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If your credit needs fixing, every expense matters. But do you really need to pay for credit repair? Thankfully, there are several free credit repair tactics you can use to rebuild your credit.
Keep in mind that to make these free options work, you’ll need to be proactive and dedicated for the long haul. The actions below should be seen as smaller parts of a bigger plan you build to repair your credit over the months—and even years—to come.
Free credit repair works by personally correcting or eliminating negative reporting items like missed payments, overdue payments or even errors. You can do this by:
Paid credit repair services performed by professionals may be more effective or more efficient, but there is much you can do yourself to improve your credit standing.
Yes, you can fix your credit for free—but it will take time, planning and hard work. With a realistic credit restoration plan in place, you should be able to improve your score yourself in time.
Ready to learn how to repair credit on your own? We’ve put together some actions you can take with no upfront cost (though some may involve shifting expenses you’re already paying).
Whether you’re able to apply just one of these actions or every one of them, these should help get you on your way to establishing a long-term credit rebuilding plan.
You’re entitled to a free copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus (Experian®, Equifax® and TransUnion®), so this is the perfect place to start. While this alone will not fix your credit, it enables you to dispute negative items by first checking for errors on your report.
There are several ways to check your credit report for free. Your personal financial institution may offer this service, or you can request it through AnnualCreditReport.com.
Since there are three bureaus, you can space out your requests to one every four months to get an updated look at your credit profile.
Once you have your credit report, you can start looking for the following potential reporting errors:
Errors or inaccuracies can be disputed with the credit bureau that reported it. A credit dispute letter may include:
You can send your request online or via postal mail as outlined below:
Additionally, your report should have a phone number listed that you can call to start your dispute or find out more information. However, we recommend that you still send a letter with “return receipt requested” so that you can maintain a written record of your request and log when the investigation started.
Once you’ve filed your dispute, you’ll need to file a separate dispute with the company that provided the incorrect information to the credit bureau. To do this, you’ll need to call or email the individual company in question and provide the same information.
Finally, be sure to keep copies of all correspondence for your records. Legally, the credit agency has 30-45 days to respond to your dispute, so it’s important to have a record of when your request began.
In reference to credit reports, the statute of limitations may apply to two things:
In the first case, the number varies by state—from three to 15 years, depending on the type of account and the state—in accordance with the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act. When a debt has exceeded that length of time, it doesn’t mean you are released from the debt—it simply means the lender can no longer take you to court for it.
Negative accounts, on the other hand, should drop from your account after seven years (starting at the date it initially went delinquent), according to Experian. While “waiting out” a debt is not a long-term credit repair solution, it does mean that your score should improve once negative items reach the seven-year statute of limitations.
Your credit can be severely impacted by an account in collections. Fortunately, these accounts can be removed from your report if they age out (due to statute of limitations), are inaccurate or are paid off.
If you’ve received a notice of an account in collections that you believe to be inaccurate, you have 30 days to request a validation letter in writing. Send your request via certified mail with a return receipt request.
If the collector can’t provide proof of your debt or doesn’t respond within 30 to 45 days, the applicable credit bureau must remove it from your credit report.
If you’ve paid off an account in collections, it will remain on your credit report but no longer be considered delinquent. You may be able to request to have the negative item in question removed from credit bureau reporting.
If you’re able to pay the debt off, you may also consider writing a pay for delete letter to have it removed upon payment.
If you have a late payment on your report and generally good payment history, it may be worth asking to have it removed. As the name suggests, a goodwill letter is a request for a show of goodwill by the lender or collection agency to remove it from your report.
This can also apply if a late payment was due to circumstances outside of your control, such as temporary loss of employment, change in marital status, medical emergency or other hardship.
Whether you decide to write a letter or make a phone call, expect to follow all of the steps below.
According to Experian, the latest credit scoring models now factor in rental payments for all three credit bureaus. That means that if you rent your home, your on-time payments can increase your credit score.
However, your payments may not be reported automatically. If you pay your rent through a collection service like PayYourRent, check their website to see if they report to the credit bureaus (they report to all three).
When in doubt, ask your landlord or property management representative if they report payments to any of the credit bureaus. If they do not, then it could be worthwhile to see if they would be open to using a rent collection service.
Alternatively, there are other rent-reporting services you can enroll in as a renter. Many of them charge monthly fees, but there are free options like Piñata, which reports to TransUnion.
The amount of your total available credit that you use, known as your credit utilization, has influence over nearly a third of your FICO® score.
If you want to improve your credit score, it’s recommended that you use no more than 30 percent of your total available credit. If it isn’t possible to use less credit, it may be worth applying for additional credit lines so that you can increase your total available credit.
For example, if you use $300 of credit per month on a single credit card with a $500 limit, your credit utilization is 60 percent. If you add a second credit card with the same limit, your total available credit increases to $1,000, cutting your $300 to a 30 percent utilization rate.
Be advised that this can work against you if added credit lines lead you to more credit than you can afford to pay back.
If you find it difficult to pay multiple bills on time, consider coordinating automatic payment dates around your paychecks. If you get paid on the 15th and 30th of the month, for example, consider splitting bill auto-payments between the 16th and 1st.
The above solutions all require you to be proactive in your credit restoration journey, but there may also be services that can help you repair your credit for free. These options aren’t available for everyone, but they may be well worth checking for.
Credit monitoring in itself won’t improve your credit, but it can help prevent your credit from taking a hit from identity theft. And while there are paid monitoring services out there with more advanced features, there are many free options that will alert you to potentially fraudulent behavior.
Some credit cards feature free services that can help you rebuild your credit, such as free credit monitoring, free score reports and even cashback you can apply to your balance. Log in to your dashboard or call customer service to see if your card has free features that can help.
Some employers and academic institutions offer free financial services to employees and students. Contact human resources or student services to see if your company or school grants you access to a financial advisor, debt relief program or other useful resource.
Not sure where to start? Some credit repair companies offer free online consultations to outline potential strategies. To see your credit score, negative item summary and recommended repair solution, get a free credit snapshot today.
To fix your credit for free, you can:
Credit reports are updated monthly, so your credit score can change in as little as a few weeks. However, the length of time and amount of change varies by situation. It can take years for severely damaged credit to improve significantly.
No, you can’t erase bad credit overnight. Not only does it take time to take actions to improve your credit—like requesting to remove negative items or paying off debts—it takes time for these actions to show up on your credit report.
Free credit repair can be effective, but in order to make it work, you’ll need to dedicate a significant amount of time and effort to it.
Professional credit repair companies will perform many of the actions listed in this post, and enlisting their experience, resources, knowledge and capabilities may be worthwhile. If you want to learn more about how we could work towards fixing your credit and help you achieve your credit goals, sign up today to see how our proven process works!
Note: The information provided on CreditRepair.com does not, and is not intended to, act as legal, financial or credit advice; instead, it is for general informational purposes only.
