Q: Is it true that there are credit report scams, fraud and illegal Credit Repair?
A: Type the following to the search box of any search engine: "credit report repair." On Google.com alone, we found 8,560,000 results. Most of those search engines results are from bad credit repair service companies claiming they can repair your bad credit report for you. Some of these companies are indeed honest credit repair companies and will legitimately help to repair erroneous items on your report while others fall into the category of con artists and crooks. This second group are the ones to watch out for - bad credit repair companies or individuals that offer everything imaginable, take your money and do nothing.

Avoid these by checking references including organizations such as the ConsumerAffairs.com and your local chapter of Better Business Bureau. It is also a good idea to question how long they have been in business. Pay particular attention to what they're telling you; if their claims sound to good to be true, they probably are. When possible attempt to verify answers they have given you with independent sources. Ask how much time bad credit repair takes. No one telling you bad credit repair happens instantly should be trusted.

You will also find some companies (so-called) that claim they will issue you a new social security number or create a completely new credit profile for you. Run, don't walk, away these scams as they are VERY illegal. They are not honest credit repair companies. Other credit repair companies do adhere the rules and understand the system such as our listing above for Lexingtonlaw.

Q: How can Credit Repair Raise my Credit Report Scores??
A: Your credit scores depend on the information in your credit report. Each account reported to your credit reflects many details; ensuring that these details are reported in a fair and accurate manner is essential to guarantee you the highest credit scores possible. A successful credit repair campaign with a bad credit repair service focuses on removing any negative information on your credit reports that you do not recognize. More importantly, however, a credit repair program should help you to recognize and correct the less obvious inaccurate details on each account, which can yield the largest improvements in your credit scores.

First, it is important to realize that many laws have been enacted in your favor, to protect what information large companies are using about you. The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) mandates that the Credit Reporting Agencies (or credit bureaus) must ensure the accuracy and completeness of the credit information reported on you. A part of this legislation gives you the right to dispute any information on your credit report as inaccurate or in some way misleading, and to have the credit bureaus investigate the disputed information.

The Credit Bureaus have between 30-45 days after receiving your notice to complete these investigations. If, during the course of these investigations, they discover that they have been reporting inaccurate information, or they are unable to verify the information that they are reporting, they must either correct or entirely remove the account item in question. They must then supply you with updated account information, to reflect the changes that have occurred.

So how do you use these powerful laws to your advantage? Any obvious, highly negative accounts that you do not recognize on your credit reports should be removed. This can help substantially in your credit scores. But much more frequently, the information that should be challenged is not so obvious. Each account item on a credit report consists of many different detailsˇ¦ these details mean the difference between sub-par credit and a truly accurate, optimized credit profile and the scores that go with it.

Perhaps an account is showing late payments far more recently than they actually occurred. Maybe a limit isn't being reported on one of your revolving accounts. Is the same account being reported more than once, with different information? Is an account that was paid off showing that zero balance? Is the status of an old collection account constantly being updated to reset the "Date of Last Activity?"

The list of inaccuracies that appear on every credit report goes on and on, but the overall point remains: each of these inconspicuous details is hurting your credit scores. It's your right to have the most accurate and complete credit reports possible. Much of the time, the details reported about credit accounts are misleading and go unnoticed, except when they are used to calculate your credit scores and yield much lower scores than you deserve.

So know how the details are affecting your scores! A successful credit repair campaign using an honest credit repair company is not only about 'deletions.' Make sure your credit repair campaign is focused on the right things, and that it has the tenacity to beat the imperfect systems of the credit bureaus. Knowing what the important elements of each credit account are, and how they should be accurately reported to benefit your credit scores, is essential to achieving an optimized credit profile and the best credit scores possible.

Q: Can I Fix and Improve My Credit Reports and Credit Score on My Own??
A: Yes. There are a few options other than employing a bad credit repair attorney. Some free, some at a cost, will help enable and empower you to take on the credit bureaus and your credit report history on your own. It is not, we feel, the easiest, most efficient, nor most expediently effective way to repair your credit -- but if you have time to burn, patience to spare, and don't necessarily expect immediate, perfect, or permanent results... it can be done.

As you may have seen, if you've surfed around looking at credit repair options, the credit bureaus and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) both note that you can contact the credit bureaus to dispute negative, inaccurate, unrecognized, or otherwise derogatory information, all on your own and at no or little cost.

No lawyers, no credit counselors, no credit repair firms. Just you. Certain materials may even note that as concerns credit repair, "there's nothing a credit repair agency can do that you can't do yourself." Indeed. Most of us can also theoretically climb Mount Everest, too -- but it sure helps to get some advice, training, and helpful tools first.

We all know the negative effects of bad credit, negative items, and low credit scores in this era of risk-based financing... and yet something like 75% of all Americans have at least one error on their credit reports, and only a fraction of these find success taking on credit repair alone. If credit repair were as easy as slapping together a letter, wouldn't we all get after the credit bureaus and demand immediate corrective action?

After all, in a perfect world, the world this "do it yourself" credit repair advice comes from, the credit report repair process is very simple. In Neverland, you simply tell the credit bureaus that you disagree with this or that on your credit report, and they fix it like clockwork. In the real world, this is seldom effective, takes self-education and preparation time, and can often require several attempts to get your credit report looking more like "your" credit history.

The credit bureaus maintain such a huge amount of information they simply do not have the systems in place to make this "perfect world" process easy. The credit bureaus made or received and erroneous negative item in the first place... and because they process billions of items per month, it's only fair to expect they'll make more. As to creating and maintaining channels and processes for you to repair your credit... well, handling disputes is a no-gain cost for the credit bureaus. They would rather not have to do mess with credit repair, dispute letters, consumer credit calls, etc -- and the harder they make it to succeed for you, the less disputes they get. Problem solved... for the credit institutions.

bad credit repair attorney Your problems have just begun. At its best, working to repair or improve your credit (on your own) will be time consuming. There are no quick fixes, and few easy fixes, no matter who you are or who you know. Because the system is so massive, and because there is little financial incentive for the credit bureaus to spend time or money making credit report repair work for consumers, repairing your own credit errors is rife with problems and frustrations.

For example, you may be asked for the proper "report confirmation numbers" in order to get past "gatekeeper" automated answering systems. Presuming you overcome this credit repair hurdle, the bureaus' reps may not express as much interest in your credit problems as you do. Ever been transferred, maybe in a circle? Ever think, hey, how did that problem get there in the first place? Ever wonder why the problem's source is disinterested in rectifying the credit report error you've brought to their attention? Why can't you get your report on their web site - for free - while you're talking to them?

In fact, here's a question: why do the credit bureaus and even the FTC kindly advise that you attempt credit repair on your own? It's legal and your right as a consumer to get all the help you want, so why is it recommended to fly solo? Could it be that the vested interest benefit from a difficult, no hand-holders credit reporting system? Is it not true that making your credit repair difficult saves them time, money, hassle, and best of all, there's little accountability for inaction or erroneous reporting? Really, why should they want you to get help from a credit repair firm?

Just the incredible amount of different formats you can get your credit report information in can make deciphering it seem impossible. Different types of credit reports are produced directly from the bureaus... and at car dealerships, mortgage offices, lending institutions and banks, credit card companies, from online third party credit report resellers, insurance companies, and the list goes on. Each one can show different information about you, and employ different risk-based scoring models.

So how can you even know what's correct and what isn't? And more importantly, how are you to know which individual pieces of information for each account might be hurting your credit scores? How are your credit scores calculated from all of that information?

What really matters in credit repair, which by default raises your credit scores, is knowing how to get results, and how to get them in the shortest time possible. that why you many need a bad credit repair attorney that specializes in bad credit repair services. Our Bad Credit Guide comapny shown above is perhaps the only honest credit repair company on the 'net.

Getting approved for Bad Credit Credit Cards has never been so easy!