A credit repair agency advertises that it can help you repair bad credit so that you will qualify for that loan you need to buy a new car or take a vacation. However, you do have to be careful when engaging the services of one of these agencies because many of them will not provide you with any information. In fact, that is all you can hope for with a credit repair agency because you are the only one that can repair your bad credit.
If you contact a credit counseling agency, you will get valuable advice. However, you should not have to pay for this service. There is a wealth of information available on the Internet to help you with your credit problems and even workbooks that you can download for free. Instead of spending your hard earned money paying for advice from a credit repair agency, there are many tips and techniques that you can get free.
The main advice about helping you to repair your credit is that you do need to request a free copy of your credit report. There are three major credit agencies that have a file on you and your borrowing habits. By law you are entitled to one free report a year and everyone should review his/her credit report at least once a year to make sure there are no mistakes. When you contact a credit repair agency, you may get a free report, but you might also have to sign up and pay for credit counseling services.
If you are having a difficult time keeping your credit in check and find yourself in over your head, then you might benefit from the services of a credit counseling agency. If you are contemplating bankruptcy, the people at these agencies can come up with ways to help you prevent this. The counseling agencies have people trained in dealing with creditors and will negotiate with them to take a lower amount of payment. They can also help you negotiate a debt consolidation loan, which will pay off your outstanding accounts. Just keep in mind that this type of credit repair agency cannot wipe any items from your credit report.
You can take charge of doing your own credit repair without having to resort to using a credit repair agency. If you are really determined to bring up your credit scores, you can start by making a conscientious effort to make all your payments on time. Maybe a consolidation loan is the route you should take. If you are just being remiss with sending in your payments and are not having any financial difficulty, you will just be wasting your money with a credit repair agency. Once you start taking charge of your finances, your credit rating will soon start to rise.
Do you really need a commercial credit repair agency? Probably not.