Credit Repair - Midland,TX

I work in the loan industry and am in charge of credit reporting at our company. Paying for credit repair is just plain silly, in my opinion. Here is what a company advertising credit repair can do for you: basically they will provide you (or send on your behalf) a form letter to your creditors/anyone listed on your credit report asking for validation (proof) of the account. If a creditor cannot provide validation that what they listed on your credit report is correct, they are supposed to remove the account from your credit report. There is NOTHING that a company can do that you cannot do yourself, very easily.

If you are concerned that items on your report are incorrect, then all you need to do is do a dispute online at experian.com, transunion.com or equifax.com. Their websites are easy to navigate. You can get 1 credit report (per bureau) for free each year. Annualcredit report.com is the site I have used in the past. It is easy to dispute an account and then your creditors have an opportunity to review the account and adjust it or delete it if needed. If they do not respond to the credit bureau in a timely manner (30 days) then the account is deleted.

Please be aware, however, that there are usually dedicated staff that handle these disputes and DO actually review and respond. I would say 99.9% of the accounts I review are completely correct and SHOULD BE listed on the credit report. We RARELY remove an account. And to be honest, I do realize that the economy is tough and people make mistakes and yadda yadda, but a credit report is supposed to show your credit worthiness and whether you have paid on time etc. so it pisses me off when a customer has an account that went unpaid for 2 years and then they send us 10 disputes in a row wanting it deleted...it makes me think, "Deal with the consequences of not paying! Argh!" Truly, I think your best bet is to review the credit reports, do an online dispute, send a letter to your creditors asking for a "goodwill" adjustment, and then make sure you pay your accounts on time going forward....Sorry if that sounded harsh. Good luck

4 moms found this helpful

A company will charge money to do something you can do yourself and may claim they can do something they legally cannot. Go to www.annualcreditreport.com It is the site for free credit reports from all 3 agencies setup by the govt. Click in and it will take you to the bureaus site so you can order and create a signon and password. The report will be available 30 days and you can file a dispute for anything that is invalid, and can usually get collection items off as well if you request it-depending on what it is. A free report is available once per year per agency so you can space ot out to request one from one agency now, one from another in 4 months etc. Transunion also offers tips to improce your credit if you sign up for their free email. They will try to get you to buy your credit score but you don't have to.

4 moms found this helpful

When I had our third child and quit my job, we went through a credit counseling program. Some out there are scams, but a couple are really good. Even Dave Ramsey says if you have to he has a couple he would recommend.

What they do is negotiate with your credit card companies to lower the debt, or interest rate, or payment. You make a lump payment to them and then they pay the cards.

The positives:

It was a payment we could handle and out debt went down much faster.

The negatives:

While we were on it, our credit sucked, but when it got down low enough that we could handle the payments ourselves and got off of it, our credit improved almost immediately.

2 moms found this helpful

I've never used one and I don't really know what you/they mean by "repair." If you have a low credit score, only time and timely payments will "repair" it. If you have things on your report that aren't yours, you can "repair" it yourself with a letter to the credit reporting agencies. That being said, I had a friend who had run up significant debt. She used a bill consolidation service who consolidated her bills and worked with her creditors. She made one monthly payment to the consoldation company and they divied the money out to her creditors per the agreements they made with them. During the time she worked with the company, she was not allowed to get any new credit cards or charge on her old ones. She was allowed to have a major credit card for emergencies, but could not use it except for emergency. It took her a couple of years, but all of her debts got paid and her credit rating soared. Shortly after, she was able to finance a new car!

1 mom found this helpful

Repaired? I have never had it repaired...Mine will be broken for the rest of my life...I am sure.

I had a big sum of debt Consolidated. Which worked out ok...Except they had no way of telling who I owed money too...so for three months I got to collect all of the bills...and they got to organize them....by date.....and then give them each piece of information. It was tedious to say the least.

Just got done making Last payment though on that debt! Extra 117 bucks to put towards yet another;p

Good luck...and even if it seems like there is no light on at the end of the tunnel..There is. and you are not alone.

1 mom found this helpful

There is nothing or no one that can "repair" your credit but time, making payments on time and disputing ANY file that is NOT correct. Which is something you can do on your own.

These "credit repair companies" charge you a boat load of money to write letters to the credit bureaus...all the things you can do.

Pull your credit reports from all three bureaus, compare them. Anything that you know is wrong, dispute it. Write letters to the credit bureaus about your dispute, in fact, when you get your report, it has a section to dispute inaccuracies in your report.

If it's true and correct, no amount of letters will change it. You can prove payments by using cashed checks as proof that payments were made on time, etc. Make a copy of it and include it with your dispute.

DO NOT use a company to do this. Do it yourself.

Don't use one that charges money. There are free ones out there that are legit. The ones advertising on TV just take your money, make promises, and then do nothing. And you're still on the hook.

The best thing you can do is work with your creditors. Talk to them. If it's medical bills, the hospital will work with you.

Try going to the library and see if you can find a Dave Ramsey book. (That way you don't have to BUY it!) He talks a lot about credit repair. It's hard, but it can be done.

Good luck!
D.

No one can "repair" your credit. There are legitimate companies that can negotiate lower rates, or help you with settlments, of course these companies charge you a hefty fee. You're much better off taking care of the situation yourself.

Then there are also debt consolidation companies. They work in different ways but the basic concept is instead of making payments to all your creditors, you make a lump sum payment to them and they pay your creditors. They also negoiate settlements and rates and will handle the debt collectors.

I've read several good articles on msn.com money section http://money.msn.com/credit-and-debt You may want to do some research there.

Have you gotten your annual free credit report and checked it for errors? That's a good place to start.