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information that is inaccurate, outdated or questionable.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”. For more information
about self credit
repair, visit the Credit Repair Blog.
The writers and editors of the Credit Repair Blog are committed to providing accurate
information about self credit repair and other credit repair issues. Visit us at
http://badcredit-repair.blogspot.com
