If you're like millions of Americans, then your credit score and standing is in some disarry. Whether it's student loans, or credit card debt, or back taxes, if your credit has taken a hit, then you've got some work to do. And you probably don't have money to spare to get a professional to explain the process of repairing your credit to you step by step.
So if you want to know how to fix your credit, follow this advice. First, you need to get your most recent credit reports. You can't learn how to fix your credit if you don't know what your credit score is, exactly, after all. These credit reports have all the information you could possibly use when it comes to how to fix your credit, and you are legally entitled to free credit reports from all of the credit bureaus every year.
And you should take advantage of that, since the three credit bureaus might have conflicting information. You want as complete and total a view of your credit history as is possible, so taking all three reports into account is a must.
Once you have all three credit reports, the next step in the how to fix your credit process is to call out any inaccuracies. If you see a bill on any of your reports that is wrong, you have the legal right to fix it. And you absolutely shoud - why should you be punished for someone else's error? The credit bureaus are themselves good about including a detailed description of how to dispute an inaccuracy, and if they don't, you should just write a letter to them detailing the error and demanding that they fix it. It may take some work on your part, but it will be worth it.
The next step in how to fix your credit is where the money part comes in. If you have bad credit, that means you have past due accounts. Take care of these first and foremost. Nothing ruins your credit - or continues to ruin it - like having past due bills on your record. So get a detailed, current list of any accounts that are past due, and work on paying them off as soon as is viable for you.
After that, take a look at your accounts that have been maxxed out. Taht means credit cards, generally, that are bumping up against their limit. While credit card companies love you to carry a lot of debt and just pay down the interest rather than the principle, your credit suffers as a result of this. So give yourself some breathing room.