Top 20 Credit Repair Dos and Don’ts

If you have had problems with your credit in the past and are trying to get back on track, there are some things you should and shouldn’t do. Here are the top 20 credit repair dos and don’ts:

1. Don’t Expect Immediate Results

The credit mistakes you’ve made up until now didn’t happen overnight. So, it’s important to remember that getting your credit repaired is going to take time as well.

2. Don’t Be Careless About Paying Your Bills

It’s time to be very careful and responsible with your credit. The first step is to pay bills when they’re due.

3. Don’t Assume Others Will Do What They Say

Whenever someone else is on a joint account with you and says they’ll take care of the payment, don’t assume they will. This can happen to any joint account, but especially if you get a divorce and decide who’s paying what. Watch your open accounts to make sure payments are being made.

4. Don’t Apply for New Credit

Focus on paying back the debt you already have.

5. Don’t Cosign Loans for Others

If someone asks you to cosign a loan for them, now isn’t the time. A loan you cosign still appears on your credit report as part of your outstanding debt.

6. Don’t Keep Borrowing Money

Continuing to borrow against the credit cards you already have makes the goal of paying them off harder and harder to reach.

7. Don’t Borrow More Money Than You Can Pay Back

Think about how you’re going to pay the money back before you borrow it.

8. Don’t Close Accounts with Zero Balances

It might seem that closing accounts you’re not using would help your credit, but it may have the opposite effect.

9. Don’t Try to Ignore Your Debt

Pretending you aren’t in debt isn’t going to make anything better. Focus on making a plan to pay it off.

10. Don’t Ignore Errors on Your Credit Report

As many as 2 out of 3 people have an error on their credit report. If you find any errors in yours, don’t ignore them.

11. Do Know What You Owe

Stay on top of how much you owe and how you’re going to pay it back.

12. Do Borrow Responsibly 

Only borrow what you need, and what you know you can pay back.

13. Do Keep Credit Utilization Under 30 percent

To repair your credit, try to keep your credit utilization as low as possible. In most cases, this means using less than 30 percent of what’s available.

14. Do Pay Attention to your Credit Report

Keep an eye on your credit report and make sure there’s nothing on it that doesn’t belong to you or is reporting incorrectly.

15. Do Pay Bills on Time

Know your due dates and pay your bills on or before those dates.

16. Do Come up with a Plan to Pay Off Debt

Plan how you’ll approach getting out of debt.

17. Do Pay Extra Whenever You Can

If you pay only the minimum on credit cards, it’s likely to take you several years to pay them off. Pay extra whenever you can.

18. Do Dispute Any Errors You Find

As soon as you find errors, get to work disputing them.

19. Do Be Persistent 

Instead of filing a dispute once and letting it go, be persistent and make sure inaccurate items are actually removed from your credit report.

20. Do Get Credit Help from Dovly

Get in touch with Dovly today and find out how our AI credit engine can help make this process easy.