Everyone knows that it is frustrating to have a bad credit score or even no credit score at all. This can hinder your chances of getting approval for loans, credit cards, a mortgage, a car, or home rentals among others. To be able to pay less or have it removed, you may be tempted to go for a credit repair company that says they can fix or significantly enhance your credit score within a short period. However, can these companies truly offer the promises that are being advertised to the public? This article will provide all the information you need about credit repair services and whether they are worth it or not.
Credit repair service providers provide services so that they can help you to try and get some of the negative items on your credit reports removed or somehow alter the information to have the credit scores improved. Common services they offer include:
- It entails disputing errors on the credit reports. Credit repair professionals go through your reports from any of the three major credit bureaus for any negative or unverified data that could be lowering your scores. You are then able to engage them to submit disputes for getting these items fixed or deleted.
- Dealing with Recoveries and late payments/collections. Credit repair organizations attempt to dispute entries with your creditors and collection agencies, citing unfair credit reporting and the violation of consumer rights.
- Assisting clients with the procedures for removal of “goodwill” tags. They may advise you to write friendly letters requesting that lenders and creditors kindly remove the negative marks they have placed on your credit reports since they are doing it out of goodwill and your past behavior as customers.
- Credit optimization recommendations. They provide information as to how you can manage transition plans to better your credit mix and minimize your credit utilization ratios or even add feasible records that may enhance your scores.
What can you expect to achieve, in a realistic manner?
Avoid any company that claims that they can remove all the negative entries from the credit reports or that claims to be able to increase the score within a certain range. This is a message that credits legitimate credit repair services because it does not happen overnight and cannot be done miraculously.
The primary strategy that most credit repair companies employ involves disputing adverse items and requesting information that the credit bureau relies on for reporting. A report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also indicates that credit reporting agencies inadvertently get involved in addressing approximately one-third of the complaints by consumers and end up modifying or deleting some credit report items in favor of the consumers.
However, there is no guarantee that any specific negative item would meet the requirements of being erased. Creditors and lenders also possess the legal right to report delinquencies, late payments, and other unfavorable information even if you hire a credit repair firm to block them from doing so. The maximum that credit repair companies can only do is to find out possible errors or process violations on your credit reports and negotiate with credit bureaus for changes or corrections on the reports.
There is no need to have high demands from the credit repair company, for instance, to erase accurate, timely reported negative information on the credit report. However, their knowledge and determination to work through the complaints system could entail the rectification of several blemishes that are affecting your score. The bigger potential boost is to have more errors or violations in your reports which they can identify and challenge. Just don’t expect to see a major overhaul of the credit report or see a total of 100+ point increase.
Is Spending Money to Hire Credit Repair Companies a Wise Decision?
Other legit credit repair agencies do not demand upfront charges but rather work on an installment basis requiring their clients to pay fees for their constant services. These fees are usually between $60 to $125 every month which is very expensive especially when it takes between 6 to 12 months to have credit repair.
For those monthly fees, credit repair companies offer the services of an expert to help you find errors in all three credit reports and professional assistance in writing and communicating with credit bureaus and credit grantors. Nevertheless, the same procedure is relatively easy to accomplish on your own if one is a smart consumer and willing to spend some time on this and it is free.
You are fully entitled to obtain your credit reports once a year for free from AnnualCreditReport.com and you don’t necessarily need a lawyer to dispute your credit report because you can file complaints to the credit bureaus yourself. All one needs is the willingness to try, the patience to persevere, and the assertiveness to stand up for oneself. This is where credit repair services may be useful, even with the high fees, if those are qualities you lack or if you prefer to leave it to the experts.
Whether it is going it alone or seeking professional assistance, stay away from any firm that asks you to pay large sums of money in advance without first working to repair your credit. You also need to be aware that there are credit repair scams that will just pocket your money or simply do not deliver the results that they promised. And there is no legal way to repair your credit overnight, no matter how much the whole program may look like the work of a genius. It usually requires effort, time, and education of the credit repair laws and regulations to improve bad credit.
Call now for expert credit repair services: (888) 803-7889
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