Are you one of those plagued with a bad credit rating? Well, if you are, do not think you are unique: you are simply one of the thousands of Americans who have unwittingly dug their financial pit. It is a disease, if you ask me. Fortunately, there is a cure. You ask how? Well, read on and I will tell you how to repair bad credit.

1. I advise you to terminate the use of the credit cards immediately! Keep or stash the cards in a part of the house where they will not tempt you to spend more out of them. Of course, it would be prudent if you keep at least one credit card in the event that you run into an emergency situation. You see, if you have poor credit, you might find it hard getting another card approved in the future. Therefore, if you have only one account that is open and running, then you might not have to bother about applying.

2. be honest with yourself: make sure you have evaluated your financial situation and come to terms with how bad it actually is. To rise out of the ashes, you need to have a realistic approach and mindset.

3. Locate the errors: even though you might not believe me, about forty per cent of credit reports have errors on them. Therefore go through them and if you find that the credit reports are showing you some things that you know are false, write the company and ask that they be corrected. Use certified mail so you can be very sure of whom you write to, who writes you back and who received the mail at the bureaucratic end.

4. Sometimes some things might have been removed from your credit report that would actually help you in getting a better rating. Find these omissions and get your report polished up and repair bad credit.

5. Whatever you do, you must have a working plan on repaying your debts. Whether it entails you getting another job, paying up little by little or filing for bankruptcy - a plan is a plan.

6. You can just go directly to your creditors and request that they reduce your interest rate to make you pay up faster. They often listen, but it is often better if you take up the help of a debt management company which will help you in your dealings with the credit company. This way your monthly payment is reduced, although you still have to pay the debt management company. If you use this method, you can get off the claws of a short term debt in as little as five years, your time. In fact, there is lesser damage to your credit score if you take this route.

7. Let time handle the rest. After the duration of seven years, most of the debts you owe will be dropped. This is nice news if you struggling to repair bad credit. As the year goes by, more and more of your bad credit will be reduced and gradually sloughed off.