Credit Tip: While building or repairing your credit, you want at least two credit products (Credit Card, Line of Credit or Car Loan) with an original outstanding balance or a lending limit of $5,000.00 or more.

Both credit products should have at least the last 12 consecutive months with no missed payments.

The deed is done. You’ve missed a few payments, you’ve overdrawn an account or two, you’ve maxed out your credit and are hiding like an ostrich with its head in the sand.

Obviously, you do not want to be in this position, but do not fear. There are steps to take to repair your credit, that will get you into a position for a financially stable future and to even buy a house within a year or two.

That is if you begin today.

Does this sound good to you? Then keep reading.

The first step and the most important is to begin to make all of your minimum payments on all of your debt.

You can’t start rebuilding your credit until you start making your payments, even missing one payment can take you so far back that it will feel like you are starting over again.

Also, remember this is step 1, don’t worry about making extra payments at this point, just the minimums. We are trying to put out the fire, if your credit card says the minimum is $10.00, send them $10.00.

Its also better to spread the wealth here, don’t get caught making large payments on a single card trying to pay them off one at a time, to rebuild your credit you going to have to work on all of them at the same time.

CREDIT TIP 1 – Set an automatic payment for the minimum payment to be sent to your credit cards or lines of credit 2-3 days in advance of the actual due date. It can take that much time for your credit company to receive the payment. If you pay your credit card on the date it is due, and the bank doesn’t receive it for a few days they will mark that payment late; it may not show up on credit bureau but it will affect your relationship with that bank,

Bring all the balances on each card credit and line of credit to under your available credit.

I included this in Step 1.5 because some credit cards and line of credits will insist that any amount you are over on a credit card or credit line is paid as part of your minimum payment.

Ok, so here is what you are going to calm the fire.

Make all or as many minimum payments as possible. If you don’t have enough money to pay all your minimum payments, start with the smallest debt first and work your way up.

You would rather have three small credit cards in good standing, and one large account with a missed payment.

For the most part at this stage, the amount is ignored by the bureaus, they are just looking at how many cards have missed payments. So the fewer cards with missed payments the better!

So you’re caught up on all your minimum payments, now it’s time to start rebuilding your credit.

If your credit card’s limit is $2,500.00, bring your balance down to $1,250.

This goes for all revolving trade lines like personal lines of credit, credit card, and yes even store shopping cards that have 0% interest.

The reason for this revolves around a credit term called “Utilization”, but all you really need to know is that the bank wants you to have some credit ‘available’ to show that you can have credit under your name without using it.

Those with good credit can control their temptations, and don’t ever really max out their available credit.

With that said, it is better to have two $5,000.00 credit products with balances of $2,000.00 each than to have one credit product with a limit of $5,000.00 and a balance of $4,000.00.

I know it doesn’t make sense, and I would have to write a whole other post to explain this concept alone, but for now, just trust me, do your very best to keep the amount that you owe under 50% of your limit.

I won’t sugar coat this step, it’s a hard one because it means paying back some of your debt. Paying down your debt to get below this 50% threshold will take time, and early on you may not be even close.

So keep this threshold in your mind as a goal, and early on feel free to completely ignore this rule and jungle around debt to take advantage of low rate offers on other cards you may have.

PLEASE NOTE – don’t worry about the threshold if you can put all your debt onto a single low rate line of credit or consolidate your debt into a low rate credit card option. Your priority will always get the lowest rate possible than optimize how you are carrying your debt.

The goal is to have two trade lines at a minimum of $5,000.00 each with no missed payments 12 – 24 months.

When applying for a mortgage, the minimum timeframe with out a missed payment or collection is 12 months. If you have recently filled for a bankruptcy or a consumer proposal you need at least 24 months of no missed payments after you have been discharged.

These are the minimums, you could still be declined depending on other factors, but at least you have a target now. 

DEFINITION: TRADELINES

Trade lines are any type of credit line that will go on your credit report. Car loans, credit cards, personal lines of credit and mortgages all count as trade lines.

I know, you need 2 tradelines but when your credit is so bad no one will give you more credit. While that may be true for the majority of credit card companies and Big Banks, but there are exceptions:

Now, these companies are likely not going to just give you a new credit card or line of credit on the spot without some sort of security. So be prepared to have to put down $250.00 – $1,000.00  as deposits for these cards.

The bank will keep your maximum balance at the amount of money you put down (similar to a debit card) but each month they will report to the credit bureau, which will improve your credit rating.

Big Banks traditionally decline these types of applications, even with security unless you are new to Canada or have no prior credit history. So feel free to start the application process at a major bank first, and then try the list above once you have been declined.

If your credit is OK, but you are just needing an extra tradeline, you may want to consider an investment loan. Buying an investment (for example, a GIC) at the institution that you borrowing the money from, can increase your chances of approval.

This is not the ideal path for repairing credit but should be seen as a last resort. If are you stuck, this might be an option to consider. Basically, you have a forced savings plan while still earning interest.

You pay the bank some interest for the loan, yes, but are also rebuild your credit at the same time.

Auto loans can also be a good way to build credit, but don’t get caught up in the purchasing process and buy a vehicle that you can’t afford. A lot of times as well they will get you excited about the vehicle and the interest rate will be extremely high.

I recommend that you try to find a vehicle with a payment that you can afford to pay off with in 18 months. This will ensure that you have recent credit when you apply for your mortgage for you new house, and will allow you to get pre-approved for more money as the payment will no longer exist.

Building credit is important, you want to do it quickly, but not too.

Try to apply for a new tradeline every 60 days, until you get 3-4 tradelines than stop. By waiting 60 days between applications you shouldn’t have any impact to credit, you may have heard that too many credit check can damage your credit. 60 days is more than enough time between checks to avoid this problem.

Remember you only need 2 tradelines, but by having 3-4 helps with balancing out utilization and shows maturity. Some of my past clients have had 15-20 open tradelines with limits exceeding $20,000 on each of them, and all with zero dollars owing on them.

Now that you have the right amount of tradelines, your balance’s are getting smaller and you can see your available credit start creeping up.

Stay Focused! Let your credit history grow as your debt declines.

The waiting game may be the hardest step if you’ve suffered from bad credit in the past. It will be tempting to go back to earlier spending habits once you see the available credit on your cards.

It is possible, but bouncing back from a credit history horror story does take a time and requires commitment.

The worse your credit trouble has been, the longer for it to bounce back.

12-24 months is standard for a credit ‘refresh’. Remember that poor credit performance in the past will not follow you forever.

A closed credit account will still show up when your report is pulled up. You will have to explain to the bank why it was closed.

Try to keep paid of cards open. Each month whether you use them or not credit cards report to your Credit Bereau and if they have a $0.00 outstanding balance, they look really good.

Change them to a zero annual fee and just let them sit there and help you boast your score, and as a bet of a PS, if you have 10 credit lines in the future, and you do make a genuine mistake, it will have less of an impact on your score than say you only have 1 credit card with a missed payment.

I recommend only closing them it the annual fee is too high, or if you really know that you will end up spending the money again.

This might be a scary process that you don’t want to do. We understand this.

Who wants to see their credit report if you know it is bad news? Yes, it is easier to avoid, but it won’t help you fix the problem. Looking at your credit report is a good step towards improving it, so next time you look at it, you don’t have to be afraid.

When you are applying for credit, banks will pull up your report. This will cause your score to go down if you apply many times in a short period of time.

This is different than never closing an account, you really don’t want to be applying for credit just for the sack of applying.

There is a special rule that applies to people who apply for credit too frequently, they are called “Credit Seekers”. Apply for 3-4 loans/lines of credit/credit cards in a month and you could be stuck with this label.

It will disappear as soon as you stop applying for credit, but why even worry about it, slow and steady wins this race. Keep the before mentioned 60 day rule in mind and slowly build your credit over time.

Everything you want to do in the future is made easier with good credit, and it comes quicker. You just have to buckle down and make sure you have a vision or dream of want you are working towards.

Grab a picture of that house you want to buy, tap it over your credit card, or even through them in a glass jar and put them in the freezer. Both tactics will remind you to think twice and evaluate whats more important, this purchase I am considering now, or that goal that I have in mind.

I would wish you good luck, but that would be leaving this process to chance, so instead, I am wishing that you can find the dedication, focus and commitment to move towards your goals, and  to a secure financial future. 

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