What Is Credit Repair and How Does It Work?

Credit repair, as the name suggests, is the process of improving (poor) credit score.

In some cases, the “repair” is quite simple and not as serious as it sounds.

Incorrect information stated on a bill that can be easily corrected, for instance.

Sometimes the damage is more severe and consequently more costly and time-consuming to fix – assuming it’s fixable at all.

Believe it or not, there are actually firms out there that specialize in repairing credit for their clients.

These companies provide so-called credit repair services.

Alternatively, you can try and remediate a poor credit score yourself.

In fact, there’s little a credit repair company can legally do that you can’t do yourself – it just takes time and effort.

In the end, credit repair boils down to filing disputes with the credit bureau that issues your credit report.

It’s not possible to have any information issued by your credit reporting agency removed or changed by a third party.

Essentially, you are entitled to a free credit report once a year, as well as a free report if a company has taken adverse action against you (like a bank refusing to issue you a loan).

Once you receive it, take some time to read through it carefully and note down any inaccuracies and errors.

Then, file a dispute with your credit bureau regarding those inaccuracies/errors.

It’s then up to the bureaus to investigate the issues and, if applicable, make corrections.

Unfortunately, as often happens, you might have to follow up multiple times to check if your dispute is being investigated.

If there is actually an inaccuracy/error, it should be corrected by them; this will help “fix” your credit score.

If you don’t have the time or energy to go through this process, you can always reach out to a credit repair company so they can do it for you.

Just make sure you do your research and choose a good one.

Categories: : finance