Credit Repair Companies: How Do They Work To Improve Credit Score

What is Credit Repair?

Credit repair is all about fixing poor credit that may have deteriorated for a number of reasons. Fixing your credit involves disputing inaccurate information and mistakes in your credit report with the three main bureaus (Experian, Transunion, and Equifax). The credit bureaus will check your information with lenders and finance companies to make corrections accordingly.

What is a credit repair company?

A credit restoration company or a credit score repair company helps you to repair your bad credit by requesting a copy of your report from the three credit bureaus to identify errors and inaccuracies. If in case, there are inaccuracies in the report, then the company will dispute them with the credit bureaus and creditors so that the inaccuracies can be rectified or removed from your report to boost your creditworthiness in the market.

Credit fixing companies have all the required know-how and experience to tackle credit issues that you may find difficult to resolve. Best credit repair services make the credit fixing process simpler and easier for customers.

Let us tell you about one more thing that there is a difference between credit repair companies and credit counseling agencies. Do not get confused between them. The credit counseling organizations are normally non-profit and inform you regarding financial management as well as assist you in getting a copy of your credit report from the credit bureaus.

What factors to consider before hiring the services of a credit repair agency?

The credit score repair company can do wonders to boost your credit standing in the market. If you have made your mind to clean up your credit report and looking for the best credit repair agencies, then there are some factors you need to consider to hire the best credit repair services:

• Experience: It is better to rely on the services of a credit restoration company that has been in the financial market for a couple of years and has provided excellent results to its past customers. Experience is a critical factor that you must consider while choosing a credit repair agency so that you can keep your mind at ease. An experienced credit repair company will fix your credit professionally and in the fastest time possible.
• Reputation: Check the reviews of the company that you are going to hire to repair your credit score. See what its customers have to say about its services. A good reputation is built when a company complies to the best business practices, achieve customer satisfaction, and continuously improves its services. Choosing a credit repair company with a strong reputation will keep your mind at ease as you will know that experts are handling your credit restoration process.
• No Upfront fees: As per the Credit Repair Organizations Act, the credit repair agencies or credit repair companies cannot bill customers until they perform their services as promised. It is illegal for any credit fixing to ask for an initial fee or start fee. The act also gives customers the right to terminate their contract with the credit repair companies within three days of signing.
• Physical location: Choose a company that has a physical address so that you can be a little assured that the company will not run with your cash. Having a real office does not guarantee that the company is 100% genuine, but it helps to some extent.
• Knowledge of your rights: The best credit repair company should know your rights and explain the same to you. They must address all your questions regarding your rights so that you and the company both can work together to improve your credit score. The company should understand the reason why you want to dispute an item in your credit report and also helps you out by meeting all the legal requirements.
• Detailed plan: The company you are hiring should understand your requirements to fix your credit score. They should outline a plan to find out for what errors they have to file a dispute and what errors can be rectified by improving the financial behavior of the customer. The company you are hiring must be willing to contact the original creditors and collection companies to fix credit fast.

How do credit repair companies help in fast credit repair?

Reviewing credit report

The top credit repair companies begin your credit fixing process by pulling a copy of your credit report from all the three major consumer credit bureaus — Transunion, Experian, and Equifax. Now, you may be a little confused about why the same report from all three bureaus? The reason is that there may be errors that appear on one of your credit reports, but don’t appear on the others.

Once the company receives the copy of your reports, they start reviewing them to find out errors like:

• Accounts that do not belong to you
• False and duplicate accounts
• Incorrect inquiries

These errors can deteriorate your credit score. Reviewing your credit report at frequent intervals of time can help you to remove these inaccuracies before they severely affect your score.

Credit repair companies review your credit report precisely by line by line to eliminate the chance of unseeing an error.

Dispute Disperancies

After finding all the errors on your credit reports, the credit repair agency will ask you for any supporting documentation that you might have to initiate the credit challenges. For every error, a dispute is filed with all the credit bureaus so that they can verify the accuracy of the information in your credit report. If the bureaus are unable to verify the information, then they have to either rectify the error or remove it. 

The credit repair services take the burden from your shoulder by gathering the shreds of evidence that support your dispute. They also contact your creditors to negotiate on certain elements in your credit report.

Note: Even the top credit repair companies may not improve your credit score if in case you have negative information in your credit report that is accurate. The company, working within the legal boundaries, cannot do anything to fix or remove such kind of negative information. Therefore, it is essential that customers must check their credit report frequently to take their creditworthiness out from the pothole of risk.

How much the best credit repair companies cost?

Credit restoration comes at a cost. The amount charged for credit fixing varies from company to company, but the companies cannot ask you for payment until and unless they deliver the promised results.

Evaluate the amount of work your reports need before getting into a contract with a credit repair company to determine whether to pay a one-time flat fee or pay for each error that the company removes or rectifies from each of your credit reports.

The company can also charge you by the month. You might also pay setup fees or a fee for accessing your credit reports.

Investing your money in a credit score repair company can save you from the financial troubles that bad credit can bring to you.

Legitimate credit repair companies

There are several credit fixing companies in the market that allures customers with a promise to provide the best credit repair services that will fix their scores instantly. But let us alert you, promising instant credit repair like that is not considered legal as credit repair is a time-consuming process. Beware of the companies that promise quick results as most of the time, they are not genuine and just want to make money out from your pocket.

To ensure that the credit restoration services you are availing are from a genuine company, then consider the following things that a legitimate company will never ask you:

• Payment before delivering the promised results.
• Not to directly contact the credit reporting agencies.
• To not review your legal rights.
• Raise disputes for correct information in your credit report.
• To provide false information on a loan application
• To not to ask how long will the credit fixing process will take.

If the company you hired, fails to deliver the results as promised or mentioned in the contract, then you have the option to take it to court.

The time involved in fixing your credit

Cleaning your credit report takes some time. Once your credit repair company files a dispute with all the three credit bureaus on your behalf, they will take approximately 30 days to investigate and identify the information in your report. The bureaus will reach out to the companies from where they got the information and ask them to investigate. Within five days of completion of the investigation, the credit bureaus will send you the report. 

The credit bureaus will provide one of the two responses: either they will remove/rectify the inaccuracies or disgrace your claim. If you receive the first response, then your motive for raising a dispute is achieved, but if in case they disgrace your claim, then you have the right to raise a dispute for the same inaccuracy again.

But sometimes what happens, the credit bureaus determine that the dispute raised is silly and decide not to investigate the same. This information is also delivered to you within five days.

Fast credit repair services can actually fix my credit score?

By taking into consideration all the factors, Yes, credit repair services can fix your credit score and also assist you in maintaining a good score in the long run. The best credit repair companies will provide you the knowledge on how to evaluate your credit report so that you can work with them for improving your credit standing in the market. The company will implement result-driven strategies to give your credit score a boost.

Things to watch out

Even if you find the right credit repair company, sometimes it may happen that their services are not working as expected by you, or the company has made false promises about their services and results. If you feel that you have become the victim of a credit repair scam or facing any issue with your credit fixing company, then you can place a complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

A credit repair company must provide you the following things when you avail its services:

• A written contract mentioning your legal rights and the services the company will provide to you.
• Your right to cancel the agreement within three days without any charge.
• Services, as mentioned in the contract, before asking for the payment.

If any of the credit fixing companies refuse to provide you a written agreement, then you should not trust their words and continue your search for the best credit repair company.

Conclusion

Not only repairing your credit score requires a lot of effort, but finding the right credit fixing company among the top credit repair companies demands your time and effort. The best credit repair services will help you to scrub questionable items from your report so that your credit score can become the best combination of three digits that every individual in the financial world is craving to have. This article will surely help you to understand the importance of choosing an ideal company to fix your credit.