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Thousands upon thousands of people are presently carrying a damaged credit score, and many of these same people dont know that they have this bad credit. You should request to get your free annual report so you can tell where you stand. Your report will help you to really understand whats behind your credit score, so you can repair the problems. If you see anything that looks fishy inaccurate, misleading or somehow erroneous information, then you might look into having credit repair services to help.

You should begin with your report, this is the best starting point. Every year you can get a free copy and see if you have any information that could be hurting your score, especially information that seems outdated or even could be identity theft. Once you have spotted these problems, immediately take action towards repairing your score.

Credit repair services are professionals in planning what to do with the bad data on your report, and they can do most of this work for you.

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Do you have a question about consumer credit? You may find an immediate answer by using the search engine. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, please fill out the form, being as specific as possible.

Please note: The Ask Experian team cannot respond to each question individually. However, if your question is of interest to a wide audience of consumers, the Experian team will include it in a future column.

I made payment arrangements to pay a debt to the original credit card company; however, a third party collection agency is now contacting me for payment on the same account. Who should I be making payments to?

You should always pay the legal debt owner, or organization responsible for the debt. That means your payment should go to the collection agency if it now owns the debt.

Collection agencies may collect the debt on behalf of the lender, or they may purchase the debt from the lender.

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People struggling with bad credit know how difficult it is to get approved for a new credit card. But what if you were given the chance to open a new credit card with the agreement that you’d pay off an old debt? Would you accept the offer?

In December 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported a credit card arrangement just like this. Consumers with bad credit were able to get a new credit card, but it required them to pay several hundred dollars per month toward an old debt. Is it worth it?

How Old Debts Become Duds

After a certain amount of time, creditors and collectors lose their power to pursue you for a delinquent debt. The statute of limitations, which determines how long you can be sued for a debt, is different for every state, but ranges from 3 to 15 years. In most cases, the statute of limitations on debt is six years or less. If a collector sues you for a debt you haven’t touched in several years, all you have to do is prove that the statute of limitations has passed and the case will probably be dismissed.

Then there’s the credit reporting time limit which dictates how long delinquent debts and other negative information can appear on your credit report. That time limit is seven years for most negative data and ten years for bankruptcy.

Making Old Debts Anew

Once the statute of limitations has run out and a debt has fallen off your credit report, debt collectors realize they have little hope of ever collecting a debt from you. But, accepting a new credit card attached to the old debt reinvigorates that debt. You’re on the hook again. If you fall delinquent on your payments a second time, the debt collector can sue you and report the delinquency on your credit report. But, on the bright side, if you make your payments on time and handle the debt responsibly this time around, you may qualify for a better credit card offer.

Getting New Credit Despite Your Bad Credit

Whether you feel morally obligated to pay back the debt or not, signing up for an offer like this isn’t the best way to get your credit back on track. There are other ways to get a credit card that don’t involve reaffirming your old obligations.

Even if you find it hard to get approved for regular credit card or retail credit cards, a secured credit card is usually the best option. Secured credit cards require you to make a security deposit to secure the credit limit. The Capital One Secured Mastercard has an offer that lets you pay $49 or $99 for a $200 credit limit, if you qualify. Worst-case scenario, you’ll have to come up with at least $200 to secure your credit limit. It’s not bad considering you might have to pay that amount or more monthly if you accepted a credit card deal from a debt collector.

Don’t let a debt collection credit card offer fool you. If you know you have bad credit and you haven’t been successful at getting your credit card applications approved, you should be suspicious of any credit card offers you receive. Read the fine print thoroughly, several times if necessary, and make sure you know what’s expected if you decide to accept the offer.

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Becoming a guarantor means you have to go through most of the lending application process without the benefit of acquiring the loan. A guarantor promises to repay a loan in case the primary borrower defaults, but cannot use the account. Having a lender run your credit report has a minimal affect on your credit rating, but may become a significant in whether you can take out loans in the future.

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Cutting down on overhead costs for credit cards is a great way to keep finances manageable but it often means choosing between different features.

Both low interest and low or no annual fee credit cards can help to make credit cards more affordable and often the best of these features will not be combined onto one card.

Deciding whether to opt for a low fee or low rate card can be a struggle for anyone because each comes with different potential benefits and disadvantages.

To help you get a better idea of which choice could be better for you, here is a look at how both of these kinds of credit cards can work for or against you.

Low Fee Credit Cards

People could be paying hundreds of dollars in annual fees for their credit card (or cards) without ever thinking about it.

While some are happy to pay the extra money, especially when rewards are involved, these fees eat away at money that could be put towards repayments or savings.

While some low fee credit cards, like Westpac’s 55 Day Classic or Suncorp’s Standard Visa have combined low annual fees with competitive interest rates, they still only have basic features.

A no annual fee credit card like the Bankwest Zero Gold or American Express’s Gold Ascent card, on the other hand, combine no annual fee with additional benefits so that people can get the best of both worlds.

The trade off with a low or no annual fee credit card, however, is usually higher ongoing interest rates so these cards are best suited to people who do not usually carry a balance.

Low Rate Credit Cards

Low rate credit cards are ideal for people who want to make the most of payment flexibility with credit cards.

Anyone who carries a balance or likes to take time paying off big expenses will find a lot of value in low rate cards but they should also consider other features of the card.

While many low rate cards also carry annual fees under $100, it is often the case that the more features you want, the more the annual fee will cost.

The other thing to be aware of is that the lowest fees will almost always be part of introductory offers, and could increase once that period has ended, leaving you with a higher rate of interest and higher fees.

The Virgin Flyer, for example, offers 0% interest on purchases and balance transfers for 6 months but then reverts to 20.99%. In co

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It’s done. Google has implemented “radical” new changes to the Google Privacy Policy which will affect anyone who has anything to do with Google while they’re logged onto the Internet, and that includes just about everybody who is logged onto the Internet. Yet, there doesn’t seem to be the massive outcry you would expect from the public, at least as compared with some of the privacy policy changes made by Facebook. Is it that everyone has become desensitized to this whole privacy issue, or is it because it has to do with Google and everyone already knows it knows everything we are doing? Maybe a little of both?

Unquestionably, the privacy issue, specifically the Google privacy policy, is reaching a crescendo, especially with the federal government threatening to step up its efforts to monitor and compile personal information on the Web (ostensibly to track terrorists). In fact, th

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