Anybody here ever use a credit repair company?

[Jizzacked]

what a lot of these companies do, is basically have you empower them to handle your accounts.  they tell you to stop paying all your debts, and then they settle for a smaller amount after you are completely trashed credit wise... something you could do yourself if you really wanted to.  there are other methods, but you can do them all yourself if you do a little research.  don't waste your money.

[WOOO]

This company claims they can remove negative entries from my credit report on raise my score 100 points inside of six months. Too good to be true?

total horseshit

[65stew]

You can get your credit repaired. There are reputable companies, just as there are ones that are scams. Depending on how many things that are being disputed, it usually takes 6 mths to 18 mths to get your credit to a good level. You can repair your credit on your own. The problem is few people will follow through with the letters to send out every time you get an updated report. A friend I use to work with used a company I told him about and had a lot of things taken off his report in just a few months. I saw the letter showing over 60k in disputed claims that were removed. Credit bureaus have 30 days to respond to a dispute or they have to remove it. Also, many people do have things on their credit report that are not theirs.

[BIG ACH]

You can get a free, yes FREE copy of all three credit reports from annualcreditreport.com.  No strings attached.  Don't pay a single penny for any upsell.  The law requires all three bureaus to give you this free report once a year

Stay away from freecrediteport.com as that is a third party.  annualcredit is run by the credit report companies

Yup - I use annualcreditreport.com   Its great.... you can only use it once a year for free, and it won't actually tell you your credit score... but it will tell you if you have good credit or not, who's requested your credit report, and what caused it to go down if it did!

[Primemuscle]

This company claims they can remove negative entries from my credit report on raise my score 100 points inside of six months. Too good to be true?

If you need to repair your credit, beware of scams which will take your money and probably not deliver on their promises. There are some legitimate credit counseling outfits, or at least there used to be. They help you negotiate terms with your creditors so you can pay all your debt and not file bankruptcy. Their goal is to help you manage your finances by putting you on a budget. It takes time and patience to fix broken credit....just like it took time to break it.

[BigCyp]

If you need to repair your credit, beware of scams which will take your money and probably not deliver on their promises. There are some legitimate credit counseling outfits, or at least there used to be. They help you negotiate terms with your creditors so you can pay all your debt and not file bankruptcy. Their goal is to help you manage your finances by putting you on a budget. It takes time and patience to fix broken credit....just like it took time to break it.

One good way to get out of debt is 'snowballing'. You focus all your money after bills etc on your smallest debt and clear it completely. Then you have freed up the weekly payments/fees for that small debt. Then take the next debt and use the same principle, you will find after a while that all of the money saved on paying back the smaller debts and their fees can be focused towards the bigger debts and so on. Great system if you have lots of debts here and there - never use a debt consolidsation service because you will still be paying back the smallest debts for years as they only pay the minimum payments, so you pay fees forever and line everyones pockets!

[sancho ed]

its like this guys...just like a person can either get in shape on their own or hire a trainer for assistance, its the same shit with credit repair. a few might succeed and get it done themselves...but the majority are going to need assistance. i've been doing real estate for a while and my brokerage is connected to a credit repair company called "ezchoice financial"(btw). they have helped out a countless of our clients throughout the yrs who had shitty, and i do mean shitty ass credit and brought them within range of qualifying for a home. as a realtor i have witnessed it myself with my own clientele. and i've also had a few clients that have gotten scammed in the past by shady credit repair agencies as well.

[The RedMeatKid]

The answer is "yes". I've seen it time and time again, as I work in a credit based industry. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a consumer has the right to dispute any innacurate trade line on the credit bureaus. This is how it works:
1. Get all three of your bureaus from annualcreditreport.com.
2.  Go over all three reports with a highlighter and highlight any trade line that is negative.
3. Make a list of these trade lines and find a reason why they are innaccurate. Mispelled name, wrong balance, wrong  date of last activity, account is OVER 7 YEARS OLD, identity theft, etc.
4. Write a handwritten letter to each bureau, listing the items in question and demanding they be deleted, and that you be furnished with an updated credit report. Photocopy each letter and save it. Enclose copies of the credit report with the questionable lines highlighted. Mail these letters certified with return receipt. From this point the bureaus have 30 days to investigate and verify the validity of the lines.
5. Wait 30 days from receipt of initial letters and give it a few days to hear back from them. You will get a letter from each of them with an updated credit report. Guaranteed you will have a bunch of lines deleted simply because they won't have been able to verify the validity of a good number of them.  At this point you will have a higher credit score.
6. Any negative lines that remain need to be challenged again with more sophisticated methods.
7. Obtain two or three secured credit cards that report to all three bureaus and begin using them and paying the bill every month on time.
8. Begin making any credit or loan payments that you haven't lost yet on time every month.

Now anybody can conceivably do all of the above on their own. However, many lack the intelligence, the writing skills, diligence and organization to pull it off, hence the need to pay someone else to do it for you.

Anybody who says it can't be done HAS NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT. The credit bureaus are not government agencies. They are for profit businesses and their customer service areas are staffed with the same caliber of knuckleheads that Sprint or any other company is. They are largely minority women and easy to get over on.

[The RedMeatKid]

I should also add that Credit Consolidation and Credit Repair are two different services. In Credit Repair you are not paying anyone to negotiate all your debt down for you. You are paying them to remove negative entries from your credit report.

If you want to pay off old debts remember you can pay the original creditor 50 cents on the dollar and collection agencies 10 to 20 cents on the dollar. If the last date of activity is 7 years ago or longer simply tell them to FUCK OFF because the debt can no longer be reported.

NEVER ACKNOWLEDGE TO ANYONE THAT YOU AGREE THAT A DEBT IS VALID.  Even in negotiating debts down, maintain that the debt is not valid but you're simply settling the debt to move on with your life.

Make them delete any negative items from your credit bureau as a condition of settling the debt. Get it in writing and if they say they can't or won't tell them there's no deal. They WILL come around.

[True Amateur]

The answer is "yes". I've seen it time and time again, as I work in a credit based industry. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a consumer has the right to dispute any innacurate trade line on the credit bureaus. This is how it works:
1. Get all three of your bureaus from annualcreditreport.com.
2.  Go over all three reports with a highlighter and highlight any trade line that is negative.
3. Make a list of these trade lines and find a reason why they are innaccurate. Mispelled name, wrong balance, wrong  date of last activity, account is OVER 7 YEARS OLD, identity theft, etc.
4. Write a handwritten letter to each bureau, listing the items in question and demanding they be deleted, and that you be furnished with an updated credit report. Photocopy each letter and save it. Enclose copies of the credit report with the questionable lines highlighted. Mail these letters certified with return receipt. From this point the bureaus have 30 days to investigate and verify the validity of the lines.
5. Wait 30 days from receipt of initial letters and give it a few days to hear back from them. You will get a letter from each of them with an updated credit report. Guaranteed you will have a bunch of lines deleted simply because they won't have been able to verify the validity of a good number of them.  At this point you will have a higher credit score.
6. Any negative lines that remain need to be challenged again with more sophisticated methods.
7. Obtain two or three secured credit cards that report to all three bureaus and begin using them and paying the bill every month on time.
8. Begin making any credit or loan payments that you haven't lost yet on time every month.

Now anybody can conceivably do all of the above on their own. However, many lack the intelligence, the writing skills, diligence and organization to pull it off, hence the need to pay someone else to do it for you.

Anybody who says it can't be done HAS NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT. The credit bureaus are not government agencies. They are for profit businesses and their customer service areas are staffed with the same caliber of knuckleheads that Sprint or any other company is. They are largely minority women and easy to get over on.

Can they really get "charge offs" removed?

[james87]

If you have credit card debt and are past due ...you're fucked. Debt consolidation companies are different from credit repair companies. Debt consolidation means you hire a company that will negotiate for you with your creditors to lower interest rates, close acccounts and maybe waive fees ...all things that an average joe can do themselves. Basically debt conslidation companies take advantage of the uninformed person.

Not saying that if you have 5 cards in collection and $20k in debt with shitty income, there is a miracle fix out there other than getting a 2-3 part time jobs and grinding it out to pay off these cards.

I had a problem where in college I racked up CC debt because I was irresponsible. That shit haunted me for years even after I had no debt and kept using credit cards every month and paying the balance off.

http://www.getcredithealthy.com is one good company that will work with you to get your score back up.

Its not a scam, financial organisations use this information to decide whether they should extend you credit. Of course someone with no past debt will have a bad score. Put your self in a banks position, why the hell would they want to lend to someone that cant demonstrate their ability to repay debt, and past behavior is the best indicator of future behavior. Its the same as when banks choose not to lend to someone who may have a 50k deposit for a house when it has actually been "gifted" to them. They cant prove they are responsible and good money managers. It is responsible lending practices and it makes sense....unless you are a moron.

[basil]

The bums lost True Amateur.  You should do what your parents did son, and get a job.