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A bad credit history can make it near impossible to achieve your dreams of home ownership, overseas travel, or starting a business. In some cases, a bad credit history is undeserved and if this is the case, there are steps you can take to have your credit record repaired for free.
But in many cases, a bad credit history is due to unforeseen changes in our financial circumstances, or simply because of our own inexperience with managing debt when we were younger. If you find yourself in this situation, there are lenders who are willing to give you a second chance, and open doors that otherwise would have been closed to you for years to come.
On 21st January 2016 the Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC) released a report warning consumers against the using debt management or debt consolidation firms. The report, Paying to get out of debt or clear your record: the promise of debt management firms found, among other things, that these firms “charge high fees for services of little value”.
The trouble with debt management firms is that all the services they provide can be done by yourself for free, or by approaching a free financial counselling service.
How to Fix Your Credit Record for Free
If you’ve had a loan rejected because of your credit history, the first step is to obtain a copy of your credit report from a credit reporting agency such as; Veda, Dun and Bradstreet, or Experian. Note that you could have a report with more one agency. If you find any of the information in your credit report is inaccurate or just plain wrong, contact the credit reporting agency and they will tell you what steps you need to take to have the information corrected or removed.
In many cases, this will involve contacting the creditor and disputing the information they provided to the credit reporting agency. Mistakes do happen and you have the right to dispute information listed on your credit record. If there are any mistakes on your credit report, the creditor is required to contact the credit reporting agency and have the information corrected or removed.
If you are not satisfied with the creditor’s response, contact the relevant Ombudsman for help. For more information about repairing your credit record visit ASIC’s MONEYSMART website at www.moneysmart.gov.au
Establish a Good Credit History with a Bad Credit Car Loan
A bad credit car loan will not only put you in the driver’s seat of a reliable, late model car, making your repayments on time, will go a long way toward helping to repair your bad credit history and increase your future loan prospects.
The business of bad credit car loans, also known as second chance car loans, is booming in Australia. With a number of finance businesses seeing an increasing number of bad credit loan enquiries, more products are being created to cater to the bad credit market. Tom Caesar of positivelendingsolutions.com.au says “We’ve seen an increase in bad credit enquiries over the last 4 years by over 37%.”
Bad credit car loans are available to people with: paid or unpaid defaults; discharged bankruptcies; or no credit history. You can also apply for one of these loans if you’ve had repossessions in the past; you’ve been discharged from a Part 9 Debt Agreement; or you’ve made too many loan enquiries.
These second chance loans give you the opportunity to show lenders that you have learned from your past mistakes and that you are now a good credit risk.