JoshWe’re often told that having a poor credit score can affect our lives for a long time. You might even believe that poor financial decisions you’ve made in the past will haunt you forever. Undoubtedly, poor credit can be frustrating for things like taking out personal loans and obtaining home loans. However, your choices going forward can determine just how impactful it can be. Take these actions below, and navigating poor credit might be less stressful than you think.
Take Advantage of Alternative Loan Offers
It’s only natural to approach traditional lenders like banks when you need a loan. Being turned down can make you think that you’ll never be able to get a loan for things you want and need. However, you can still explore title loan offers.
Title loans are one of many options you can consider when your poor credit score makes you ineligible for traditional lending. Rather than using your credit score as the main factor in the approval process, title loan lenders take your vehicle title as collateral. You then receive it back when you pay off the loan.
Your homeownership dreams also don’t have to be over when you have bad credit. Many lenders offer bad credit home loans. Some lenders even offer FHA loans with credit scores as low as 580 and sometimes even 500.
Seek Professional Help
Poor financial decisions often arise through a lack of financial knowledge. If you don’t know how to manage your money, you may not make the best choices with it. With that in mind, reaching out to professionals for help can make sense if poor credit is affecting your life. Financial service providers can offer helpful money management advice and might even be able to help you improve your credit score. Part of improving your financial situation may involve entering into a debt review process. If you’re considering this step, it’s important to understand the timeline and commitment required. You might be wondering, ‘how long does debt review last?’ Gaining insight into this process is crucial, as it can provide a structured path to better manage your debts and eventually improve your credit score.
Purchase Tradelines
Tradelines are activity records for credit that are reported to a credit reporting agency. They are used to calculate credit scores. Everyone gets a tradeline when their new line of credit is started, such as when you sign up for a credit card.
While you can create tradelines yourself, you can also buy them and piggyback on someone else’s desirable credit. This is known as becoming an authorized user. Being an authorized user of a well-managed credit card may improve your credit score.
Review Your Credit Report
Not everyone with poor credit knows why their credit score is as low as it is. They might not remember making late payments or doing anything to harm it. In that case, reviewing your credit score can be a good idea.
Not all cases of bad credit are your fault. Instead, there are many common credit reporting errors. A credit report may contain incorrect or incomplete information due to identity theft or fraud, credit errors, and data management mistakes.
When these issues have nothing to do with how you’ve managed your finances, you might be able to see them rectified. That could mean you no longer have to worry about a low credit score affecting your life.
A poor credit score can impact your life in many ways, but it doesn’t have to. Reviewing your credit score, seeking alternative loans, and even purchasing tradelines might give you more financial freedom than you thought possible.