Have you experienced a financial setback in the past? Probably, you lost your job or your business and as result, you missed your mortgage payments, or you filed for bankruptcy. Or you have an overdue student loan that you are yet to finish paying.

Unfortunately, financial disruptions can be very damaging to your credit score and this is why you need to do your research and identify ways to fix your credit with time.

According to TheBalance, a credit score below 740 is sub-optimal and if yours is below 650, then you definitely need to start the credit repair process. If you have no idea where your credit score stands, make sure that you take time and find out as soon as you can.

Because people repair their credit with a particular goal in mind such as getting lower interest on loans or buying a house, it is very important to consult and find out how long the credit repair process will take so that you can start at a good time and plan ahead.

How Long Does It Take to Repair Credit on Your Own?

Well, it depends on several factors. Credit repair varies from one person to the other depending on their current situation.

For instance, a person who has recently missed payments over the last two years could take a longer time to improve their credit score while another person who missed payments ten years ago but whose current payment history is excellent could take a much shorter time.

While there is no definitive timeline on how long it takes to repair credit, it is important to start repairing your credit now so that you can start living the life you have always wanted in 2022.

Remember, you can repair your credit by yourself. Avoid falling for scams that promise you that they will repair your credit overnight or those that give you guarantees that they will remove accurate but negative data on your credit report.

Here are a few tips that you can use to help you repair your own credit faster.

Get Your Credit Report – The first thing you need to do is get yourself a copy of your credit report. You need to be informed of what you are working with so that you can gauge the time it will take to complete the process.

Ideally, you will have your credit report at the three main bureaus which are Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. Almost all creditors will report to the three bureaus but some don’t report to all therefore be sure to check for information from all of the three bureaus.

Read through all the details such as your installment payments, recent payments, revolving credit accounts, and your account statuses. Look for current and previous negative items that could be impacting your credit score negatively.

A free credit report can be obtained from the Federal Trade Commission at any time.

Fix And Dispute Any Errors – Just like any other financial institution, credit bureaus can also make errors. According to a report published by the Federal Trade Commission, almost ¼ of the individuals had errors on their credit reports and about 5% had errors in their credit that could have made them get loans at a higher cost.

Once you get your credit report, it is important to look for errors and inaccuracies. The sooner you can dispute them and have them removed from your report the better.

Some of the errors to look for include; typo errors misspelled names, incorrect balances, and even negative items that you are not responsible for but have wrongfully affected your score.

Once you have identified all the errors, the next course of action is to dispute them. Write a letter to the specific credit bureau that reported that item and explain to them that it is an error.

The credit bureau will investigate and if your application is successful, they will remove that item and stop it from negatively impacting your score.

Pay Your Other Debts – The credit report keeps records of all your current credit accounts and all your balances. If you have so many outstanding balances on most of your accounts, it can adversely affect your credit score.

If you have debts such as credit card debts, student loans that date back to years ago, car loan debt, personal loans, and overdrafts, start planning on how you will pay the outstanding balances.

You can downsize your current lifestyle so that you allocate more money towards paying debts each month and before you know it, you will be on top of your debts and significantly improve your credit score.