The world of credit reports, credit scores, and credit repair can be daunting. But there are a few key concepts that will put you quickly on the road to achieving your credit goals, without spending a lot of time and… Read more: If you only know six things about credit, know these.

Congratulations on starting down the path to better credit, and welcome to day one of the next chapter in your financial life. This is a basic overview of how credit works; if you’re already pretty familiar, we recommend taking a… Read more: How Credit Works – The Basics

So now you know how credit works (if you need a refresher click here), but that’s not really why you’re here is it? You’re here to fix the stuff that’s hurting your credit score, so let’s talk about that. As… Read more: What Does And Doesn’t Hurt Your Credit

To repair your credit, the first thing you need to do is get a copy of your credit report. This actually isn’t as straightforward as you might have thought. Here’s why: So, Our Recommended Method When repairing your credit, you… Read more: Getting and understanding your credit reports

This topic can get lengthy, so we’re going to keep it short and give you just what you need to know about how credit scores are calculated. The first thing to know is that there are many ways of calculating… Read more: How your credit score is calculated

First off, what is credit age? Otherwise known as length of credit history, it’s how long you’ve had credit (loans, credit cards, etc.) and a record of how well you’ve managed that credit. Why is credit age important? In order… Read more: Deep Dive: How to increase credit age

We’ve mentioned credit age or credit history in a few places. Let us explain in more detail: Credit age is the amount of time you’ve had any sort of debt – a credit card, car loan, utilities account, etc. You… Read more: Credit History: How To Build It And Keep It

We’ve worked with a lot of people who have the idea that you should pay off and close all your credit cards to improve your credit score. Some think you shouldn’t get a credit card at all. Most think that… Read more: Credit Cards: They’re Different Than You Might Think

We’ve mentioned in the ‘6 Things to Know About Credit’ article that late payments are sort of there worst. They hurt your score if they show up on your credit report, and they usually take seven years to drop off… Read more: Know when and how to pay your debts and bills.

You may be thinking “What?! The government can ding my credit too?” It’s true, but there are only three types of public records that can appear on your credit report: How long are they on my credit report? Can I… Read more: Deep Dive: Public Records

Have you ever gotten the feeling that the whole credit repair landscape is a little…shady? Yeah, us too. It’s one of the reasons we started Swell. There are many folks out there that are much more interested in getting you… Read more: The Truth About Credit Repair Companies: Do You Need Them?

The good news: you used to have to send physical letters to each bureau to dispute a credit item. No more. Now you can file disputes entirely online with all three bureaus. The bad news: you still have to file… Read more: Deep Dive: Disputing Credit Report Items

Ugh. Collections. They are not fun, because unlike most other negative items on your credit report, collections agencies contact you. They remind you about the debts you’d like to forget about, and generally make you feel bad. But there’s a… Read more: Deep Dive: Collections