Christmas (yes, I said the ‘C’ word: Ho! Ho! Ho!) is just around the corner and consumer spending is once again at an all-time high. For those of you struggling with the effects of bad credit, the holiday season offers a small window of opportunity that, if acted upon, could open up many possibilities for you in the New Year.
People often ask me why the holidays are the best time to repair your credit. Well, I have a theory. In preparation for the flood of vacation credit applications, creditors switch gears and temporarily transfer dispute resolution staff to other divisions to handle the unusually high volume of new business. Given that creditors make so much more money by increasing their client base, it seems understandable why they justify sitting around in the disputes department for a month or so each year. This time trend allows your disputes to go unanswered, resulting in items being removed.
Another more obvious reason is that the Christmas season is a time of vacation, joy, forgiveness, charity, and new beginnings. This combination tips the scales in your favor in a measurable way. It’s common knowledge among credit professionals that this time of year is perfect for disputing credit items on your credit report. The law says that if you dispute something on your credit report, the credit bureaus have thirty days to verify that the item is valid or remove it. A vision of an understaffed creditor’s office, phones ringing off the hook, and overworked employees surfing the net for last-minute gifts comes to mind. Your chances are great.
Now comes the hard part. Where do you start? Let me point you in the right direction. While each of the major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) have online dispute methods, we’ve found they’re more trouble than they’re worth, often taking hours to analyze, and providing dismal results when they do. Also, you want a paper record and snail mail with a return receipt is still the only way. What we recommend is that you get a cheap how to book or better yet, an e-book with templates and spend an hour doing it yourself. We have one featured on our website (link below) which is a 1,2,3 kit designed to get you done in about an hour.
You can also choose to pay money for a company to help you. This is also a good option. There are many reputable credit repair companies online. Before you do that and commit to $50 to $100 a month for twelve to eighteen months, do yourself a favor and check out how easy it is to do it yourself.
I wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Copyright December 2005, yourcreditcures.com, USA.