Time, effort solves most credit problems

The passage of time makes us older and wiser... and it can help clean up your credit report if you do certain things right.
Derogatory credit information is supposed to be automatically removed from your credit record within seven years.
So, it only seems logical that one long-term option is that you simply wait this period out, then resume using credit. This is fine if you have no need of a home, a car, a job, travel plans, vacations, clothes, and you prefer to work on an all-cash basis. You will never buy anything online or by mail order, and you'll shun every mall and shopping center you pass by in your day-to-day life.
From my point of view, however, this is a very bad way to approach your credit repair strategy.
You don't need to wait more than 1-3 years to obtain new credit. But, here's the rub: you must avoid adding any more derogatory marks to your credit history. Not a single one! Today is the day you clean up your credit, once and for all. Each late payment or over-limit fee resets that 7-year clock ticking, and you're back to square one again.
The key really is quite simple: demonstrate prompt payments on every debt you owe from this date forward. No excuses, just do it.
Add to this true income stability and a healthy debt-to-income ratio, and you'll be well on your way to improving your credit in short order.
Based on my own experience of dealing with bad credit it the past, you will typically be mailed charge card and credit card applications within 12-18 months if you can show a steady income. Then, after opening and correctly using -- and not abusing these new forms of credit -- more offers will appear.
There are people who ask me: "What if my credit report still contains bad information about me after all this work to clean it up?"
My answer is: You have the right to have inaccurate derogatory information removed from your credit report. Accurate derogatory information stays put. You'll have to deal with it.
A credit report that contains errors is easy to clean up. You can use the free process provided to everyone under the FCRA (The Fair Credit Reporting Act). But you should only dispute derogatories that are in error. Disputing accurate negative credit entries may work in some instances -- as where a creditor doesn't have the time or manpower to respond to every credit bureau reinvestigation request received.
If a creditor does not respond to a written request to reinvestigate that person's credit report, according to the FCRA, the disputed information is required to be removed from that person's credit report. Pure and simple, cut and dried.
The result is that a consumer can have correctly reported derogatory credit information removed from his or her credit report quite easily. But that still doesn't make it right, and might not work in many instances.
It's been reported that half of all disputed items are removed from a credit report every time a dispute is filed. There is no limit to the number of times you can dispute the same item of credit information.
However, it's not ethically right to make a frivilous or fraudulent request to clean up your credit. The right thing to do is check your credit, sweep out the inaccurate items littering your reports, make positive entries as best you can, and commit yourself from here on out to make better use of credit and to pay all your bills on time, every month, rain or shine.
And let time help you heal the bruises of bad credit once and for all!
It can be done. I've done it. Millions of other consumers can do it, and you can do it to!