We just came back from which was supposed to be a quick breakfast at the shopping mall. This quick trip ended up in a 3 hour shopping spree where most of my store cards as well as my credit cards (that’s right, plural!) were pushed to the maximum. Rather than just having breakfast, my husband and I returned with new footwear, clothing, bath towels for the bathroom and even a new office table and desk chair!
The irony of the matter is that we did not have to once take actual money from our handbags and wallets – we charged it all on credit! The footwear and clothing were bought on a charge card while the rest was split between the different plastic cards. It is quite a weird concept – leaving a store with trolleys full of merchandise and feeling as if you got it all for “free”… that’s until those monthly bills start turning up!
Buying on credit is so simple and effortless, it’s no surprise that many people land in deep trouble when not being able to pay back all the credit that they have quickly amassed! The sad fact is that only missing a handful of payments are all that’s needed to quickly label you as a poor payer with a a bad credit score history.
The good thing is that you can repair credit score once your credit score has been negatively affected. Step one would be to request a copy of your credit profile from your local credit bureau. In most cases everyone would be entitled to one free record in a certain time period, usually a calendar year. Study that report very carefully and be sure that all payments and credit appearing on that document are in actual fact yours. It can from time to time happen that someone else’s bad credit lands on your report (we’re all human, accidents happen) and you need to bring it under the attention of the correct individual.
If your credit score indicates that you are behind on any of your debt payments, you can repair credit score by paying off these outstanding debts as quickly as you possibly can. You need to pay off the regular installments with the highest rates of interest first as they can just land you in further issues if left unattended for too long.
Once you have had a look at your report you will quickly see which charge cards or credit cards are the ones that landed you in trouble. Pay those cards off and close them! If you know that you cannot control your shopping urge in a specific store, having a charge card for that store is simply too tempting!
It is also smart to talk to a debt counselor to help help you to repair credit score. There are methods in which you can consolidate all your debt into a single account and then make one monthly payment, instead of trying to keep track of ten other payments that you need to make month after month.
Try and keep your credit history as clean as possible – you do not want this to count against you when you need to apply for a motor vehicle or mortgage loan.