Credit worthiness is usually measured by your credit history, which represents your financial reputation among creditors. Failing to pay off your credit card debt, not paying off the minimum monthly amount, missing a payment or not making your payments on time can lead you on a path with apparently no return: adverse credit history.

Because debt management is a process to reduce, and eventually erase, your outstanding credit card debt by dealing with creditors and managing your assets adequately, adverse credit history can be repaired and even obtain debt relief over time, in return. Adverse credit history is more commonly known as impaired credit, poor credit, or bad credit tracked by the national credit bureau.

If your credit card debt has led you to impaired credit and your debt management is unclear, take the step by step credit repair guide:

- Request your credit bureau report

- Review all the entries carefully, while checking for discrepancies

- Dispute wrong and missing entries by contacting the companies

- You can pay a credit repair company if for any reason you prefer they review your credit history or your credit card debt

- Beware of financial institutions requiring you to pay upfront for such services or promising debt relief

- Companies who advise you not to contact the credit bureaus directly to get your information are also suspicious

- If you prefer to repair your credit by yourself, make sure to send your disputes using certified letters

- Include copies of supporting documentation that help you to correct an erroneous entry on your credit report

- It is not necessary to dispute every credit item on your consumer report if you do not want, but those affecting your credit card debt

- Do not forget to send a copy of your letter for each disputed item to the three national credit bureaus

- Keep a record of the number provided by every credit bureau for follow up reference

Stick to your debt management plan and get the dispute form provided by any of the credit bureaus. Log the results of your disputes, keep a receipt of letters delivered and so on. Be aware of companies or individual suggesting you to do anything illegal or that sounds risky or shady, like building a new credit file or creating a new identity or using an Employer Identification Number (EIN) or Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN)

The effort invested to repair your credit will be rewarded with the improvement of your credit score and debt relief in the long run. As for companies promising you credit repair keep in mind the old saying: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.