How to Deal with Bad Credit when You Are Trying to Buy a Car

Bad credit. It can negatively impact numerous aspects of a person's life. One area where it will definitely have an adverse affect is when someone attempts to buy a car. Fortunately, there are five easy steps that a car buyer can take to repair their bad credit.

Repairing Bad Credit - Step One

The first step for a potential car buyer would be obtaining their three credit reports from the major credit reporting agencies: Equifax (www.equifax.com), Experian (www.experian.com), and Trans Union (www.transunion.com). Once they are obtained, the reports can be reviewed for negative items to be disputed. Disputed items are removed or corrected. If an item cannot be re-verified it is removed from the report.

Borrowers have the right under federal law to dispute negative items on their credit file every thirty days and are allowed to repeat the process as many times as they want. Eventually the credit bureaus may no longer be able to verify the information and at that point it would have to be removed from the file.

Repairing Bad Credit - Step Two

Step two is writing letters to the credit bureaus regarding negative items in the credit file. Negative items that a car buyer should get removed are things such as bankruptcy, charge offs, or collection accounts. The letter should state that these accounts do not belong to the consumer and should be removed from the credit file immediately.

If an account has been paid off but was severely past due at one point, it is best to write the bureaus that the account was never past due and that the credit report must be updated immediately to state that the account has always been current.

Repairing Bad Credit - Step Three