A busy life can be stressful enough, but when you factor in the psychological weight of bad credit, our anxiety shifts into overtime. Who has time to deal with bad credit when your day is already jam-packed?
At the end of a busy day, who wants to sit down and tackle hours and hours of credit issues?
Here's some good news for busy people who are struggling under the burden of less-than-stellar credit: By fitting just a couple of extra minutes into your schedule each day, it adds up over the weeks and months and you CAN fix your credit... Probably faster than you realize! It's all about your mindset:
Don't view credit repair as one big, overwhelming task. Think of it as several small tasks you can easily accomplish with just a few extra minutes each day.
If you have an extra 15 minutes:
•Pull your credit report.
•Mark your calendar with bill due dates so you're never late on a bill payment again.
•Grab a stack of unfiled bills and papers and sort them. (Filing isn't any fun but it needs to be done if you want to quickly and easily refer to previous bills. By filing for only 15 minutes a day, you'll get through it faster than you realize without it becoming a hassle).
If you have an extra 30 minutes:
•Use a pink highlighter to review any balance, phone number, address, or account that does not belong to you.
•Use a pink highlighter to review anything you feel is wrong.
•Follow up on these disputes.
•Choose one credit bureau (Experian, Equifax & Trans Union) at a time to dispute/correct the issues you've highlighted (above).
•Sign up for MYFICO monitoring.
If you have an extra hour:
•Choose one issue (such as a collections notice or a judgment) and put together a plan to deal with it. Gather the dates and amounts, figure out what action you are going to take, and deal with any phone calls or paperwork necessary.
•Plan a budget to pay down balances.
I know how busy we all are. But if you can find just a few extra minutes each day, and you spend that time by using these quick credit-fixing tips, you'll make significant progress very quickly and you'll feel good about accomplishing these "little" tasks.
Email me a credit questions Jeanne.Kelly@TheCreditOwl.com.