Never An Easy Fix
Fixing your credit requires more than just patience. It requires an understanding of the legitimate strategies that can be used to positively affect your credit score. This in turn requires knowing beforehand what strategies are nothing but myths — erroneous strategies that will in fact hurt you, not help you. The key thing to keep in mind is that there is no easy fix when it comes to repairing your credit. It will take time, period.
Myth 1: Closing My Accounts Is A Good Thing
Often, people think that closing their accounts will help boost their score. That’s quite incorrect. It reduces your credit history, cuts the amount of credit available to you and therefore hurts you. Here’s the thing to understand — just because an account is open doesn’t mean you have to use it. If you don’t feel comfortable dealing with credit, then just cut up your cards. Whatever you do, don’t close them!
Myth 2: Getting A Bevy Of New Credit Will Help
This is just as bad (if not worse) than closing your accounts. It’s a big red flag. When a lender sees that you are trying to open up 10 lines of credit at once, he or she starts to question your responsibility (not to mention your sanity). A lender knows that nobody on Earth needs that much credit, especially all at once. It tells the lender that you are a high-risk borrow that should not be trusted with a loan.
Myth 3: Making Early Payments Will Boost My Credit Score
Making your payments 10, 11, 12 or more days before the due date will not affect your credit score. In fact, paying off delinquencies (late payments, charge offs, etc.) period will not help, unless of course you take the extra time to get them removed from your credit report. This requires contacting the three top credit agencies and providing proof that these delinquencies have been dealt with in full.
Myth 4: All Debts Are Equal
This is quite incorrect. Larger, more-serious debts have a greater impact on your credit score. Suppose you are low on money and have to choose between making a payment toward your auto loan and making a payment toward your credit card. In this scenario, it would be in your best interest to make a payment toward the much larger auto loan instead.
Myth 5: I Have To Deal With All Items On My Report
It’s not necessary to remove every single negative item from your credit report. It would be nice in an ideal world, but it’s okay if a few dings remain. It’s actually more important that you focus on acting responsibly, keeping up with your payments and engaging in long-term, sustainable credit-building techniques.
Myth Busters
Remember that fixing your credit and increasing your credit score will take time. There is simply no way to get it done just like that. Remember also that maintaining good credit requires being responsible, because there’s no point in fixing your credit if you’re only going to mess it up again!
