Credit Repair? Good or Waste of Time?

DON'T DO IT! You can repair your credit yourself by paying your debts off and paying your monthly bills on time. Other than this, there is nothing legal that these companies can do. You can call the companies yourself and ask them to lower your interset rates.

Go to www.daveramsey.com and look up all the advise on this subject. YOu can listen to him on 570 am M-F from 1-4 pm or listen to his show archives on his website. Good luck.

My husband had credit issues that he brought into the marriage. We have heard that credit repair companies were a rip-off, so we fixed it ourselves. He went to the bank and got a personal line of credit and paid off his debts. We did get a copy of his credit report and protested a few things that we were able to have removed. Sometimes when you pay off an outstanding debt, the place that you owed will not take it off of your report. Also, you can get with a company and make a deal... We owed our old apartment complex $900 when we moved out. By talking to them and disputing some things that they claimed we owed, we only had to pay $300. Remember, they are people too and will work with you. When stuff goes to collections, they buy it for a fraction of what you really owe, so you can talk them down. We owed one $500 and said that they could take $250 now or nothing at all and we made a deal with them.

If you dispute a claim, send it to the collector and the credit reporting agency in writing. If the collector does not respond in 30 days it will be removed.

Good luck!

I don't know where you live, but, do not give anyone $2,000 to repair your credit. I do know of a credit repair agency that charges about $40 each per month. It does take a few months to make a difference. Initially, I would contact a good mortgage lender who is willing to work with you, for free, on your credit. They can pull your credit and see what your options are and when you might be able to get a loan. With a copy of your credit report, you can write letters to the credit bureaus to get the wrong information off of your credit. I am a Realtor and I use Melanie Cowan with Specialized Mortgage Lending at ###-###-####. She is very patient and good about explaining the process. Let me know if I can help.

Just get a list of the credit companies... Equifax, Transunion, Experian..., and then write them with details. They will take stuff off if it's wrong.

http://www.creditsourceonline.com/credit-report-companies...

This is a waste of time and money. They should probably be reported to the better business bureau.

If you want to clean up your credit, you can call (or write) the credit agencies and dispute the charges. Or, you can call the creditors themselves and see if there is a way that they will agree to have it removed.

If you cannot do this yourself, the credit repair agencies will not be able to do it for you either.

And, if it is really old stuff, it would all drop off at seven years, anyway.

Good luck.

Don't do it. Anything the credit repair company can do you can do on your own. Get a copy of your credit report and if stuff is over 7 years old, it should no longer be on there. Dispute it (normally you can do it online directly from your credit report)and they should remove it. Somebody I know went to one fo those "repair companies" and all the company did was dipute everything. You can do that on your own. Some credit companies/debt collectors won't fight it and it will be removed from your file. Whatever you do, DON'T pay the money.

We have never had a credit issue. All bills we have are paid on time if not before time. That said....I cannot possibly see how spending money with a credit service can help you. We are very numbers oriented in my family. You can negotiate so much. If you do it without the 3rd party, then you and your creditor should be ok.

I can't fathom what an agency will do for $2000 that you can't do for yourself with delayed gratification and self discipline. Negotiate with your creditors, talk to the top 3 credit reporting agencies and do it yourself. You'll have $2000 less spent on someone else claiming to do this for you.

You can do it. Don't help these credit companies make more money off of you.

Susan

A really good friend of mine lives in McKinney and has a credit repair business. His name is Mike Ayres and his website is www.streamlinemycredit.com. He is a super nice guy and I'm sure will be happy to talk to you about what your best options would be - even if it is not using his services.