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Rebuilding your credit score is essential to securing your financial future. It can help you get access to low interest financing and make sure that you qualify for the loan or credit card you’re interested in. You’ll typically need to start rebuilding your credit if you fall below a score of 650 (which is considered a “good” score that should let you qualify for most types of credit).
There are a number of simple ways to rebuild your credit score or keep your credit from deteriorating if it’s in decent shape. These include the following:
In addition to the tips above, below are specific methods to rebuild your credit.
A debt consolidation loan can help you pay off all of your debts at once, so you’re left with just a single loan and one easy payment. This makes your debt load easier to manage and can help you save money on interest and late payment fees. You can also use a debt consolidation loan to pay off your credit cards if you want to diversify your debt portfolio to improve your overall credit score.
Credit card debt can be consolidated by transferring all of your outstanding credit card balances to low interest cards. Just be aware that it’s not recommended that you switch all of your debt over to a single card. Instead, you might want to switch your cards over one by one to multiple low interest cards (since having a high single-card credit utilization rate can bring your credit score down).
Unlike low interest credit cards, secured credit cards allow you to put a deposit down to cover your outstanding balance. This becomes your credit limit and is used to secure payment for any money you spend on your card. If you default on your payments, the bank uses this deposit to pay off your outstanding balance.
If you have a secured card designed to build your credit, your provider will report all of your on-time payments to the credit bureau. This can help you build up your credit until it’s high enough for you to access a regular credit card. Along with an improved credit score, you’ll also get your deposit back when you’ve paid off your balance and close your account.
Credit builder loans are specialized loans that are designed to rebuild your credit. With these types of loans, your lender will report your on-time payments to the credit bureaus. This will ensure that every payment gets logged and your credit score goes up faster than it would if you just had a regular loan.
The downside of credit builder loans is that they sometimes come with higher interest rates (likely because most people applying for them have bad credit). As a rule of thumb, you should try to avoid providers that charge administration or legal fees to set up your credit builder loan.
It can take several years to get your credit score back to normal if you’ve missed a significant number of payments or defaulted on several debts. And you could be looking at seven years or more to repair your credit if you’ve taken out a consumer proposal or filed for bankruptcy. You’ll have less trouble getting back on track if you only have one or two missed payments or a single bill that’s gone to collections.
To keep your credit score in check and get ahead of the curve, you might like to use a credit monitoring service such as Marble Financial Score Up. Marble allows you to track your progress in real time and even offers helpful advice to help you repair your credit faster. You might also like to consider a credit repair service like Koho, which operates an innovative repayment scheme to help you improve your credit.
To find where your credit score sits right now, you can apply to get your credit report from a credit bureau. Canada’s two main credit bureaus are Equifax and TransUnion. You can also sign up for a credit score tracking service such as Credit Verify or Mogo.
Rebuilding your credit score can take a lot of time and effort, but it’s a necessary pursuit if you want to borrow money or get low interest rates in the future. Find out more about how you can rebuild credit fast in Canada, and learn which services and products could help you get back on track with your finances.
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