Credit Repair Agencies...what do you think?

Question

I am considering contacting a local agency. I have no credit card debt...its mainly old utility and medical bills holding me back. What is your experience or opinion on these companies?

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

You're better off contacting the utility companies & medical offices directly to work something out with them.

Credit repair agencies put up all sorts of "red flags" when you apply for new credit. They tell us that you don't know how to manage your money so we're less likely to be able to do business with you. If you can show us that you are truly working on resolving your debts, we're much more willing to work with you.

Good luck!

Answer 2

After 7 years they will go away. Get a copy of your credit report and ignore anything that will be off in a couple years.

If you contact the debt collector, this gives them the right by law to refile the debt against your credit report for another 7 years. Think about this before you do anything. The credit agency could contact a bill collector on your behalf and end up starting that 7 years all over again. This would be terrible if it was a debt that was close to being off your credit report.

You could also be listed as a slow payer, which is just as bad as if you never even attempted to pay at all.

Here's a scenario for you:

You have a 6 year old debt. It will disappear in 1 year. You contact the collections company and make a payment plan to pay it off within 6 months. The collections company then changes your credit report from " nonpaypment" to "slow payer" so that it is accurate. This new reporting can now follow you for the next 7 years wher if you had done nothing it would have been off your report in a year.

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Newer debt you can negotiate a settlement with the creditor yourself. Most credit repair agencies are funded by credit card companies so you might not even be accepted.

Answer 3

I wonder sometimes how long some of these 'qualified' people have been spewing out bad information. Legitimate trade lines come off of credit reports during the dispute process all the time. I see the responses almost every day. To answer your question, if you get a good credit repair company, the chances are that your credit score will improve much more than if you did it yourself. Why? Because good credit repair companies know the ever-changing laws and know WHAT to dispute, HOW to dispute it effectively, and do it in a much more timely fashion. A good credit repair company can take the bureaus to task much better than you can, unless of course, you know the credit laws as well as they do.
That being said, be careful who you go with. I wouldn't choose a company that charges a monthly fee. Chances are, they will draw out the credit repair for as long as possible. Credit repair can be completed within 3 months if done right. Also make sure that the letters that are sent are signed and sent by you. The CRA's can consider disputes made by a third party on some else's behalf 'frivolous' and, by law, can discard without even opening the letters.
Good Luck!

Answer 4

Credit repair agencies don't even CLAIM to help you with DEBT. There is nothing they can do legally that you can't do on your own at no charge. Any ACCURATE negative information will stay in your file for seven years with or without 'credit repair'. Nearly all these companies just dispute everything on your credit report and hope some of your creditors fail to respond within 30 days. This method is as likely to remove POSITIVE information as negative information. It is also VERY temporary. The accounts will reappear the next time the creditor makes a scheduled update to the credit bureaus.

Answer 5

Credit repair companies take advantage fears of credit card holders with negative credit reports, and use it to fill up their coffers. To do this they aggressively market themselves as if they can get every single negative entry on your credit report removed. This is simply not the case. Naturally plenty of people see this as a great opportunity, aggressively marketing their credit repair companies to those in trouble.

They will charge hefty fees, upfront. Whether they succeed or not it doesn't matter, and they won't listen to you when they are unable to accomplish anything squarely blaming things on you. Some credit repair firms are outright scams. However, hard they might try to convince but the fact remains that credit repair companies do not have any special relation with the credit reporting companies. No insider contacts, no influential hands, no special powers. Don't get fooled by their claims. Credit reporting agencies do not endorse any credit repair firms. Read more from: http://www.credit-card-gallery.com/article/224,3_compelling_reasons_why_you_shouldn't_use_a_credit_repair_agency_to_fix_your_credit_report