The market today offers many different kinds of credit score improvement services, but one that is very effective and useful to almost anyone is that of the credit repair specialist. Credit repair specialists help prepare the appropriate letters to credit bureaus and debt collection agencies. Credit repair specialist help prepare the appropriate letters to credit bureaus and debt collection agencies. These letters should be specific to your credit information, not general dispute letters that can be ignored by credit bureaus.
Credit Repair Companies vs Credit Repair Specialists
Credit repair companies will attempt to help you fix your credit score by mailing letters on your behalf. These services are pretty common, and they’re often referred to as credit repair companies. When you search online for credit repair services or credit score improvement services, you’ll find numerous companies advertising their services for a fee. In many cases, these fees may be more than it costs to simply get your reports from each of the three major credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—and handle everything yourself.
Credit repair companies may not even use professional letters or go through all of their stated procedures, which can make them less effective than doing it yourself with a little guidance from a credit repair specialist. This is why some credit specialists will charge an hourly rate rather than taking money upfront.
Since there’s no upfront cost to get started, credit specialists can work on building relationships instead of spending time soliciting clients to secure payment. And when credit specialists don’t have clients lined up in advance, there’s no need for lengthy contracts that restrict what they say about their work in public forums like social media or online review sites. This allows them to build positive references in real-time without having to worry about hurting their business when something goes wrong later down the road.
How to Choose a Credit Repair Company or Credit Repair, Specialist
When disputing information with credit bureaus, you can request a correction by sending a letter detailing your dispute. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires credit bureaus to respond in 30 days and investigate your dispute, but it is rare for them to respond in that time frame. It may take several months before you hear back from them, if at all. As long as they cannot validate any of your complaints with documentation proving that you owe money on an account or loans, they must delete or correct your account information. They are not allowed to add new information about negative marks unless there is verifiable proof. Correcting your credit report will likely increase your score when reviewed by lenders. Credit repair specialists also specialize in helping consumers bring their credit scores up from low levels, such as 300s and 400s, to higher levels needed for loans. This might be something you want help with if you have been denied credit due to having poor credit scores. If so, hiring a professional credit repair specialist may be worth considering.
Now That You Know How Credit Repair Companies Work: If you need help fixing your credit but do not want to pay a fee each month while awaiting results, look into these free tools which can help people fix their own damaged credit reports: www.annualcreditreport.com – allows you access into two of your free annual credit reports once every 12 months through one site.
Disputing Information With the Credit Bureaus
Like other third-party agencies, credit bureaus have their dispute process. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) governs how credit bureaus should respond to disputes by consumers. In general, you can either mail letters to dispute information or contact them online. In all cases, your letter should include your name and address as well as a list of each account or listing you want to dispute and why you think it is inaccurate. Include documentation that supports your position—like receipts or invoices showing what you paid for an account—if possible. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires credit bureaus to investigate disputed information within 30 days of receiving notice of its inaccuracy; if they don’t investigate it within that period, they must remove it from your report. If you are not satisfied with the results of their investigation, state law gives you up to 60 days to file a formal complaint with them about how they handled your complaint. If they still do not change or delete inaccurate information on your credit report, send copies of all correspondence related to your dispute directly to each credit bureau’s customer service department with any supporting documents you wish to provide.
Dealing With Debt Collection Agencies
When dealing with debt collection agencies it is important to remember that they are likely not going to listen to your request. The best thing you can do is put together a packet of information that shows exactly what your credit score was before and after. Explain why you were unable to pay on time if that’s what happened, and how you have addressed those reasons by making an appropriate amount of payments each month. You should also keep documentation of all payments made as well as canceled checks or even receipts for purchases that were used to pay off debts. If you do not dispute their claims with proof, then there is nothing they can do for you either way. However, there are times when doing so may help resolve issues quickly without any unnecessary headache for either party involved. There will always be a handful of cases where individuals face illegal collections practices, in which case seeking legal advice would be in order.
Individual identity theft occurs whenever someone obtains personal information to assume another person’s identity in some way.
