Repairing My Credit Report and Rating

I'll be the first to admit that I haven't been the most financially responsible person around. I definitely prefer spending money to saving it, and am one of those people who has never met a sale I didn't like. Of course, I was spending far more than I was earning at the time, so I had to charge everything. Eventually, I couldn't keep up with the payments, and my credit report and rating suffered because of these bad habits.

I never even bothered to check my credit report until I tried to apply for a car loan a couple years ago. I was just trying to buy a sensible mid-size sedan that got good gas mileage. It wasn't too expensive or fancy, so I figured I'd have no problem getting the loan, especially since I also had some cash back coming in the form of a trade-in. But the salesman practically laughed me out of the dealership after checking my credit report and seeing that I couldn't qualify for any kind of financing at all.

After that humiliating experience, I decided to get my financial affairs in order. I secured a copy of my credit report for myself, reviewed all the old debts that were on it, and put together a quick plan for addressing each of the problem areas. The first step was to stop spending money that I didn't have. I switched over to debit cards, and took a pair of scissors to all the Visa cards I had at the time. Next, I made an appointment with a counselor at a debt consolidation company to see what they do about all the outstanding bills I still had to pay. I told the guy that I wanted to clean up my credit report as quickly as possible so I could do things like get a new car or apply for a mortgage when the time was right. Fortunately, they were able to help me.

I was able to secure a consolidation loan that allowed me to pay off all of my creditors and old bills immediately. From then, I just had a single payment to make every month, at a very reasonable interest rate. I ended up saving thousands of dollars in interest and other penalties and fees, so I absolutely made the right move there. Moreover, I checked my credit report every six months, and started to notice some improvements. Several negative entries were no longer available, and the overall rating had improved drastically as well.

These things didn't happen overnight, and it took a lot of self-restraint and discipline to stop spending so recklessly. But judging from my credit report, the hard work has already paid off. Pretty soon, I'll have an excellent rating and will be able to enjoy the financial freedom I've always wanted!

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