Title: You May Well Be In Catch 22 Of A Poor Credit Rating Word Count: 910 Summary: You may well be in a catch 22 situation of a poor credit rating. It’s not unlike the person who wants to enter the work force and finds that all the jobs they want require work experience. If you cannot get the job that will give you the work experience how are you supposed to get that work experience. Having a poor credit rating and ranking will put you into the same type of double bind. If you are a responsible individual who both wants to pay off their debts and thus im... Keywords: \ Article Body: You may well be in a catch 22 situation of a poor credit rating. It’s not unlike the person who wants to enter the work force and finds that all the jobs they want require work experience. If you cannot get the job that will give you the work experience how are you supposed to get that work experience. Having a poor credit rating and ranking will put you into the same type of double bind. If you are a responsible individual who both wants to pay off their debts and thus improve their credit rating you may well find that you are in a similar situation. The background reports, on job applicants that employers purchase behind the scenes often list credit reports prominently. It stands to reason if the employer has to place you in a situation of trust and as well must maintain the crucial image of their firm, that one of their marking points and standard references would be the results of your credit report. In addition the new employee may have to bond. Having a poor credit report may well limit your job hiring and career prospects. In addition, for reason of employability, you may need to purchase a car or find that you have to relocate and purchase or rent a new residence. Both may limit your employment opportunities, job offerings and range of job and career opportunities. Having a poor credit ranking may limit you heavily in both situations – whether it is for car payments or property rentals or qualification for a mortgage to purchase real estate. What are the steps, procedures and options in repairing a bad credit rating? The very first step is to obtain an actual copy of your credit report. A person can not plan a journey without a map. Not even a tent can be erected without a plan. Having a copy of your actual credit report can provide you with a proper list, and proper information as to what credit information has to be improved and repaired. This is the actual information that your credit rating is based upon. The only way to improve your credit rating is to work on those items on the list, by a priority sequence, one by one. For the most part there are three major credit reporting agencies. Experian , Trans-Union and Equifax. By law these agencies have to supply you with a copy of your credit report on your request. This can be done in person, by fax or by computer. Of course proper documentation and identification is required. Of course in this day and age of computerization you can often obtain your credit reports from services and agencies on the internet. A professional fee will usually be involved. It all depends on your financial status. By using such a service you can save gas or bus transportation costs as well as time so that the actual net cost of the service to you may be small if any. Again it all depends on your finances and if you have the ability, in spite of your bad credit to have the financial vehicle – be it a charge card or Paypal to pay these actual fees. Once you obtain your credit report a list must be prepared. List the items and records that are hindering your credit ranking in order of the worst first. What jumps off the page? It may not be the largest amount but rather from a creditor that is highly visible and in essence can do you a lot of harm. For example $ 100,000 owed to your uncle may not affect your credit rating as much as $ 5,000 owed to a major charge card or the I.R.S. for back taxes. Next make an attempt to make a repayment scheme to those first identified creditors. Explain that you know well that you owe them money and try to work out a payment scheme. The creditor may not even know that you have had a financial crisis. The system may just have identified you as a late payment over time – so that they have just assumed that you are a bad debtor who has no intention of paying off their bill. If possible deal with a senior employee at the firm. Work out a payment scheme if possible. Stick to that plan come hell or high water. Do this procedure one step at a time down your priority debt list. Call those creditors down the list. It is not as if you calling to tell them that some other creditor are higher up the list than them. Explain to the creditor that you are making plans to pay off your debt to them and their organization. You are attempting to improve your financial situation by obtaining a better job – in order to have a better income stream, to follow through on plans to pay them in an orderly manner. Indeed if asked they may even give you an interest freeze. A piece of a loaf of bread is better than no loaf of bread at all. In the end it all comes down to consistency and persistence. What you are trying to do is present an appearance of progress, of financial and fiscal responsibility of a person who makes every attempt to take care of their debts. Remember it is not so much a matter of specifics but rather of constant progress and an upward trend line on the bar graph.