What is the Best, Fastest, Cheapest way to Fix my credit?

Question

There is a credit repair service upstairs and they write letters to the bureau but its like 1500 bucks for me and my husband?!! I need something cheaper!!

I pay my bills now on time and I had paid my bills on time. My husband lost his job and my job couldnt carry us, so there is a slump in our credit, we had 4 credit cards, 3 vehicles, 1400 rent, and when he got hurt his work comp took so long to get started we had to only keep 1 car, move before our lease was up.

Answer 1

You can write the very same letters they will (supposedly) write for free.

Basically, if they do write the letters, which most won't. They will take your money and you will be worse off than before b/c now you have given someone 1500 when you could have paid some bills off.



Start by paying off the smallest bill first. Call each creditor and tell them your situation. Let them know that you would like to make payment arrangements with them. Tell them what you can afford to pay on a monthly basis. Even if it is only $5.00. Ask them to waive any finance charges and not to charge anymore in the future. Stick to the arrangement. If they don't agree to this then you can tell them (very nicely) that you will have to include them in your bankruptcy - even if you are not planning on claiming bankruptcy (which I am morally and totally against).

Make sure you ask to speak to a supervisor if the person answering the phone turns you down. Be polite and sincere. If you piss these people off they will not help you. Call back and get another person on the line if the first one says no.

Get every agreement in writing! Never, Never give bank account info or routing info to these people. They will drain your accounts overnight.

You can do this on your own! You do not need to pay someone. It is a lot of hard work, but you can do it.

Go to the library and check out a book to give you tips on restoring your credit.

Finally, when an account is paid in full. Ask the creditor if they would please remove the negative info from your credit report. Actually, ask them to agree to this before paying off to really secure the deal and have them put it in writing.

Make sure to note the date and the person you spoke to during each and every conversation. Follow up and stay on top of things.

Good Luck!


EDIT - Negatives DO NOT fall off your report in 7 years unless they are paid in full. If there is any balance left, it will show up FOREVER.

Daveramsey.com is an excellant source of info.

Answer 2

Those repair services don't work. You pay the money, they do some slight of hand. Maybe some stuff goes away but it tends to come back.

Instead of paying someone to fix your credit. Use the money to settle those outstanding debts. It won't be fast and it won't be cheap. But it's definitely best.

Get copies of your credit reports from all three credit bureaus (AnnualCreditReport.com). If there are any errors, dispute them with the credit bureaus.

Negatives fall off your credit report in 7 years. So work on the newer ones first. Contact the creditor and work out a settlement plan. If you can come up with lump sum payments, you might be able to settle for 50% to 75%. Be sure to get any settlement agreement in writing and do not give them access to your bank account.

Establishing a 2 year history of consistent, on time payment is the only way to fix your credit score.

Answer 3

A "credit repair service" cannot do anything you can't do yourself. You can dispute any item on your credit (You need to do all 3 bureaus) via their websites. The creditor has 30 days to respond or it will be taken off. Many creditors, like other big businesses have cut back so they may not have the staff to respond. This is particularly true for old items. While this may help, possibly a great deal you need to have some good history items also. So work on a multi prong approach. Try to get bad removed (If you have to pay off an old item, it may lower your score due to the clock restarting, so be aware.) At the same time you need some good pay history items where you tap less than 50% of the max credit to add positive items. Good Luck.
http://www.alabama-mortgage-specialists.com

Answer 4

You can write those letters yourself. They are only going to be asking them to remove the reports that are there. The ones that aren't removed right away may get another round of the same letter. They MAY write personalized letters, but they will probably be form letters simply asking the reports be removed. They are successful mostly because there is almost always something qualified to come off the report, making them look good, you can do this yourself. Hopefully for that cost they will also write a 3rd round of personalized letters. But you can do this yourself also, there are lots of credit info sites online that have letter templates. Dispute the report, write the original creditor, provide your proof of why it should be removed or simply ask very very nicely (of the original creditor). If some items still don't come off that should (over statute, paid etc) you'll need to use your customer or account or id number and sit through the crazy phone system at each of the bureaus to talk to an actual person. It's time consuming, and you really need to keep good records with names and letter copies etc, but it isn't anything you can't do yourself. Once you get everything off that you can, you can see a marked improvement in your score over just 6 months of timely bill paying. If you have only one open ccard (you should only have one) and you haven't used it much, use it to pay regular monthly bills and then pay it off at the end of each month (leaving a small amount to carry over so it shows a credit history). If you have solid income try for a consolidation loan (if you have more than one card right now) for cards cars lines of credit etc to make one monthly payment. This changes all of those stray balances to "Paid in full" and opens a new report. Try to obtain this at a local credit union you qualify to belong to. IBEW if you can, they have great savings rates. Like I said, you will see a huge improvement after only 6 months, and you will be gold again in a year. If you are thinking house, unless you have REALLY solid income history plan on a larger down payment or money to pay down the interest points or plan to wait for 2 years.

Answer 5

Beware of companies that promise to help you re-establish your credit for a fee. Their ability to change the information that appears in your credit file is no different than anyone else! Only your creditors are able to alter this information. Therefore you do not need to pay a third party to obtain, discuss, review or make changes to your credit report. You have the right to access your information and make changes to your file if there is an inaccuracy or if you want to include a comment.

Remember this when it comes to hiring a credit repair company

A credit bureau will not remove accurate negative information from your credit report before the legal time period has expired. Therefore, do not believe anyone who claims they can get negative information removed from your credit report faster than is legally required.

There are no "loopholes" or laws that credit repair companies can use to get correct information off your credit report.

No credit repair company can do anything you can't do for yourself.

Answer 6

1) Do not open any new lines of credit. You want to lower the ratio of outstanding debt to available credit w/o opening new credit cards.

2) Pay on time - even if it's just the minimum payment.

3) Close some credit cards - make sure it is noted that it is at your request. Pay off the cards w/ the highest interest & close them. Closing some credit cards will reduce temptation & also you don't want to have too much available credit that can be tapped into again.

Make sure to ask for the best interest rate possible. This site has more information about credit cards: http://bankrate.com/

4) Do not pay $1500 for the credit service. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/35245/how_to_repair_your_credit.html

Call or write your credit card companies directly to negotiate a payment plan if necessary.

5) For more information: http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/200411/omag_200411_suze.jhtml
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5034/how_to_clear_your_personal_credit_report.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_4757_repair-credit-history.html
http://hubpages.com/hub/How_To_Repair_Credit_Score
http://finance.yahoo.com/how-to-guide/personal-finance/18311

Answer 7

I know a lady who does the same thing for $125. Check out
www.aperfectsolution.us use promo code TDS. Their's is a 90 day program. A relative of mine used it and told me about it but I had already done something else to fix my credit.

Answer 8

On-Time Payment History and your Debt to Credit Ratio are the biggest factors in improving your credit score. There isn't really a good, fast way to really improve your score. You need to consistently pay down your bills (on time) which will then help the debt to credit ratio.

I liken it to your GPA. It is easy to mess it up, but only time and hard work will raise the score.

Answer 9

morning...I am currently dosing my lifetsyle with a great ebook on credit repair
that took my credit score from a 616 to 742...its a free resource from nhbs, inc....it can help a lot


have a super day!

Answer 10

got to daveramsey.com to learn what 'credit repair' don't want u to ever learn . how to own ur money and stop dealing with them. u'll save thousand$ and have better score than using them.