Credit repair refers to any type of legal action you or a service provider can to try and remove negative items off of your credit reports in attempt to raise your score. Since not all of these services are legitimate, it’s important to understand your rights. Even though you can attempt credit repair on your own, it’s better to work with professionals with legal experience who have a better chance of success when dealing your creditors and the credit bureaus. How do you know which ones are the real, legitimate credit repair services?
The first thing you need to do is familiarize yourself with the Credit Repair Organization Act (CROA). This Act protects consumers from illegal acts by credit repair companies. Here are a few things you need to know about your rights:
• Get a company to provide you with all of your legal rights in writing, as well as the details of the services they will provide
• You should be provided with a money back guarantee of some sort.
• Your consultation should be FREE and as personalized as possible.
• You should not receive any specific promises. Nothing can be 100% certain when it comes to credit repair.
• You should never, ever be expected to put up money upfront. No legitimate credit repair services will try to charge you right away. The only guarantee you should receive is the money back guarantee.
• A legitimate company will usually have lawyers and paralegals within its network, and will not propose any solutions or techniques that are not 100% legal.
Guarantees of Legitimate Credit Repair Services
Even though no company can guarantee specific results, they can show results from previous clients (with the clients’ permission) and give you an idea of what they’ve been able to do in the past, and what they will do to try and help you. Any money you end up paying to a legitimate company will probably be a lot less than the money you stand to lose from having bad credit. You might not even be able to rent or buy a home if your credit is bad! Also, in some places, you might have trouble finding a job.
The credit bureaus and credit card companies will take your case more seriously if you have a legitimate company working on your behalf. This will really increase your chances of getting your credit cleaned up in a shorter amount of time than if you were doing it all on your own.
Where can you find legitimate credit repair services? One company that always seems to get positive reviews from clients is Lexington Law. The paralegals who work on cases are great at communication. You will be kept informed, every step of the way.