Hire a credit specialist?

Question

Would/Could a credit specialist raise my credit score or would/could they actually damage it worse??? HELP!!!

Answer 1

No. If you need to raise your credit score a little bit, you can do it on your own. Simply pay all bills on time, try to lower your debt by paying the min payments on all but the card with the highest interest rate - that one you want to pay all you have on it. Then once that is paid off, work on the next one.
If you have past judgments or serious debt, you need to do a TON of research to work on getting it taken care of. Know your debt. Make a list of exactly what you owe to whom at what interest rate. Taxes, student loans and child support first. High interest credit cards and HELOC second. Low interest card, loans and mortgages last.
A common mistake is to pay off old debt. Know the statute of limitations for collections in you state. Do not pay or promise to pay if you are over or even close to the limitation. If you even promise payment - the clock starts over and it's up to 7 or more years on your credit report.
Also, child support, taxes and student loans are debt that can not be forgiven in bankruptcy. Make arrangements with the collecting agency to stay in good standing on these. The IRS and the courts in the case of ordered child support can and will freeze bank accounts, garnish your wages or tax returns and can make you serve jail time.

Answer 2

Huh?
Is this one of those deals that tell you to not pay your credit card bills in order to force the issuers to cut deals on your balances? If so, (and it sounds like it is), then run, do not walk, away as fast as you can. If you are talking about a company that negotiates with your creditors and pays your bills for you for a monthly fee, then run even FASTER. Just pay the damn bills off and forget about a credit (FICO) score. The only way to raise your credit score is to owe a lot of money and have an excellent payment history. If you don't have a lot of debt, you cannot have a high score. Big friggin deal. My score is very low because of just that and I bought a home last year at the normal rate. I used a lender that does manual underwriting vs FICO scores, (work history, salary, etc.). This is not rocket science. Log onto www.daveramsey.com. This guy is a genius on credit, debt and money and can help you without costing a fortune.

Answer 3

do not do it, you want to increase your credit score pay your bills on time! have you ever heard the expression let sleeping dogs lay , this applied to your credit too, if you have bad credit that is old leave it alone, it will fall off your bureau based on the last activity date, so if you were to make a small partial payment on a old bill then you credit score will go down. also apply for credit will make your credit score go down, another helpful hint is paying down your credit card. The credit scores are also based on what unused percentage of credit you have, the higher the better.