Spring is here, and that means it is time to get down to the nitty-gritty and clean things up. Tackle those oft-neglected areas of your life – the closet under the stairs, the garage, the pantry, the bank account. Wait, the bank account? Yes, make a credit report spring cleaning part of the plan this year – your bank account will thank you!

How do we spring clean the credit report? Start by requesting it, either through

Equifax, at http://www.consumer.equifax.ca/home/en_ca, or TransUnion, at https://www.transunion.ca/ca/personal/credit-report.page?channel=paid&cid=ppc:bing:brandtransunionexact. Doing so will give you a much better idea of what lenders see when they pull your report, and it will also help you identify areas that may need a bit of work.

If your score is not as high as you thought it would be, the next step is to identify what could be impacting your credit. Some examples of issues include too many inquiries, late payments, credit balances that are too close to, or over, the limit, or collection items. One or all of these may work to bring down your credit score. If your overall debt is high, this too may negatively impact the bottom line.

Some people assume that late or missed payments are what most reflect borrowing behaviour and therefore are the items that make up your credit report and score. However, you can have a history which includes never making a late payment but actually have bad credit because you built up too much debt or maxed out cards or applied for a lot of credit.

Right away, try to avoid making any more applications for credit, and then work on a plan to start paying off some of your debt. This is the best way to bring that credit report and score back up.

What about errors? Sometimes credit reporting agencies make mistakes – but those mistakes, if not corrected, can seriously impair your credit and ability to obtain financing. These mistakes need to be corrected as soon as possible.

One of the most common myths that still catches people off guard is that after time, things just disappear. And sure, after a period of time, most will just fade into the background, but we have seen people with things on their credit from 8, 10 even 12 years ago that are still reporting.

If you have credit problems, we have the solution.

DebtCare can help you get your credit report back on track. Call us today at 1 (888) 890-0888.