Of course, you should be aware of your credit score, but not consumed by your credit report or score. Sure, if you have a credit score over 800 in today's economy, I say Good for You.
But, at the same time, I am thinking: "Am I really getting the entire story here?" As a consumer protection attorney, I speak with people all the time. Some people can't wait to tell you that they have perfect credit, and others look utterly defeated when they tell you their credit is in the toilet.
Credit Scores are huge in today's society, and more importantly, we have been trained to wear our credit score as a badge of honor. But what about those that are in need of credit repair? A credit score does not tell the entire tale. For example, I see people all the time with "perfect credit", but they have spent their entire savings and sometimes their retirement on monthly payments worried about their credit score. Was this the best use of their resources? Probably Not. I often wonder what thoughts were running through their heads when they made those monthly payments.
Didn't they understand that they were going deeper into debt? Didn't they realize that they were eroding their nest egg? How can they help themselves? So now, what to do. After a traumatic event like a missed mortgage payment or bankruptcy, your credit report will suffer. There is no doubt about it. So, what do you do? Well, I don't want you to hire a credit repair company. I want you to work on this yourself. You can do it. There are countless news stories about consumers who were ripped off by credit repair companies who make promises that they cannot deliver on.
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a true statement about your credit history can be in your credit profile. It is up to you to police your own credit reports. Believe it or not, you can improve your credit score just by cleaning up what may be there improperly. I know it sounds silly, but unless you have looked at your credit reports recently, how do you know what is on there? So, pull your free credit reports and get to work. It will only take an hour or so. However, if there is something on there that you can dispute and remove, you may just be adding points to your credit score.
