First Step to Credit Repair: Get Organized

The first step in repairing your credit is to get organized. That means going through all of your mail and gathering all of your monthly bills statements and collection notices together in on big pile. Now you have the task of eliminating duplicates seeing as though there is the possibility that you have let these collection notices and bills pile up. Sort through the mess and once you've complete this task you're ready to take the following steps:

Step 1: Get a pen and paper, now write down all the names, address, phone numbers, outstanding balance and account numbers that are listed on each bill and or collection notice. Now go back through and alphabetize them from A - Z. This is the beginning of your master list of bad credit to be settled and erased from your credit report.

Please note: Often times collection agencies purchase your debt from the original creditor and in some cases on collection agency will sell it to another collection agency. Be sure to look for identifying information on the collection notice to see if you can figure out who the original creditor was. This is an important detail when following through to have your credit report "re scored". If there is not information regarding the original creditor, do not worry. I will tell you how to get it later in this article. Keep reading.

Step 2: Now that you have your master list you have to double check it to make sure that you're not missing something. The best way to do this is to run a credit report ton yourself, this will give you the creditor information you're looking for. Be sure to request a "TRI MERGE" report, that's Equifax, Transunion, and Experian. These are the three national credit bureaus that keep you credit information. I you're looking for a free credit report you can go to www.freecreditreport.com or if you have a friend or family member in the mortgage business they can get one for you as well.

Step 3: After you have acquired your credit report look through each line and compare it with your master list to make sure you're not missing any creditors and or have any duplicates. If you're missing some creditor info like a phone number or if your trying to figure out who the original creditor was look at each individual trade line and usually it is listed under the name of the creditor. If it is not listed here, look at the very last page of the credit report and there you should find at least the city and state of the creditors location. Then research it via www.yellowpages.com and usually you can figure it out by process of elimination.

Step 4: Take all of your information and create a file for each creditor / collection agency. The reason for doing this is because there will be a growing number of documentation for each account that you will be working to settle and repair along with several dates, times, peoples names and conversations that must be logged and tracked in order to accomplish your goal of repairing your credit on a budget.

Finally! You're organized and ready to start negotiating with your creditors and start tracking your progress. In the following blog we will cover what I call "NEGOTIATING THEORY" along with some scripts that work really well if you're trying to save as much money as possible and settle your debt for pennies on the dollar. So make sure you take notes because all of the information is relevant to your success.