Pursue your dreams because life will not be worth living for without them. Travel abroad and see the world, take a masters degree, buy that dream car, launch that dream business, purchase that dream house, make your dreams come true but always plan ahead. Look into your future and the red light might be on, stop and reconsider before making big decisions. Check your finances and see if it is at all possible and ask the necessary questions, why or why not? If your interest on current loans is sky high then all your money is going down the drain. The future may not look as bright but you can make changes today. Do not join the bandwagon and go harassing yourself finding another job to pay off all loans to improve your credit score. You’ll find yourself stressed out, frustrated or worse depressed. That’s not the smartest thing to do because raising your credit score does do not happen overnight it requires some financial management. However, the good news is it is not as complicated as it sounds and taking the right steps could help you raise your credit score fast.
Face the music. Know your credit standing and learn why your credit score has gone down. There are situations where it may not be your fault at all. Identity theft is a major issue when it comes to credit scores. Unfortunately, there are cases where father and son have the same name and usually the son would use their parent’s name to have loans approved without any plans of paying them off. It might not be a good story but it happens. However, there are also instances that complete strangers with common names takes advantage of other people’s credit rating and this is the reason why you have to protect your personal information all the time. In these cases, all you have to do is clear your name. It might not be hassle free and you may have to go through grueling procedures and start some legal battles but it’s definitely worth it. However, more often than not, you have some responsibility to it. Your bad decisions in the past will reflect on those credit rating sheets and blaming your parents, siblings, spouse, children, employer, the economy and even the president won’t do you any good. It’s time to take some action and responsibility because no one else will do that for you. Decide to turn things around and focus your energy to it.
Keep a record of your credit and update it. List all your creditors, the amounts owed and number of days they are past due. Some information might have been invalid. Old accounts might have been settled already otherwise some have very low balance and could be written off. A call to your creditors is all it takes to clean up some accounts. Some late payments reflecting there might be due to technical issues, wire transfers or mailed payments reflecting a day or 2 after they become 30 days past due. Call your creditors, request to speak to someone who is authorized to make decisions on it and request for some onetime courtesy fee waive and account adjustment. Businesses value their clients and exist to provide good customer service and options to help you improve your credit score will always be available so check them out.
Consolidate your credit card loans. You have several credit cards and you have some which credit limit you have maximized almost every month. Set them aside and look for credit card companies that offer balance transfer, reports your credit to the credit bureaus and most importantly offers low add on interest on the balance transferred. You will then be required to make regular monthly payments for them. Put this on your budget. For other credit cards that are not yet maxed out keep them as they are. Always have some cash on when you go out so you do not have to use credit card on everything. If possible, use credit cards for 0% interest purchases only.
Talk to collection agencies. Some loans were simply not paid off on time and interest and principal are so high that you think paying them is just not possible right now. However, hiding from collectors and not talking to them just won’t help. Call in and check for payment options. Some collection agencies offer write off of interest for as long as you can pay off the balance on the principal.
Look into your budget and talk to family members who can help. See how much you can afford to pay monthly on these must settle accounts. For all you know you might need minor adjustments only on your lifestyle to start getting debt free. Look closely into your grocery list and other monthly bills and purchases, you might need to cut on some expenses which you think you would need but has no use at all. Be practical, you still have dreams that can come true all you need is discipline and everybody’s cooperation. Present the real situation to family members who can help. They might have great ideas on how to save or better they might help pay some bills for now till you get those loans paid off. You’ll never know until you communicate. Changing your lifestyle today could mean that dream home in several months, so take time to make those dreams come true.