Some of you may be asking, “So what do we do about late fees?” Well there’s an article that I wrote awhile back that you may be interested in. You can find this article at http://www.nextmonthonline.com/WhitePapers/Article1.aspx . It addresses several methods and tips to avoid having to pay a late fee. One method in particular that I would like to address further in this article is Skip-a-Payment technique. If you happen to know that you can’t pay your credit card bill for a particular month just skip it. Next Month Online is an independent company from credit card issuers. They allow their visitors to skip a payment for a nominal fee. This fee is generally 70% than your typical late fee. You will accrue no late fee and no bad mark on your credit report. Credit unions often offer this type of service for loans or mortgages, but first you have to fill out an application and then you need to qualify. With Next Month Online, there is no application to fill out and everyone qualifies as long as they have a credit card. Credit card companies are not very happy with Next Month Online because they are losing money every time someone uses Skip a Payment service. This is by far best service you can use if you know you will be late because you save a lot of money and avoid all hassles that come with bad credit.

Credit card companies are not backing down from increasing fees. They, for some reason, do not see us as people who make mistakes once in awhile or people with other priorities in our lives. They want their money and they want it now! This is reason you should not back down either. Hit them where it hurts, their pocket books. If you know you will be late for a particular month, just use a skip a payment service because credit card companies will no longer be taking money from you, you will be taking money from them.

Another avenue available to consumers that want to restore their credit but don't have time to research these laws is hiring a professional credit repair organization to initiate process for them. To mention one, Millennium Credit Service offers affordable credit restoration services for its clients along with other services, and their website is located at http://www.millennium-credit.com. If you decide to hire a credit repair company, it is strongly suggested that Credit Repair Organizations Act be read, and this law can also be viewed on FTC's website.

The word to be when trying to restore credit is "vigilant," because this can be a daunting task, but repairing credit can be accomplished by average consumer. If a copy of credit report has been procured, then it is time to go to work, first ensure that all personal information contain in report is accurate and up-to-date. A consumer can lose very valuable credit points by information contained on credit application and what is contained on credit file not matching. Most consumer reporting agencies will have a form that allows to update information contained in personal section of credit report, if this form is not present, create one with incorrect information above correct information and instructions on what is suppose to be contained in report.

The next phase will be to correct or delete accounts that are not yours, or contain outdated entries that should have been removed from file based on laws contained in Fair Credit Reporting Act. The types of entries that can be deleted are most revolving and fixed accounts that have been closed due to non-payment with a date of activity of seven years ago, and bankruptcies after ten years, and majority of court related rulings can also be removed after seven years. Disputed accounts have to be investigated, and it is responsibility of credit grantor to proved that account belongs to person disputing it.

Using disputing process of law is a way to ensure that consumer reporting agency is reporting correct and up-to-date information on consumer, but also under this same law it is illegal to dispute information that is accurate and correct. The good news is that accounts that have been paid off and are in good standing can stay on your credit report indefinitely, and this can work to your to your benefit because it allows reporting agency to report only good credit once credit file has been restored and maintained.