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Credit Repair: How to Regain Control of Your Credit Score

Warnings from those previously singed and scarred holders of negative credit ratings told you not to get a credit card, but those pre-approved credit cards kept slithering into your mailbox.

You did not heed their warning. You tore that envelope open "just to educate yourself" if you "one day" decided to get a credit card. This is the worm on the end of the hook.

You saw the leaflet with the 0% APR for the first 12 months and no annual fee, and as you looked deeper, you found that you could personalize your card with Mickey Mouse or dolphins!

You eagerly signed your name at the end of the application and threw caution to the wind. You figured, what is the harm in trying?

Maybe you forgot about your moment of weakness where your knees buckled at the thought of being able to spend money that was not yours and pay it back gradually.

Maybe you forgot about the personalization, the colors, and the dolphins, until one day it arrives: your credit card, your instant money.

You rush to open it, and it is everything you wanted. You call the number, activate it and think about all the possibilities.

You begin buying in your mind, averaging in pay check arrival times to quiet your guilty conscience. You find a home for the new card in your wallet and go shopping, but vow to use it only if absolutely necessary.

The first payment slip comes in from the bank. It is asking for a number dangerously close to the number on your pay check.

This where you lose control. Rather than paying off the total due, you pay a portion. You continue to use the card to its maximum potential and again pay only the minimum.

Eventually, you want to buy more and pay less. You sign up for another card. You're approved. You buy and pay the minimum on two cards.

You buy more and pay the minimum on three cards. Before you know it, those precious twelve months are up, and you are buried in 23.6% APR rates and late fees. Your couple of hundred or thousand dollars owed has now tripled, and it is still skyrocketing!

You fool yourself to prevent the reality of your increasing debt and lowering credit score.

After the holidays, you think, I will pay them off. When I get my tax returns, I will pay them off. You do not pay them off.

The car payment is due, the mortgage is due, and you need a new water heater. The cards remain unpaid and your mailbox is as full as your missed and avoided call list. You have lost control.

Cut the cards you own in half. Once you begin to pay them off, the temptation will overwhelm you to start borrowing again. This way they are out of sight out of mind and out of spending reach.

If this is too much severing of ties, keep one card and pay it off first. This will be an emergency card for bills that need to be paid. In fact, defining what constitutes an emergency prior to using it will help prevent miscellaneous spending.

It is then time to begin answering those calls with a game plan in mind. Credit card companies are not fans of delinquent account holders, but they will work with you to get the money they want.

Work out a payment plan with them that you absolutely know you can pay. Realism is the foundation here.

You were living in a world of money that you fictitiously owned. The reality is that money was real, and you really do owe it back to someone.

Time allowed this debt to get out of hand, and time is required to get it back in control. This problem will not dissipate overnight.

Expect this process to take years, if not longer, to fix depending on the amount you owe. Not only have you established a hefty debt, but you have put your credit score in front of a trigger happy firing range. Those holes take time to repair.

Credit repair is real. It just takes a strong sense of reality, responsibility and understanding of how the problem came to be. Learn how to fix your life by restoring your credit rating.

About the Author

A good first step is to look into free credit reports to figure out where you stand, get your free credit score and take control of your financial destiny.

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Mar/03/2009 Comments Comments