Posts Tagged ‘Creditor’

How To Use A Secured Credit Card To Repair Your Credit

If you have ever had credit cards, paid a bill monthly, or obtained a loan, you have a credit rating. When you make payments to a creditor, they report these payments to credit reporting agencies that compile your credit report and track your credit history. If you miss a payment, or even worse, your debt gets sent to a collection agent, this affects your credit rating negatively, and may prevent you from obtaining more lines of credit when you need them in the future.

As soon as you realize you are in this situation, it is crucial that you immediately begin to make an effort to repair your credit rating. To most people, this seems like a difficult thing to do, but doing nothing to repair your credit will only prolong the damage for up to seven years. Until your credit is better, you will find that you are barred from any type of loans or even activities that require credit, such as renting a car.

One way to repair your credit is to obtain a secured credit card. You may wonder how this is possible with bad credit, when you will most likely be declined when filling out a credit card application. However, without a credit card, you will have a hard time proving to creditors your responsibility in making payments on time.

Try a secured credit card. Secure credit cards are marketed specially toward individuals with poor credit. These credit cards work when the customer applies a deposit equal to their credit limit. For example, if you make a deposit of 100, your credit limit will be 100. The credit card company then be use your deposit toward any balance on the credit card resulting from late payments.

This type of credit card is risk-free for the company that issues it, because they can always deduct the balance from your deposit, so it makes sense to issue these cards to people with poor credit. One drawback to secured credit cards, however, is the annual fee that most regular credit cards dont charge.

After you have obtained one of these secured credit cards, use it sparingly but regularly, and make sure you mail all of your payments on time. This will enable you to slowly, but surely, repair your credit. You will demonstrate to your creditors that you are trustworthy, responsible, and pay your bills on time.

Taking steps towards repairing your credit will eliminate the risk of keeping your credit rating poor for up to seven years. However, after seven years the black marks on your credit will finally be taken off, so waiting is always an option. If waiting is not an option, take the necessary steps toward credit repair. Obtain your secured credit card, use it responsibly, and reduce the seven-year sentence of bad credit.

HOW TO DISPUTE A CHARGE ON YOUR CREDIT CARD

You need to write to the creditor at the address shown on your statement for “billing inquiries. You must Include your name, address, account number, and a description of any errors.
Send your letter of dispute as soon as possible. It must reach the creditor within 60 days after the first bill containing the errors was mailed to you.
The creditor has to acknowledge your complaint in writing within 30 days of receipt. At the latest, the dispute must be resolved within two billing cycles, but not more than 90 days.
Unauthorized Charges. If your credit card is used without your permission, you could be held responsible for up to 50 per card.
If you report the loss before the card is used, you can’t be held responsible for any unauthorized charges. I
To minimize your liability, it is imperative that you report the loss as soon as possible. Most issuers have 24-hour toll-free telephone numbers to accept emergency information. If you have managed to notified your credit card company by telephone It’s important that you follow-up with a letter which includes your account number, the date you noticed your card missing, and the date you reported the loss.
If you have a dispute about merchandise or services. You can dispute charges for unsatisfactory goods or services. To do so, you must:
Have made the purchase in your home state or within 100 miles of your current billing address. The charge must be for more than 50. These limitations don’t apply if the seller also is the card issuer or if a special business relationship exists between the seller and the credit card issuer.
First make a good faith effort to resolve the dispute with the seller. No special procedures are required to do so.
If these conditions don’t apply, you may want to consider filing an action in the Small Claims Court.