Credit repair aims to improve someone’s credit score by addressing and rectifying errors, inaccuracies, or negative information on their credit reports. Credit reports can be tricky and often filled with errors, so it’s important to take a look at the top three: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax, at least once a year. If you are prepared to enroll in credit repair, getting all the details is important. Beware of scammers acting as credit repair agents; you can do credit repair yourself. Let’s get it sorted out and get you back on track with high scores!
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Is credit repair worth taking the time to do? If your score is under 650, the short answer is yes. If your credit has dropped due to negative reports, credit repair can help you get back up to a higher score, which makes you eligible for lower interest rates and even less costly insurance. A great credit score has many benefits, so let’s go over how credit repair works.
How Credit Repair Works
Assessment and Review
The first step to repair your credit is to obtain copies of your credit reports from the major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You can request a free annual credit report from each bureau through AnnualCreditReport.com. Once you have your reports, review them carefully to identify any errors, discrepancies, or harmful items. Highlight anything that needs to be amended, and make sure to have the phone numbers, addresses, and e-mail addresses of the companies claiming negatives on your report. You will need these details to dispute errors or ask for negative reporting to be removed with negotiations.
Dispute Errors
If you find inaccuracies or errors on your credit reports, you must dispute them with each credit bureau. This can be done online, by mail, or over the phone. The credit bureaus will investigate your dispute and make corrections when necessary.
Payment Negotiations
For legitimate negative items like late payments, collections, or charge-offs, you can negotiate with creditors to pay off the debts or arrange a settlement. Some creditors may be willing to remove the negative item from your credit report in exchange for payment. Make sure to have the amount of money you need to settle if that’s what you decide to do. Call them and tell them you want to pay “X amount” today if they remove it from your report. Being ready at that moment gives you more leverage to get the best deal.
Establish Positive Credit
After cleaning up negative items, the next step is building or rebuilding a positive credit history. This involves paying bills on time, managing credit responsibly, and using credit products like secured credit cards or credit builder loans to establish a positive payment history. You can also ask a family member who’s fiscally responsible to add you as a secondary user to a high credit line credit card so that their low credit usage counts towards you, too. They don’t need to give you the card; as long as they don’t use much of it and pay it off monthly, the high credit amount will look good on your credit score. My grandmother set me up for great credit before university by putting me on one of her high credit line cards. She didn’t give me a card or even tell me about it until years later when I pulled a credit report and saw it there. I asked her about it, and she told me she had done it to help me establish good credit back when I turned eighteen.
Credit Counseling
If your credit issues are more complex or you need guidance, credit counseling agencies can help. They can help you create a budget, manage debt, and develop a personalized plan to improve your credit. Check reviews and details about any company you want to work with. There are a lot of scams acting as credit counselors, debt repayment agencies, and credit repair. Be careful out there!
Allow Time and Patience
Improving your credit score takes time. Negative items typically stay on your credit report for seven to ten years, but as you build a positive credit history, the impact of these harmful items diminishes over time.
How Experian can help with credit repair
Experian is one of the three major credit bureaus, and having an Experian account can help you get back on track in five ways.
- Access to Credit Reports: Regularly review your Experian report to monitor your credit history for errors or inaccuracies, and submit disputes as necessary.
- Credit Monitoring: Experian offers credit monitoring services that can alert you to any changes or suspicious activity on your credit report, helping you detect potential issues early.
- Credit Education: Experian provides educational resources and tools to help you understand how credit works and how to improve your credit score. They also offer personalized recommendations based on your credit profile.
- Credit Freeze and Fraud Alerts: Experian allows you to place a credit freeze or fraud alert on your credit report, which can help protect your credit from identity theft and unauthorized access.
- Dispute Assistance: If you need to dispute information on your Experian credit report, having an account with them can streamline the process and allow you to track the status of your disputes.
While Experian can be a valuable resource, credit repair is an ongoing process that may require additional steps, including working with the other two major credit bureaus (Equifax and TransUnion) while addressing negative items with creditors.
It’s essential to be cautious of credit repair scams and consult with a reputable credit counselor or financial advisor for personalized guidance. You don’t need to hire anyone; you can do it all on your own with some research and one of the credit reporting agencies. We have an affiliate link with Experian, a fantastically easy credit reporting agency to work with. Equifax and TransUnion are also good, and Intuit’s Credit Karma is great.
I like to keep the free account from Credit Karma, and in the past, when I had fraud on my report, I used both Experian and Equifax to sort it out. Equifax had a big security attack not long after that, so I decided to just keep Experian. In late 2022, Experian also had a breach, all the more reason to keep track of your credit history for potential identity theft incidents. It’s the Wild West these days, and we need to learn how to take responsibility for our own records and protect ourselves. If you plan to sign up with Experian, please use our affiliate link. The cost will be exactly the same as if you sign up directly with them, but by doing so, we get a commission that helps fund this website and the wonderful team who creates and manages it. We also have some affiliate links with companies that can help with identity theft and credit repair.
CreditRx: CreditRX helps users with their credit repair. They provide a holistic credit enhancement approach. They pay close attention to the client’s end goal and walk with them towards it. There are some less-than-glowing reviews, but we looked them over, and it looks like their general usability is pretty good. They are a real company, not a scam. It can be tricky regarding canceling your service, so make sure you take a good look at the terms and conditions and submit your cancellation within their terms. Make sure to do your own due diligence to make sure you have a good user experience. You can do the credit repair on your own, but if you want to, then hiring a company that knows what they are doing is a good move.
Aura: Aura is an identity theft protection service. They have 25 years of experience protecting users from theft and financial fraud.
In short, it can be the time to invest in knowing the ins and outs of your credit history and take steps to dispute anything that doesn’t belong. You can do it yourself, or you can hire help. It is my hope that this post helps many of you clean up anything unwanted and raise your credit scores! Subscribe for more business and investing posts. Have a lovely day.
