The most important thing is to start the credit restoration process early.  Ideally, you should start before you even begin to look at rent to own homes listings.  Credit repair is a process and one that often isn’t quick.  The first thing you will need to do is carefully review your credit reports.  Once you have done this you should write down a plan of attack.

One thing you will probably need to do is pay off some of your credit card debt.  This is especially true if you are carrying high balances.  Ideally, you will want to get your total balances below 25% of your credit line.  You should do this for each account, not just the totals.  Even better, try to use your rental period to pay your accounts off in full.  Just make sure that you save enough for a down payment should you need to make one when it is time to get a mortgage.

Next, you need to address your collection accounts.  The best way that you can deal with these is to call the creditors and say that you will pay them off in full…but only if they agree to delete all negative information from your credit file.