Cross Out Inaccuracies from Your Credit Report with Credit Repair Services |
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Credit repair services are offered by credit repair agencies to improve a consumer's credit record history and to make the consumer aware of the laws regulating the same, as they can provide many facts and techniques which the average consumer may not be aware of. There are very few legitimate companies providing credit repair services, although there are some legitimate not-for-profit counseling services. Removing negative and disputed items from your credit report is a time consuming process. You can either do it yourself or take the help of credit repair services and thereby improve your credit score. There is no other option but to do credit repair, if your credit score is low or your credit report is inaccurate. How you do it is the question. You can either do it yourself or you can take the help of credit repair services, that would do this daunting work, but for a fee. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) authorizes consumers to dispute mistakes in their credit files for free but this is a time consuming process as it involves applying for credit reports, reviewing and highlighting errors, documenting the mistake, typing the letter and mailing it. The credit repair services, on the other hand, can handle this job in a professional way by pulling credit reports, reviewing for errors and sending out dispute letters along with documentation. Some of them advertise that they can erase bad credit with a 100% guarantee and others go to the extent of promising removal of bankruptcies from your credit file forever. Such tall claims are often advertised through television, radio, infomercials, classified ads, and on the Internet. One type of scam involves promises by the credit repair services that truthful, adverse information, such as bankruptcies, late payment histories, and judgments can be removed from a consumer's credit report. Consumers should know that all truthful information, including negative information has to be reported by the credit bureaus for seven years and bankruptcies have to be reported for ten years. As such credit repair services cannot and do not get the information removed from the credit reports. The second type of scam is file segregation, which involves creating a new credit history for the consumer by applying for an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Employer Identification Number, which has the same number of digits as a Social Security number, and using that in lieu of a Social Security number when applying for credit. If the consumer follows this advice, he/she would be committing a felony, as it is illegal to make false use of a Social Security number and it is also illegal to make any false statement to a federally insured financial institution when seeking credit. It is completely illegal for credit repair services to try to create a new credit history for the consumer. The consumer must do some simple tasks such as putting the phone line in the applicant's name and checking that all credit card companies and other lenders have their correct address and for other more complicated jobs, they can seek the help of specialist credit repair services. Some companies would lend to people with a low credit score but there are others who would even lend to those people having bankruptcies in the past. If your credit is not good, you should not allow it to go on deteriorating and you should take immediate measures to arrest the situation. There are credit repair services that are offered through community sponsors. You can consult any of these or other advisors or lending institutions. With proper help from a credit specialist, you can improve your credit score and bring it to a very comfortable level. There are no short cuts and secret remedies to erase bad credit. Moreover, accurate and current information cannot be removed from the credit report, either by you or by any credit repair service. You must also know that you too can do what credit repair services can do for you and that too for free. |
