I am sure a lot of you have heard of credit repair. There is so much negative information out there about credit repair & fraudulent credit repair companies that people are nervous about it. No one wants to get scammed or ripped off. Credit repair is legal & it does work. Are there no-good credit repair companies out there? Yes, but you will find that with any business. Real Estate Agents, Mortgage Brokers & banks are now recommending people see a Credit Repair Specialist if they have credit issues. Credit repair can be done DIY. You can do it yourself. I must warn you that it is very time consuming and if you do not know the laws that govern the credit reporting agencies, debt collectors etc. then you will not have good results. A good, reputable credit repair company will be able to produce quicker, better results for you. They know the law & are familiar with the dispute/verification process. They do this full time (or make sure that this is what they do full time & not on the side).
Some credit repair companies will only work on one credit report at a time. There are 3 credit reporting agencies; Equifax, Experian & Transunion. When you apply for a mortgage loan they will pull all 3 credit reports. It will takes 1 year plus if they work on only 1 report at a time. I have also seen where they will only work on 1 listing at a time. Thus prolonging the process & your monthly payments or their fee. It is important that you ask questions and that the company have a contract. This protects the company & the client. Never do business with a company that doesn't have a contract. Also never pay a company a total up-front fee for services. It is important to remember that you have 3 days under the law to cancel a credit repair contract within 3 days for any reason & get a full refund of any monies paid. Some companies will charge a sign up fee, but then bill you in monthly payments.
1 in 4 credit reports have mistakes. Credit is used in every aspect of your life these days. Insurance companies use credit reports to determine your preminum, employers use it to see if you are a "good" employment risk, Landlords use it to see if they will rent to you, utility companies use it to see if they will charge you a huge deposit; I could go on & on. If you have bad credit or you want to raise your credit score hire a credit repair company or speak with a credit repair specialist. Myfico.com community boards have great information and Sleb Credit Solutions is a top credit repair company. They have great reviews, have a proven track record & have been in business a long time. They are a small company that is local to the Indiana & Kentucky area but serve clients nationwide. http://www.slebcreditsolutions.com/.
A lot of time people are ashamed or embarrassed about their bad credit and their credit report. With the ecomomic crisis that happened, a lot of people were affected and their credit suffered by no fault of their own. People lost their jobs, their income changed; situations arose that they had no control over. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) you have the right to dispute items on your credit report. You have the right to ask for verification of the accounts on your credit report. If those accounts can't be verified (the original creditor doesn't have the paperwork etc.), if an account has any inaccurracies (wrong date, amount, etc.) or incomplete information, then the listing must be removed. You have options! No credit repair company can guarantee that they can get a listing removed. Doesn't mean that they won't be able to, but we never know for sure, unless the item is inaccurate in some way, is incomplete or it can't be verified. I have seen a lot of legitimate, negative items be removed, but no one can guarantee this for sure! I have seen it done many times though. It is important if you hire a credit repair company to repair your credit that you are truly going to pay your bills on time from this point on & manage your credit good. If you are not committed to manage your credit appropriately then credit repair will have been a waste!
Good luck! Credit repair is a great thing, but it is not magic! It can take time. You must have patience. Really check out any credit repair company before choosing or hiring them. There are actually a lot of great credit repair companies out there.
