within past 60 days. Review it cautiously for inaccurate information, particularly offensive information that will importantly affect credit rating and possibility for qualifying for credit or loan. At times if creditor do not re-verify on time or credit bureau does not handle dispute properly and is busy, one can delete its credit record from credit report later. Be very careful and precise in checking that whether all information is accurately reported or not. If someone finds any negative information in their report, verify them urgently, one cannot afford off putting remarks and errors in their report.
 
· The credit bureau must investigate matter within allotted time

Every negative credit record in any credit report can deny by you any time. Credit bureau must reinvestigate and if particular item cannot verify within reasonable time, that credit record should be removed from credit file. They should provide you with free copy of corrected credit report. Then send dispute letter to credit bureau through certified mail and request return receipt. If credit bureau completes investigation and then decides that negative information must remain in file, you can then add letter of explanation for refusing the claim.
 
After removing unconstructive items from credit report, next task is rebuilding your credit. You include positive credit items on report by obtaining a secured credit card or by taking out small secured loan. You can build good credit also by having somebody with better credit record cosign in your application for small loan.

Money well spent

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So my family recently moved into a new house. Well, new to us the house is actually about 4 years old. That is just old enough to develop a great home for a bunch of mosquitoes in our back yard. We have now lived here for about six weeks and the bug bites were horrible. I’ve bought some home pest treatments from our local hardware store but haven’t seen much success.

Before you dismiss the power of insect bites let me explain our situation further. We have a small dog and no fence yet in the backyard, this means taking the dog out 3 or 4 times per day. Each visit to the backyard means either covering yourself in bug spray or accepting the fact that you will get a few bug bites. Multiply 3 trips per day times 2 bug bites and it adds up quickly. We were all in misery from the mosquito bug bites. One of them even bit me deep enough to leave a bruise!

About two weeks ago my wife decided to call the professionals. Armed with a cell phone and phone book she got some quotes from different pest control businesses in the area. Basically, it was going to be about $100 to spray the back and front yards, cover the perimeter of the house and dust the vacant lot next to us. I personally thought it was a little expensive just to kill some pesky insects but I’ve been proved wrong.

Yesterday I took a vacation day from work to start the construction of a fence. After spending about seven hours in a tank top and shorts I am happy to report one bug bite on my arm. I’m not even sure that came from our backyard. It’s pretty amazing the difference after the spray.

Pest control wasn’t in our budget when we decided to buy our hose. We love our new house, but honestly wouldn’t want to stay around with the bugs. However, since the pest control we are happy residents! The pest control man recommends treating the area every three months. We have decided to add it to our budget!

Interest rates, UP or DOWN?

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So it would appear that our economy is headed back to the positive. Over the last six months the DOW has gained over 2,200 points. Investors are slowly gaining enough confidence in the market to start buying stocks again. But, what about the housing market?

The last few years has given the market in real estate a major beating. Home values have been pounded with little signs of recovery. Just recently the housing market seems to have became somewhat stable. Instead of falling home sales it appears the market has became flat.

So what trend will mortgage interest rates follow? The last week has given way to another slight decrease in the 30 year fixed rates, which brings me to the real reason for writing this article.

A few months ago I wrote an article about buying some land to build a future home. We got a great deal on a foreclosed acre of land in a nice neighborhood. The land appraised for just over $80,000 and we paid $52,000 so a deal that was hard to pass up. When we purchased the land we couldn’t find the developer in the phone book or Internet so we assumed the rules for building would be relaxed. The only rule that worried us was having to build a home within 8 months after purchasing the land.

We were prepared to build the house in the next couple of years, but 8 months would be a little too soon for us financially. Well about a week ago I met the developer while cleaning up the lot. Needless to say he wants us to start construction as soon as possible in order to keep the contract valid. He was very nice about the situation but wants us to start within a year.

With all this said, I’m hoping interest rates continue to stay well below 6% over the next year. A difference of 1% in interest rates will cost us an extra couple of hundred dollars per month. We’re listing our house next month by owner with hopes of a quick sale. We want to rent for 6 to 8 months while saving some money for a good down payment. Hopefully interest rates will stay on our side.

Can you really save by using cash?

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Many, many year ago before credit cards were invented people paid for everything with cash or a barter system. I know for most of us it’s hard to imagine not being able to conveniently whip out the plastic at the grocery store, gas station, movies and even fast food restaurants.

For some of us this still remains true. My dad still only carries cash to pay for many common things such as those mentioned above. Even the president of the company where I am employed told me he still only uses cash for most common purchases. I have gotten so used to using a credit card to pay for things it’s hard to imagine life without them.

What would life be without credit cards? So many times I have heard that you can save so much money by using a cash only system. It hurts so much more to pay for something with cash than with a credit card. I’m still not completely convinced this is true for me, but recently I have thought about something that does temp to to test the cash only system.

Let’s assume I went to the grocery store and only took $80 cash to pay for my groceries. I left my wallet at home with my credit cards hidden away to prevent any possible usage. I would think twice about buying those Twinkies for $2, after all that’s 2.5% of my weekly grocery budget! On the other hand if I had a credit card I basically have a $10,000 + limit so buying something unnecessary would be much easier. So using an all cash system in this case would definitely help save money.

Another great example of where I could see an all cash system being successful in our life is with the eating out budget. Sometimes we spend over $400 per month eating out. I know we could easily make it on $200 and put an additional $200 per month in our savings account. If we only brought $20 cash with us for dinner it would be much easier to skip dessert or the appetizer that we don’t really need anyway.

I think an all cash system could definitely save our family money. However, because we have used the “pay your credit card off every month” system for so long I think it will be very difficult to get used to destroying our credit cards. Maybe I will have to create a happy medium to ween ourselves off our addiction!

Before you file for bankrupcy think about debt settlement

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Thinking about filing for bankruptcy? I know it may sound like the easiest thing to do and in certain circumstances it may be the only option, but before you give up all hope maybe you should try some type of debt settlement program.

There are thousands of different agencies who are willing to help you settle your debts with your creditors. I’m sure there just as many who are only interested in your money and not at all in actually helping you, but you don’t even have to use a third party to settle you debt.

The term debt settlement simply means negotiating with your creditors to reduce the overall balance of your debt. Debt settlement only works with credit card debt and unfortunately, most creditors won’t negotiate until you’ve stopped making payments on the debt and have racked up hundreds or thousands of dollars in interest.

When you declare bankruptcy you may be hurting hundreds of other people, not just yourself. The money you owe the companies goes to other peoples salaries and helps provide income for many families. Before you make the decision to declare bankruptcy please consider a debt settlement program or at least contact your credit card companies and try to settle the debt by yourself. Many times you can save thousands of dollars with just a phone call.