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If you have Bad Credit you may have heard of a credit monitoring service, hopefully we can help shed some light on what exactly a credit monitoring service is and how it can work for you. Simplified it is an annual membership service that gives you access to your credit report from the credit bureaus. With this service, you will also receive access to your credit score. This is the score that the lenders will look at when they decide to approve whether or not they will grant you the privilege of a Credit card or loan, whether it be a personal loan or a home loan.

The reason that you would sign up for a credit monitoring service is so that you can track your credit score as you improve your credit history. This way you can see if the changes that you are making are having any effect, hopefully a positive one on your credit score. The benefit of this is that you will be able to easily see what improvements are working and what aren’t.

Some of the better credit monitoring services will have tools in place that will give you an idea of what will work best in your scenario, for example, paying off your certain credit card. A very handy concept when you’re making an effort to fix your bad credit.

Another great benefit that some credit monitoring services offer is e-mail alerts, which can be set up to inform you of any changes in your credit report. This can be very helpful in detecting identity theft, which is the absolute worst nightmare for anyone.

A credit monitoring service can be especially handy in letting you know ahead of time if anything changes in your credit report. This is great if you’re applying for a home loan or personal loan.
By far one of the best services offered by many of the credit monitoring services is identity theft insurance. As a member of some credit monitoring services, you are insured for up to @25 000 in damages, if you are unlucky enough to have identity theft occur to you.

A credit monitoring service can definitely help those of us who are working towards repairing bad credit or are wanting insurance against identity theft.

Bankruptcy is a scary concept, but is often the only solution for many debtors stuck with unmanageable debts. It can sometimes be the only way to completely erase your debts and provides some relief from the seemingly endless calls from the nagging creditors.

Once you have filed for bankruptcy your Bad Credit will stay with you for 7-10 years, this cannot be changed. But rest assured there are ways you can improve your credit even before the expiry date of these negative reports. Below are 5 easy steps that you can take to clean up your credit report.

Step 1: Learn your current credit score

Without knowing exactly where you stand it will be hard to get back on track. Get a copy of your free credit report. In most cases these can be ordered online.

Have a look through the credit report, analyse it and highlight any inaccurate or negative records.

Step 2: Observe for expiration dates

You are stuck with your bad credit by law, but the expiry date might be different on different reports. Look up the date of each of the bad credit records; look for things like bankruptcy filings, judgments, charge-offs, liens, late payments, and collection records. You’ll see huge leaps in your credit score when these records expire.

Step 3: Request corrections on inaccurate records

If you managed to find any fraudulent accounts, inaccurate records, or records that have expired on you credit report, it is your right to send a dispute letter to credit bureaus to correct your records. They will in turn run an investigation as to the validity of your claim and might correct the inaccuracy in your credit report.

Step 4: Look for ways to start creating good credits

Seeing as the bad credit is there to stay, your best bet is to add good credits to your credit report and move forward, building up your credit as you go. Shop around for credit cards that some institutions issue to help people rebuild themselves after bankruptcy. Be sure to use this new Credit card responsibly though and make regular timely repayments. Remember we are building good credit.

Step 5: Monitor your progress

Lastly, subscribe to a credit monitoring service. There are also credit-monitoring softwares that will help you track your credit score closely. Your credit score will improve as you practise responsible credit habits and build your credit report with new positive information. Remember you have to be proactively involved in rebuilding your credit.

Your Credit Report- Why You really Need To Obtain It

Many New Zealanders aren’t aware they are entitled to get their credit report free of charge with in ten working days. In fact a large majority have never seen their credit report at all.

Under the Credit Reporting Privacy Code you have the right to request any information from a credit reporter for no charge unless you requested it be provided to you within a period of five working days. If that is the case they can charge a reasonable fee. Obtaining your Credit Report is a relatively easy to do exercise, you can in-fact download the form online and send it in via mail. Credit report providers under law must take steps to ensure your identity is who you say you are before providing the report but this can be as simple as faxing in a copy of your drivers license or passport and answering a few questions over the phone.

Even your local bank or credit union must disclose any information they hold about your credit record if you request it. In New Zealand there are also two companies you can contact to obtain your copy of your report, Baycorp and EC Group.

Why obtaining your report is vitally important not only may you discover incorrect details and request these be fixed. You may have some adverse history your not aware of that causes credit providers to view you as a higher risk and charge you higher Interest rates than they would others.

It also important to note that identity theft is a commonplace occurrence these days and the only way you may get advance warning of someone using your details to gain or attempt to gain credit is via your report.

Once you have your report you can see any queries raised and collate these with your own financial records to see if you actually did request the credit or not. Taking this precautionary step is a far better option than finding out someone else has opened a line or several lines of credit under your name and your now stuck with the payments and a damaged credit rating.

If any organization refuses to provide you with your credit records you can seek enforcement and even prosecution the first step would be to visit the Privacy Commissioners website for more details.