A Credit Repair Forum - Helpful Or Hurtful

A credit repair forum can be a good place for advice from people who have been there. These forums are full of people who are having debt problems or have overcome debt problems. The danger of getting information from a credit repair forum is that you'll get bad information that hurts your credit.

While most people in any type of Internet forum have a sincere desire to help, there are some who like to cause trouble. This isn't just the case in a credit repair forum, but everywhere online. And even among those who want to help, they can inadvertently hurt.

Some of the people who post and answer questions in forums have very good knowledge about credit repair. They can be helpful because they've been in your situation. They may be able to put you at ease by letting you know you're not alone. Others can cause problems without meaning to.

For instance, someone in a credit repair forum who doesn't have specialized knowledge might tell you that to repair your credit you should apply for a few credit cards so you can start paying them regularly. But if you're accepted by all of them you could have too many cards. And if you're rejected, they've done a hard credit check that will show you tried to get more credit.

Both of these scenarios can lower your credit score. If you have problem credit, the most likely situation is that you'll end up with several credit checks and no acceptances. This will lower your score even more. Someone offering advice in a credit repair forum might not know this.

The best way to start improving your score is to stay at your current amount of credit, and aggressively pay down the balances you owe. One of the most damaging problems is too much debt. If your cards are charged almost to the limit, your score is lowered.

If you can start paying more on those cards and lower your balances, your credit score will slowly improve. This gives you more credit available and improves your debt to credit ratio. Doing this to increase your credit available is better than acquiring new cards.

Some people in a credit repair forum may encourage you to apply for certain credit cards that they claim can help you. They may call them credit repair credit cards. They could really think they're being helpful, or they may be out to make money when you click their link and sign up.

Either way, these credit cards will cost you money you probably don't want to spend. The moment you get your card you could owe almost $200 and have $70 or less available as credit.

A secured card is one you make an initial deposit on that equals your credit limit. This is usually a minimum of $300. And often you pay $75 or more to get the card. These still count as more cards on your report, and they cost more than regular cards.

Weigh the information you get in a credit repair forum with information you get from reputable sources before you act on any advice you've been given.