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 you know, there’s only so much stuff that factors into your credit score, so there’s only so much stuff that can hurt you:

What Hurts Your Credit Score

• Late payments
• Collections
• Public records
• High debt-to-limit ratios
• No or short credit history
• Not having enough credit lines
• Too many credit inquiries

What Doesn’t Hurt You

• Having a credit card
• Any debt that is not being reported to the credit bureaus
• Late rent
• Late cell phone payments
• Late utility payments
• Medical debts less than 180 days past due
• Being denied credit
• Overdrawing your checking account
• Receiving government assistance
• IRS payment plans
• Soft credit inquiries

That’s kind of a lot. What do I need to do RIGHT NOW?

All that really matters is WHICH of the things that can hurt your score are hurting YOUR score RIGHT NOW. Take a look at your credit report. You get a free three-bureau report once a year from freecreditreport.com. You can also get free reports from places like Credit Karma or Credit Sesame, but those will only give you reports from one or two bureaus, so…

What you’ll really need for repairing your credit is your credit report from all three bureaus, updated monthly. There are plenty of companies that offer this – many are quite expensive. If you work with Swell, we refund or deeply discount the fee for monthly three-bureau reporting with our partner MyScoreIQ, plus their service is integrated with our systems, so automating disputes is easy, and you have one place with your all of your FICO credit scores, credit reports, and repair updates. Get in touch with us for a free credit consultation where we’ll get you quickly set up with MyScoreIQ and walk you through all the negative items on your reports, what they mean, and how to fix them.