It’s O.K.!!! You are not alone!!! Millions of Aussies have, at some stage in their life, got themselves into bad credit. There’s a billion legitimate reasons why – but let’s not get bogged down with why it happened, let’s just be constructive and focus on 5 tips towards fixing it once and for all!Right! Let’s Go!TIP NUMBER 1 – MAKE A COMMITMENTFirst, GREAT NEWS! Anything that has been listed on your Australian credit report file has an expiry date! If you have had a payment default listed on your file it will only stay for 5 years. So now you must say to yourself,”Right. From today on I will do everything in my power to prevent anymore defaults being listed on my credit file.”Great Commitment!TIP NUMBER 2 – GET A COPY OF YOUR REPORTNow you must get a current copy of your report to understand exactly what has been listed. You can get this for free. Go to Veda Advantage’s webpage (the direct link is attached at the very end of this article to help!) where you can arrange a free copy. Please be patient and do it! You do have to answer a lot of questions as they must ensure you are the correct person before releasing the credit report. Consider it a challenge! In approximately 10 days you will have your report and you should feel empowered! These listings can actually stop you from obtaining a traditional bank loan – or is that what you here? A declined loan due to bad credit?TIP NUMBER 3 – MAKE CONTACTContact them. Yep, take control – it’s an uplifting feeling! If you owe money to someone, or a business, tell them you want to make wrong right and ask them what they would be prepared to accept to cancel the debt and have the default removed from your report. Most will be fair and you hopefully will be prepared to pay what they have advised. Remind yourself that you don’t like it when someone doesn’t repay you what they have borrowed. Some may not be fair. If you really can’t see eye to eye just take a breath and ask yourself this:Am I prepared to wait five years for this to eventually fall off my record?Your answer should determine whether you continue to negotiate or close the book and mark your calendar for 5 years time.TIP NUMBER 4 – OBTAIN A BAD CREDIT LOANTake out a loan and consolidate all of your outstanding debts. The reality is you probably don’t have the cash to pay back your creditors, so add up how much you need and get one loan to pay everyone back you can. I know you may be thinking, “hang on Rache, the banks won’t lend me money because of my bad credit report so you are not making sense” and yes, you are fundamentally right. What you may not be aware of is that there are specialised lenders (often called bad credit lenders) out there ready to help you. The traditional main street Banks more than likely won’t but that’s how these bad credit lenders (such as Fair Go Finance) were born. These lenders do charge a higher rate than the traditional banks but they do take into consideration your income and ensure you can afford the repayments.FEEL IT?Hopefully you are getting a great sense of relief and pride that you are now taking control your life. Great work! You deserve it!TIP NUMBER 5 – CONFRONT BUBBLING ISSUES Don’t allow yourself to get into that situation again. If you ever feel as though money issues are surfacing – don’t run – FACE THEM HEAD ON! Contact the lender or whoever is chasing the money. TRUST ME. They want you to payback the loan too and always have suggestions to help you achieve this. It actually costs them money if they have to enlist the help of debt collectors so they would much prefer to talk to you and work out a way to resolve your payment problems. Consider everything you own and evaluate… is there anything you could sell? Look in the shed, look at rarely used furniture and jewellery. You can actually sell items for free on the Australian website Gumtree so there really is no deterrent.There you have it!Good Luck! YOU CAN DO IT!