Credit Repair Companies information about credit repair services

Moving Past Basic Credit Bureau Disputes

Credit bureau disputes are at the core of most credit repair efforts and for some consumers and even professional credit repair companies, their credit repair efforts start and end here. For some, this can be an effective strategy.

When you are disputing a negative item on your credit reports with a credit reporting agency (credit bureau), you are essentially saying "I don't feel this negative item is being reported fairly and I would like for you to perform an investigation in order to verify that it should be included in my credit file." This can be done by filling out and submitting a form on the credit bureau's website, by phone, or by mail, which is the recommended method. After receiving your dispute, the credit bureau first has to determine whether your dispute is legitimate or is "frivolous or irrelevant" (exactly what this means is at the discretion of the bureau). The legitimate disputes are then investigated by contacting the original furnisher of the reported information and requesting that the verify the listing is correct. The credit bureau have 30 days (although they tend to stretch this out) to perform this investigation after which they must delete the negative item if the original furnisher is unable or unwilling to verify its accuracy.

In many cases, credit bureau disputes are much more successful at removing negative items from your credit report than you would expect. Aside from the fact that many credit reports contain errors that cannot be verified, the fact that many information furnishers simply don't have the capacity or the desire to respond to credit bureau verification requests means that disputed items are frequently deleted even when they describe something like a late payment or repossession that actually happened.

On the other hand, when a negative item ends up on your credit report because a creditor has bad information on their books (they say you were late on a payment when you never were), credit bureau disputes may be worthless when it comes to getting this error removed from your credit report. The credit bureau receives your dispute, requests verification from the original creditor, they check their inaccurate records and verify the negative listing, and you are no closer to having that inaccurate negative credit listing removed than when you started.

While credit bureau disputes may be effective, you could make the argument that they don't work well. Credit bureau disputes can result in accurate negative information being removed from your credit reports while genuine errors continue to count against your credit score.

So what can you do if you have errors on your credit reports that keep getting verified and remain listed on your credit reports? You evolve to the next phase of credit repair which is dealing directly with the furnishers of the information in your credit reports. It's time to bypass the credit bureaus and talk to the lenders, credit card companies, and courts that are reporting to them.

There are a number of tactics for getting your creditors to stop reporting negative information about you to the credit bureaus ranging from simply asking nicely for them to remove the listing from your credit report (goodwill negotiations), to more forcibly demanding that they prove to you that what they are reporting is accurate (information requests), to forcing them to jump through certain hoops to prove you owed them a debt in the first place (debt validation). When combined with credit bureau disputes, this full arsenal of credit repair tactics tends to produce the best results helping you remove more negative items from your credit reports in less time. For this reason, it is little surprise that most of the major credit repair companies like Lexington Law, DSI Solutions, and Academy Credit now offer direct creditor interventions along with standard credit bureau disputes.

Removing Minor Collections Using Goodwill Letters

Having a collection account listed on your credit report is always a bad thing. Even an isolated collection listing can lower your credit score enough that you won't be approved for low interest rate loans which can end up costing you a significant chunk of change. A lone collection account which may have been for only a hundred dollars or so could amount to many thousands of dollars when you factor in higher interest rates and higher car insurance premiums because of the impact it has on your credit score. For this reason, before applying for credit, it is advisable to try getting collections accounts removed from your credit reports.

If you have a small number of paid collections on your credit reports that are of a relatively small value, you'll want to start by sending the collections agencies a goodwill letter. Goodwill letters are you asking the collections agency nicely to stop reporting the collection account to the credit bureaus. And while this may seem like a futile attempt, goodwill letters have proven to be surprisingly effective as long as you don't have a large number of accounts that have been sent to collections.

When composing a goodwill letter, the goal is to humanize your situation and make the person on the receiving end of the letter sympathize with your predicament. A sample goodwill letter to a collections agency might read as follows.

"Dear Sir / Madam,

Last year I received a parking ticket during the last week of school because I was running late and had to take the first spot I could find. In the confusion of finals week, the holiday break, and the start of a new semester, I neglected to pay the fine and it was sent to your collections agency. Immediately upon receiving notice from you, I paid the amount in full.

My husband and I recently began shopping for a new home and have discovered that the negative listing on my credit report is hurting our ability to get approved for some financing. I'm writing to ask if you would kindly remove the collection listing from my credit report.

Best regards,

Jane Doe"

Sometimes it is as easy as that: a brief, simple, non-threatening letter written in a friendly tone. If the letter does its job, your credit reports look that much better and your credit score can see a big jump. If not, worst case scenario you are out the time it took to write the letter and the cost of first class postage.

One last caveat, however. Make sure you do not try to use this method to remove an unpaid collection account. Not only will it not work, but it could make matters much worse for you. This seems like a common sense rule, but it is something people sometimes do not think about, especially if they are enlisting the help of a credit repair company to help clean up their credit reports.

Credit Repair Scams: Four Warning Signs to Be Aware Of

The last thing someone with a poor credit score needs is to have to deal with another financial setback which is one reason why credit repair scammers are such a cancer in the credit world. They promise the world to people who are desperate for a better credit score and at a minimum, leave them lighter in the pocketbook with zero improvement to their credit. And at worse, credit repair scammers can lower people's credit score, get them sued, or even get them in legal trouble.

Credit repair scammers also have the effect of damaging the reputation of the credit repair industry as a whole leading consumers, companies, and officials to doubt even the best credit repair companies. And perhaps this is the worst thing about credit repair scams; they keep people who could genuinely benefit from the services of a credit repair professional from giving them a try. For every person who does get taken by a credit repair scam, there are probably dozens more who have avoided all credit repair companies because of the fear of being taken.

But this does not have to be the case. There are signs you can use to detect a credit repair scam and by knowing what to watch out for, you can weed out the shady companies and find a credit repair company you can trust.

Here are four warning signs of a credit repair scam:

Get a Second Credit Report

This gets pitched as the ultimate way to get rid of bad credit. Instead of trying to clean up your existing credit reports, these scammers claim to be able to help you get a brand new credit report. And while they may be able to do so by tricking the credit bureaus to generate a new report using a fake Social Security number, having that new credit report will not solve your credit problems. Not only will you still have poor credit (no credit does not equal good credit), but if you attempt to use your new credit report to get a loan or other line of credit, you are breaking the law. You could end up with the same poor credit score plus a criminal record.

Demand a Large Upfront Payment

Thieves want to get your money and get away. They'll break your car window, grab the stereo and run. They'll come through your back door, head straight for the jewelry and get out of the house before anyone is the wiser. Credit repair scammers can be the same way. They'll take all the money upfront, often times many hundreds or thousands of dollars, and while they may pretend for a while to be doing something to help you, they already have what they want and are merely covering their tracks. Any company that requires you to pay hundreds of dollars before they will do anything for you should be avoided.

No Credit Repair Contract

You have a right to know what a credit repair company is going to do for you, how much it will cost, and when you will be expected to pay. You also have a right to know all the fine print surrounding any guarantees and to know exactly what the cancellation procedure is. And because of this, the Credit Repair Organizations Act requires that credit repair companies provide you with a written contract that must be signed before any credit repair work can begin. Simply put, if a company does not have a contract, they should not have your business.

Only Accept Cash, Check, or Money Order

What better way to get away with a con than to make sure you get all your profits in cash? There's no paper trail and no method for charge backs. Once you have the money, it is up to the other person to prove not only that you acquired it fraudulently, but they also have to prove exactly how much you have taken. And for a few hundred dollars, most of the time, it simply isn't worth the work which is a perfect situation for a credit repair scammer. These days, unless you are the neighborhood lawnmower, just about every legitimate company accepts credit. Be very skeptical of any credit repair company that does not.

Why Do Credit Repair Companies Have Such a Bad Reputation?

There is an industry that, even though it is regulated by federal legislation and has been helping consumers for decades, is among the most maligned in the country. Despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of Americans have been benefited by the services provided by the companies and individuals who comprise the industry, there are still people who are adamant that the whole industry is a farce and any company who is a part of it is a con-artist.

Looking at the main heading of this article, it's pretty obvious the industry we are referring to is the credit repair industry. Despite the fact that the oldest credit repair companies have been around for 20 years, that credit repair services have helped people delete millions of negative items from their credit reports, and that the federal government created the Credit Repair Organizations Act in order to regulate credit repair companies and not to make them illegal, there are so-called "experts" in the media, in major corporations, and in government positions that claim that any company who offers credit repair services is trying to take advantage of you.

There are a few reasons why so many people believe credit repair services are a scam. For starters, there have been far too many "credit repair" clinics that truly were out to dupe people. These clinics promised the world but ended up just taking people's money. Left and right people desperate to improve their credit scores were getting suckered by these con jobs to the point that the media and legal attention these clinics received was large enough to put a shroud over the entire industry. Instead of spending the time to separate the good services from the bad, many people simply opted to accept that the entire industry was fraudulent.

And once this conclusion is made, it is easy to find supporting evidence because there are some pretty massive institutions that want people to believe that credit repair companies are not to be trusted. And who are these institutions? They are the credit bureaus who maintain your credit file and the lenders who use your credit score. The credit bureaus do not want people to try to clean up their credit report. It's bad for business. The credit bureaus make money by collecting information about you, assembling it in a report, and then selling it. Credit repair causes them to have to do additional work that costs them money and when you are dealing with hundreds of millions of credit reports, it would cost them dearly if everyone out there started working to clean up their credit. On the other hand, many lenders such as credit card companies don't want you to clean up your credit because if you increase your credit score, they won't be able to demand as high of interest payments. So, given the scale of the companies that would prefer you didn't repair your credit and the fact that their profits are on the line, it is little wonder that when people look to confirm their concerns about credit repair services, they are able to find plenty of information. Also factor in the budgets these organizations can dedicate to lobbying lawmakers and planting stories in media outlets and it's clear why the amount of anti-credit repair information dwarfs the voice of the pro-credit repair crowd.

When looking at all these factors it is easy to see why so many people believe that there is no such thing as credit repair and why it is so difficult to convince them otherwise.

Someday the situation may change. Each day, as more and more people are able to successfully increase their credit score with help from credit repair companies there is a broader base of people who know credit repair works to contend with the population that believes it does not. But until there are enough success stories to make a difference, those who do their research, find a reputable credit repair company, and work to fix their credit will be the fortunate few because their credit scores will look that much better than those of the people who will do nothing.

Now Is the Perfect Time to Repair Your Credit

There's a reason why it seems like everyone is talking about credit repair these days and why so many Americans are turning to credit repair law firms for help with increasing their credit scores. For many years, your credit rating has been a critical part of your ability to get approved for loans and credit cards. The difference is that today, lenders are offering some of the best deals in a very long time, but you have to have a higher credit rating than ever if you even want to be considered.

The credit crunch has caused interest rates and prices to dive. Combine that with the thousands of dollars new home buyers can get through incentives and it becomes obvious that if you have a good job and a steady income, now is a great time to make a major purchase. The only problem is that unlike previous years where banks seemed to be pulling out all the stops in order to lend to people regardless of their credit, now lenders are being far more cautious. Some people are finding that a 700 plus score is necessary to even get approved for credit. A 750 plus FICO score is required to get the best interest rates and terms.

So what does this mean if your credit score is below average? Basically, if your credit score is in the low 600's or below, your chances of benefiting from the credit crunch are slim. Lenders aren't going to give money to people they feel are a credit risk and that is exactly what your low credit score means to them.

A bad credit score tells lenders that you are not credit worthy. But in many people's cases, their credit scores are lower than they should be. If you know you are a low credit risk, but still can't get approved because of your credit rating, then your credit score is wrong and needs to be fixed. Credit repair is how people are able to improve their credit scores when they are lower than they should be. Using credit repair, people have been able to permanently delete millions of negative listings from their credit reports that should not be there for one reason or another.

You can clean your credit reports on your own, but it is rarely an easy task. For this reason, thousands are turning to credit repair companies for help with cleaning up their credit. For a fee, legitimate credit repair organizations take the difficulty out of credit repair while providing results that can be quite literally life changing.

Credit Repair Letters to Repair Your Credit Score

As you begin to learn more about repairing your credit reports, you will find out that there are a variety of kinds of credit repair letters you may need to use. Unfortunately, there is no perfect letter that works for all people in all circumstances. Instead, you'll have to find the appropriate letter for your current situation.

Credit Repair Letters

Below are a few categories of credit repair letters you may come across as you attempt to clean up your credit reports. This does not include each type of letter, but it does give you an idea of the variety of letters you may need to compose.

Credit Bureau Dispute Letter

This is what most people probably think of when talking about credit repair. The credit bureau dispute is your message to a credit bureau telling them that you would like them to verify the accuracy of a listing in your credit file. In a credit bureau dispute, you are basically telling the credit bureau they need to prove that an item is accurately listed on your credit report. If they cannot do so, then the account must be updated or deleted.

According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act , you have the right to dispute items that are inaccurate or, in your opinion, give others an unfair impression of your creditworthiness.

Goodwill Letter

Not all negative items can be disputed with the credit bureaus. Plus, just because have disputed an inaccurate listing doesn't necessarily mean it will be bypass the credit bureaus and deal directly with the creditors who are reporting the negative listings.

The goodwill letter is a non-confrontational letter to creditors. In a goodwill letter you are asking nicely for the creditor to stop reporting the negative item. To help your case, you can mention your current good standing with the creditor or request sympathy because of the effect the negative item has on your credit rating in your request for the deletion.

Debt Validation Letter

If a credit bureau dispute is ineffective and your creditor isn't swayed by your attempt to play nice, it's time to get rough.

By taking advantage of your rights under a number of consumer protection statutes, you can make creditors and collections agencies have to jump through specific hoops to prove that a debt is owed. Just like with the credit bureaus, if they are unable or unwilling to do so, the negative accounts must be removed from your credit reports.

Getting Assistance with Credit Repair

After researching credit repair and credit repair letters, or even after beginning the process of repairing their own credit, many people realize how difficult credit repair can be. Fortunately, there are many good credit repair companies out there who have the knowledge and the experience to help make the process simple and effective.

Trying to Find Unbiased Credit Repair Reviews

Shopping for a credit repair service is no easy task. Contrasting the quality of services provided by two different credit repair companies is no simple chore to start with and then when you take into account the fact that a small percentage of people know very much about credit repair in the first place, it is plain to see why so many consumers have a difficult time confidently selecting which credit repair company to sign up with.

Add to this the volumes of bad information floating around regarding credit repair and the choice of which company to chose becomes even more difficult. No longer is it just about narrowing down a company, there is the added element of deciding whether or not to use a credit repair company at all. So afraid of getting duped by a credit repair scam, many consumers instead choose to do nothing about their poor credit score.

But for those who do realize that the legitimate credit repair companies really are able to help people, something that the many thousands of people who have successfully cleaned up their credit reports with the assistance of a credit repair service can attest to, it becomes a challenge to figure out which company to trust. As would be expected, each company claims to be the best choice so, trying to get unbiased information about the services of credit repair companies, many begin researching credit repair review sites as well as websites featuring company complaints.

This seems like a good idea, but as many people have noticed, rarely are these reviews sites unbiased. Sites like CreditRepairReviews.net and CreditRepairCompanyReview.com are almost certainly maintained by the same companies they endorse, and sites like TopConsumerReviews.com and BlemishFreeCredit.com are operated by affiliates of the companies they reviewed. Now, this is not to say that the reviews on these sites have no value, but you need to keep in mind that they are likely biased towards whichever affiliate offer pays out the best.

Also keep in mind that this bias goes beyond reviews sites that have good things to say. You also need to think about the source of complaints on sites such as RipOffReport and the BBB. Sometimes these reports come from competing companies, unhappy customers who misrepresent the facts, or potentially from the website operators themselves. RipOffReport, probably the biggest name in whistle blowing on the internet, has been accused many times of posting inaccurate or embellished negative information about companies which for them is a very lucrative business model since they have charged companies $50,000 or more to clean up these damaging listings.

So instead of basing your decisions on what may be false credit repair reviews, it is worth the effort to learn a little about credit repair and the services credit repair companies provide. Then, set aside an afternoon to call a number of credit repair companies so you can get an idea of how responsive they are and how professionally they handle themselves.