Credit Repair - step 3 the last and final step

By now you should be done with Step 1 and Step 2. If you have yet to complete the first two steps you might want to go back and read the articles about them first.

Congratulations! Hopefully by now you were able to get negative information deleted from your credit report and are now well versed in how your credit works. The next step is extremely important as well. What good is it to fix the negatives on your credit report if you don’t work on building your credit back up afterwards? The answer, NOT GOOD AT ALL!

This is my favorite part of credit repair because as you get further along you start to feel better about yourself again. Step 1 in credit repair makes you feel sick to your stomach because you see everything that you have been ignoring for a long time. Step 2 is stressful because you just want the bad stuff off and you don’t want to wait the 30, 60, or even 90 days that it takes to get negative items removed. Step 3 ROCKS! Step 3 is all about building up your credit profile and getting new accounts set up. If you’re worried about having credit accounts again then you might want to read my article about budgeting so that you can know exactly how to use your credit accounts.


The first thing you need to do in order to build your credit back up is research the different options out there for credit cards link goes direct to application
and loans. You want to start with a small $500 credit card or loan. Bellow is a list of several different companies that can help you re-apply for credit if you have had bad credit in the past. Some of them do charge set-up and annual fees, but once you’re had these accounts for a while you can get cards without annual fees. Make sure that when you apply for a credit card you only apply for one or two you do not want to have too many new accounts set up at once. So apply for one, wait to see what the approval status is, and then apply for the next credit card. Stop after you have gotten two approvals.





After you have applied for a couple of these companies you should by now have gotten decisions. If you got approved then great! But, not everyone can get approved right away. If you did not get approved then you might have to do a secured credit card. Secured credit cards are where you give a specific amount of money and in return you get a credit card with that limit available on it. When you use the credit card you have a monthly payment due until the balance is paid back. These cards are less risk because if you default on your payment the credit card company has the rest of your money as a balance they can get by lowering your limit.

You can also try to apply for a secured loan through some of your local banks. These two would required money down but you have a little bit more safety with spending because you don’t have to use them like credit cards. You could get let’s say a $300 secured loan you make your first months payment, three weeks later you make your second, then you take the amount out of the loan that you paid on your second payment and you use it for your third payment three weeks later. After doing this for 6 months you can then close out the loan and get your money back, by then you should be able to get approved for a regular credit card.

So once you have a credit card how do you stay out of trouble? Well credit cards are supposed to be for emergencies only. They are not supposed to be used on an every day basis. This is the mistake that most people make and that’s how they get into trouble. They use their credit cards when they don’t have the money to buy something. As a personal banker I can tell you that my best credit customers are the ones that use their credit cards instead of their debit cards for every purchase but they take the purchase out of the checking account balance and then pay off the credit card every month before any interest is accrued. These customers usually do this so that they get the rewards that a lot of the good credit card companies offer like airline mileage or cash back. As long as you pay your credit cards off before the end of your statement cycle you will not have to pay anything in interest. So make sure to do this whenever you can.

There you have it! You are on your way to financial freedom. And a lot less stress regarding your credit.

If you have any questions or would like to comment please feel free to leave a comment. I frequently check for new comments and keep my blog current and up to date.