Mark Henry asked:
It may not be possible to provide you with everything you wanted to know about credit repair in this brief article, but here we attempt to give you the do-it-yourself basics and the facts about the many credit repair schemes that are being advertised and should be avoided.
Some companies advertise that they have a credit report repair Software and also they will teach you credit repair secrets, for a fee of course. There is a lot of free information here, if you know where to look. Before you take a credit repair course or sign up for credit report repair, read the facts and the laws relating to credit repair. In this way you may avoid some disappointment and save some money.
Credit repair is a popular subject. It seems that almost everyone wants learn about credit repair. Books and software programs that claim to contain everything you wanted to know about credit repair are being sold on the internet and in retail locations all over the country. There are some questionable credit repair schemes and some companies suggest action which is illegal. Consumers can learn to repair their own credit, but it takes time and patience. The safest bet when hiring someone to do the work for you is to hire a credit repair attorney. In this way, you can be sure that you will achieve results; they know everything there is to know about credit repair. You can also be sure that a credit repair attorney will not advise you to do anything that is illegal. Most of the popular credit repair lawyers do not charge more than the other credit repair companies and some offer money back guarantees.
One of the credit repair schemes investigated by the Federal Trade Commission involved a company that told their customers that they had a special valuable computer disc. This computer disc was supposed to contain everything you wanted to know about credit repair, when in fact there was nothing unique about the disc or the services offered by the credit repair company. They charged consumers, before results were achieved. In order to protect consumers from these credit repair schemes, companies are not allowed to charge customers upfront fees. In addition, consumers have three days to cancel any contract that they sign. Of course you may not enjoy the same protection when buying a book or software program that claims to contain everything you wanted to know about credit repair. So make your purchases carefully and look for money back guarantees.
The do-it-yourself basics for everything that you wanted to know about credit repair include reviewing and correcting the information on your credit reports. In response to a recently enacted law, the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, created a website to allow consumers easier access to their credit reports. Until this law was enacted, the credit bureaus were allowed to charge consumers a fee for a copy of their credit reports. You are entitled to a free copy of your credit report once in a twelve month period. You are also entitled to a free copy if you have been denied credit recently, if you are unemployed and plan to apply for a new job within the next three months or if you are on public assistance. The companies pushing credit repair schemes will not tell you where to find the information that you need to repair your credit reports, before you pay them. One way to identify a legitimate credit repair company is to look at what they claim they can do. If they claim to be able to do things for you that you could not do for yourself, with time, patience and know-how, then they are credit repair schemes.
The first place to go for everything that you wanted to know about credit repair is www.annualcreditreport.com. The credit bureaus are allowed to promote other services and products on this site. These are not credit repair schemes, but they are usually credit monitoring services or newsletter subscriptions which may or may not be helpful to you in your current situation. Be sure to spell the website address correctly, this writer has written a number of articles about credit repair and has been advised that she occasionally misspells it. You can link directly to the site from Credit Fix Solutions or the Federal Trade Commission’s official website for consumer credit.
The Federal Trade Commission website is also a good place to visit for everything that you wanted to know about credit repair. Their advice is discouraging to anyone that hopes to attain immediate credit repair, because there is no such thing. But they do provide a sample letter that you can use as a guide if you are planning to dispute information in your credit reports. You can dispute any information on your credit report that you believe is inaccurate, misleading, outdated or unverifiable. Unverifiable means that the credit bureau cannot verify the information.
Disputing information on credit reports is the main topic of most books that claim to contain everything you wanted to know about credit repair. Credit repair schemes may also focus on disputing negative items on credit reports. In fact the company that claimed to own the special computer disc, simply advised consumers to dispute every negative item on their credit report. It is not illegal to dispute any information on your credit report, but it is illegal for a company to make false claims about their services.
This is probably not everything that you wanted to know about credit repair, but it may be enough to get you started. Before you buy a book or software program, visit your local library. Experts have been writing books that are supposed to contain everything you wanted to know about credit repair for a long time. The only information that may not be accurate, depending on the date the book was written, is information concerning fees charged by credit bureaus for copies of credit reports. But, this article provided you with that information. Remember to avoid the credit repair schemes, take your time and have patience. Good Luck.
Victor
