The primary focus of bad credit repair is to verify that all information on your credit report is correct and up to date.
Self credit repair is a do-it-yourself kind of program. Rather than paying a credit repair company to deal with the credit bureau for you, you do it yourself.
Before you embark on the journey of self credit repair, you will need several things. The most important is education. The best place to start is probably the Federal Trade Commission. They provide consumer information on credit issues and advice on where to go for help. This is probably a good place to mention that self credit repair is not possible until “credit issues” have been resolved. If you are behind on, or having trouble making payments, then you may need credit counseling, but not credit repair. If you have had problems paying your bills in the past and those problems are now behind you, but your credit rating has been damaged, then you may need credit repair, but not credit counseling. The non-profit Consumer Credit Counseling Services available in most cities are the best, most reasonably priced credit and budget counseling services, but they cannot help you repair your credit. There is no non-profit credit repair service, which is why there are so many do it your self credit repair programs and so many credit repair companies.
Credit repair companies simply do the work for you. In some cases, they may be able to achieve better results that you can on your own. A self credit repair program is not particularly costly, but can be time consuming and ineffective. Some credit repair companies can be very costly, but they may save you some time. If you are trying to repair your credit quickly, because you are tired of paying high interest rates or because you have been denied credit, then you may want to consider a credit repair company.
The first thing that you will need for any self credit repair program is copies of your credit reports. There are three major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, and a number of smaller credit reporting agencies throughout the country. If you are attempting self credit repair, you may want to start with one of the three majors. You can view and print a copy of your credit report from any of the three major credit bureaus at www.annualcreditreport.com. You are entitled to one free copy per year from each of the bureaus. You must pay for subsequent copies. As you are working your way through self credit repair, you will need several copies.
You will need a yellow highlighter for the first step of your self credit repair program. As you are looking at your credit report, highlight any information that is inaccurate, outdated or questionable. You will need to report any inaccuracies to the credit bureau, either in writing or on-line depending on the bureau. The credit bureau has 30 days to investigate. If they need more information, they will contact you. Once they have the additional information, they have another 30 days to investigate. Which brings us to another self credit repair necessity; patience. You will need patience to write these letters and wait for results. It is at this point that many people give up on credit repair entirely. Some people just give up on self credit repair and turn to a credit repair specialist for help.
Time, copies of your credit reports, a yellow high lighter and patience. These are the only things that you really need to begin a self credit repair program. You do not need expensive “do it your self credit repair software”. These software programs mainly consist of copies of form letters for you to send to the credit bureaus and the information that you have just read. If you have decided after reading the self credit repair requirements that there are some things that you do not have (like time and patience, yellow highlighters are pretty easy to come by), then you may want to consider a credit repair company.
The FTC warns consumers to avoid companies that claim to be able to achieve results in very short periods of time. One company advertises that they “may” be able to increase your credit score by “as much as” 100 points in “as little as” fifteen days. That is highly unlikely. It is true that a reputable credit repair company can achieve faster results than self credit repair, but they will be perfectly honest about the “30 days to investigate rule”. By: PATSY ROSE