The consequences of damaged credit can be extensive and when it comes to trying to repair your credit it can be frustrating trying to decide how to start improving it. Your payment history makes up a substantial part of your score and having past due accounts have a considerably negative effect on your score. Taking care of those is crucial to improving your credit score. Your aim is to have your past due accounts being reported as either paid, current or deleted.

If you do have accounts that are in good standing don’t sacrifice them for the one’s that aren’t. In other words continue making timely payments on all of your current accounts. A debt collection is one of the worst entries on your credit report. A collection is a severely past due account that will make it very difficult to obtain credit. If at all possible clear these up as soon as you can so that they can be deleted from your credit record or at least be reported as paid or current. Be sure you speak with the debt collector before paying off a collection account so that it is known they will update your report immediately.

Keep in mind that when you apply for a credit card or loan the company checks your credit and they show up as inquiries on your report and put a short-term dent in your score. Start a loan search by checking around and comparing the rates rather than applying for some loans first and deciding later. Try to do all of your comparing within the same month as car and home loans are counted as only one inquiry if they are done within 45 days of each other.