Positive Credit History: Establishing this Even With Bad Credit

Well, you know how the saying goes, and I’ve heard many of my clients say it over and over again. How am I supposed to re-build my credit if I can even get a loan because of my bad credit?? If you find yourself in this situation, you’ll be happy to know there are several free or inexpensive options available to you.

Although I am in the business of deleting negative items from people’s credit reports, I have also obtained knowledge of adding positive items to a credit report. The first method is one of the oldest tricks in the book, and I learned it before I ever began credit repair!

Secured Bank Loans (12-month Plan): If you have some extra cash lying around, why not use that to build yourself a solid credit history? Here’s how you do it: Step One is to go to a bank and open up a 6 or 12 month CD. Step Two is to get a loan against that CD for the amount of the CD you have secured. Your approval is guaranteed at almost all banks, even Wells Fargo. Step Three is to put that loan money into a checking account and have the money from the checking account go to pay the loan every month setup on auto-pay. After the 6 or 12 months, the loan will be paid and you can get your CD back. All it costs you is a little interest, but you have solidified your credit. I did this with 3 banks over 1 year and increased my score by 90 points.

Becoming a Joint-Applicant (Immediate Results): If you’re able to do this, it can be one of the best things you ever did for your credit! What you need is a brother, sister, close friend, or other family member to allow you to add yourself as a “Co-Applicant” or “Joint-Applicant” on one or more of their credit cards. You don’t even have to get a card in the mail. All that will happen is that Credit Card Company will report THE ENTIRE pay history of that credit card on BOTH of your accounts. That’s right, if they’ve had the card for 10 years, all of that will show up on your report. So, it’s important that this is someone you trust to make the payments. This method involves no risk to the current holder of the card and none of your credit history will show on their reports. Just get on a 3-way call with you, your friend, and the credit card company and tell them you want to do this.

Have your Rent Report to your Credit. The company I recommend for this is MakeRentCount.com. They can report the rent you are currently paying your landlord to your credit reports for a small fee. And, because the dollar amount of rent is usually fairly high, that makes it even better for your credit score.

Get a secured credit Card: For this, I highly recommend OrchardBank.com. They report to all the bureaus and guarantee approval. If your credit is really bad, they will require you to put up $300 into a Savings account to get a credit card with a $300 limit. When you close the account you get the original $300 back, or you may request it after establishing a good pay history. Keep the balance under 50% at all times and this will greatly help your credit after 6-12 months.