How to go about repairing credit report results. The biggest question facing someone with a poor credit report is whether you can do it yourself or if you should hire a professional debt repair agency

There are definitely many companies out there, who promise to correct your poor credit. Unfortunately, most experts agree these companies do not live up to their promises and that it is best to do it yourself, with the right guidance of course.

The sad fact is that MOST of the debt repair companies you read about or see on TV, are scams. Legally and realistically, there is no such thing as being able to “erase” poor credit information, unless, that is, the information is incorrect.

If it is an error, you can contact the FTC and/or the big three credit bureaus to file a formal dispute. If the negative information is accurate, however, nothing, and no one can have it removed from your report before its 7-10 year term is past.

If you do choose to work with an outside agency, making promises for repairing credit report results, be sure to ask a few qualifying questions:

• The payment terms for services, including their total cost
• A detailed description of the services to be performed
• How long it will take to achieve the results
• Any guarantees they offer
• The company's name and business address

Many of these scam organizations are in the habit of charging hundreds, sometimes even thousands of dollars up front, and claiming that they can permanently fix someone’s credit report so that the correct but negative information will no longer appear in their credit report or credit history.

The law:

1. Forbids credit repair organizations from taking money before the services are fully performed
2. Requires that the credit repair organizations give consumers written disclosures explaining legal rights about credit history, before the signing of a contract for repairing credit report information
3. Requires organizations to give a written contract to the consumers with:
• terms and conditions of payment
• description of services
• guarantees of performance
• estimate of time duration
4. Gives consumers a three day “cooling off” period, to cancel an agreement with such an organization .

Any contract between a consumer and a credit repair organization that fails to comply with this law is void.

Repairing credit report scam companies use many schemes to make a debt disappear, temporarily, from a credit report.

They first dispute all negative credit information. If creditors do not respond within 30 days, the disputed item has to be removed from the credit history by law. But, this is only temporary and creditors will eventually have the derogatory information put back on the credit history.

There are no quick fixes and only time can clean up bad credit. Even if you pay off the delinquent account, the record will stay on your credit report for 7 years (10 years for a bankruptcy).

If your credit history has incorrect information, you can challenge this inaccurate or outdated information. Otherwise, repairing credit report information is a false claim. You can bank on it!

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