Credit Repair is a great service when it is done correctly. Repairing your credit, or credit report, is the process of correcting errors on your credit report. It is not the process of removing negative items that are legitimate as many credit repair companies offer.
Recent charges made by the Federal Trade Commission against Credit Repair Companies demonstrates the FTC’s attention it has on credit repair companies operating against the law. A credit repair company is not supposed to take advanced fees nor are they allowed to advertise a promise to remove derogatory or negative information from your credit report. You need to be aware of these offers on the Internet and other places as they are widespread.
What Can Credit Repair Remove From Your Credit Report?
Credit repair is a process of questioning the credit bureaus about information found on your credit report using debt validation techniques. As a consumer, you are allowed to question and request for items on your credit report to be verified by the credit bureaus. The credit bureaus have 30 days to get a response from any creditor that you question about the accuracy or legitimacy of their information. If the credit bureau cannot verify account information, then they by law have to remove it from your credit report.
Credit Report Debt Validation Must Be Legitimate
If you get your credit report and notice errors on it, such as collection accounts that have been paid but still show a balance for example, you can request that account to be verified with the collection company. But, if you have a past due late payment with an active credit card and you know that it is late you will most likely not have any success in questioning this type of account. In fact the credit bureau might look at the request you made as frivolous and not file it. They do have a little discretion in what they have to verify so be careful what you question.
Credit Repair Advertising Messages To Stay Away From
The Federal Trade Commission and many States’ Attorney General offices keep a close eye on the advertising efforts of credit repair companies. They keep a close eye on making sure that these companies are advertising the services that they can actually provide versus some misrepresentation of what they can do. For example, a credit repair company cannot Promise To Improve Credit Scores. Nor can they advertise to have items Permanently Removed From Your Credit Report. Neither of these actions are able to be guaranteed.
Do not fall for the false promise of items being permanently removed by a credit repair company. Credit repair efforts can get items removed, but often a creditor or collection agency might turn around and re-file the information that was removed several months later. Imagine your surprise that after you successfully completed a $1,000 credit repair program to find out that you were denied a mortgage because items that were removed from your credit report showed up again.
Why Use A Credit Repair Company?
This a good question and there is no right answer. You as a consumer have all the tools available to you to do your own self-help credit repair. The real question is: will you do the work to improve your credit report yourself? If you know the answer is no, then you have your answer about using a Credit Repair Company to repair your credit report.
The U.S. Consumer Credit Laws and Protection Laws are set up to allow any consumer to fix problems on their credit report. For this reason alone, it is not necessary to use a company to help fix problems on a credit report. But again, is the consumer going to do the work necessary to repair their report?
Credit Repair Companies have staff trained in how to repair credit reports and it is their job to do it. In fixing your own credit report – while the resources are out there and not that far away – you have other things in your life that take your attention. Would it be easier to have someone trained in credit repair to work on your credit report on your behalf? It is only for you to decide what is best for you.
Find more information on Repairing Your Credit.
