Like so many of my fellow Americans, I have bad credit. I didn’t always have bad credit though. In fact, I used to have excellent credit; I used to get pre-approved for low interest rate credit cards, I got wonderful financing options when I purchased my first car, and I never got calls from collection agencies. Unfortunately, about 3 years ago I got laid off from my job and my monthly income disappeared and was replaced with meager unemployment benefits. I suddenly had serious issues with making my bill payments on time. Very quickly, I was so behind with my payments that I started getting collection calls. I didn’t know at the time, but my credit score was going down just as fast as the amount in my savings account.

This may sound very familiar to you. Most people that have bad credit scores got there, not because they don’t want to pay their bills on time, they just can’t because of situations very similar to mine; they lost their job, or they had an accident and medical bills piled up. When money is tight you have to start prioritizing your life and make decisions like, “Do I make my car payment or do I buy groceries and put a tank of gas in the car?” or “Do I pay my credit card bill or buy the kids school supplies?” These are very hard decisions to have to make, but if you have bad credit it becomes even harder, because every choice you make seems to make you spiral further and further down the bad credit hole and you feel like you’ll never be able to dig your way back out.

You may know you have bad credit because your payments aren’t going out in a timely fashion and you’re receiving collection calls, but getting a free credit report is a very helpful tool in your efforts to get back in the black. You can see which companies have sent you to collection agencies and what steps you have to take to start repairing your damaged credit history.

Thanks to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you as a consumer have the right to request a free copy of your credit report when an application you submit is denied because of the information supplied by the credit bureau. There are also many websites that you can search online for free credit reports that will supply you a credit report, as well as some that offer services in managing and monitoring your credit, usually for a monthly fee.

Remember this: your credit score doesn’t have to stay a “bad credit score.” With a free credit report and managing your money in a more suitable way that fits your current life and income, you can work on rebuilding your credit. If you are having trouble making ends meet, contact your creditors or see a credit counselor. Take it from me, a fellow bad credit sufferer; the only problem with bad credit is not doing anything about it. There are enough tools and services at your disposal that bad credit shouldn’t be a long-term scenario, only a temporary problem waiting to be solved.