Credit repair companies make big promises and many people are desperate enough to be tempted. After all, if you are suffering the effects of bad credit, you will consider anything to improve your score, even paying someone for a quick fix. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix for bad credit. No matter what a credit repair company tells you it will do for a fee, in most cases, it will be a waste of your money.
What Credit Repair Companies Can Do
Your poor credit score has cost you plenty: loan rejections or high-interest rates, being denied a lease on an apartment, even loss of a job. When you see an ad for a company promising to fix that for you, you will likely be willing to give it a try. However, all a credit repair company can do is what you can do yourself for free. A reputable company will charge you a fee to pull all three of your credit reports and dispute possible errors, assuming there are any. Just because your credit score is low, however, doesn’t mean there are errors on your report. If there are errors, it can take considerable legwork to fix them, but you can do this yourself for free. A disreputable company will take your money and promise to raise your score but will do nothing in reality.
How to Raise Your Credit Score
If you do have errors on your credit reports, correcting them is the fastest way to raise your credit score. Otherwise, you will have to make a plan to clean up your credit over the long term. Start by putting the money you were tempted to pay to the credit repair company towards paying off a credit card that is overdue. Start paying all of your bills on time. Do not max out your credit cards. Your best credit rating comes when you are using less than 30 percent of your available credit. This means that if you have a credit limit of $3,000, you should not carry a balance from one month to the next of more than $900. Finally, when you do pay off the balance on a credit card, keep the account open (but only use it once or twice a year and pay if off immediately.) This can help improve your credit score.
In addition, if you are behind on your credit card payments, or if a debt collector is trying to collect on a debt, The Consumer Law Group, P.C. can negotiate with the credit card company or the debt collector and possibly get the debt compromised at 50% or better.
Call The Consumer Law Group P.C. With Legal Questions
If you think a credit repair company has cheated you, or you need legal help correcting your credit reports, connect with us, we are here to help.
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