Repairing Your Credit After Completing Your Military Service
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While you were in the military, managing your credit may not have been your top priority. It can be difficult to focus on money matters when you are concentrating on serving our country. Nevertheless, military servicemembers and their families have financial needs that can’t be put on hold until military service is over. Once you’ve returned home, it’s time to get on top of these credit issues right away before they get worse.
Get A Copy Of Your Credit ReportThe first thing you should do when you get home is get a copy of your credit report from one of the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian or TransUnion. You are entitled to a free copy of this report once a year. This report will tell you where you stand with your credit picture and alert you to possible fraudulent charges on your report.
Start Making Regular PaymentsIf you’ve missed or delayed payments before, now’s the time to put an end to that behavior. The sooner you start creating a responsible credit history, the sooner your credit will improve. Even if you can only make the minimum payment each month, it’s better than missing a payment entirely.
Budget YourselfOnce you’ve left military service, it may also be a good idea to create a budget. Know what your monthly expenses will be and how much disposable income you can afford. Remember to include your credit card and loan payments in the budget. If you can, try to make it so that you can pay a little more to each creditor every month. This may hurt in the short term, but it will get your balance down faster.
Consider Debt Consolidation LoanTransferring your high credit card balances to a card with a lower APR or taking out a low interest loan to pay off those credit cards can be a great way to get your credit back on track. Just remember to make the payments on the new loan or card.
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