SHOULD I PAY A CREDIT REPAIR COMPANY TO CLEAN UP MY CREDIT? insider info you need...

Scott.....such a timely feature...Thank You for your tips.  We all need to remember to keep it clean and personally, I don't recommend my clients hire anyone to "clean" their credit up.  They can usually do most of it themselves.  Have a successful week!

I WOULD BE VERY CAREFULL ON WHICH COMPANY I PICK IF I WAS GOING TO, ALOT OF BAD REPORTS COMING OUT ABOUT THOSE TYPES OF COMPANYS.

I WOULD BE VERY CAREFULL ON WHICH COMPANY I PICK IF I WAS GOING TO, ALOT OF BAD REPORTS COMING OUT ABOUT THOSE TYPES OF COMPANYS.

Excellent advice!

Many people think that these "repair companies" are the magical solution.  The reality is that factual information cannot be removed from the report unless the creditor agrees to remove it.  Some of the repair companies have been known to dispute an item and while its off the report, show an updated one to the consumer.  They now think its good for good, only to return once the creditor has rejected the dispute as being a legitimate account. 

Sometimes a creditor may completely remove a collection account if it is paid in full.  I will say that some people don't always know enough of what they can do on their own.  A legitimate company might be of benefit to them.

Scott,   Good piece of advice you wrote in your blog about the free credit report given yearly through www.annualcreditreport.com   This website is something I have been coaching my clients with for years.  Once thing I would say is the clients have to be very careful when disputing tradelines now a days.  Several mortgage companies will not do a loan if a dispute is being reported on a tradeline.  The reason for this is because if there are several disputes on ones credit report the bad credit items are being disputed those tradelines will not count within the scoring system causing the clients scores to increase.  Many credit repair companies in the old days would dispute everything to get scores up well Fannie and Freddie caught onto this and now they want them off.  This change took place about six months ago so when credit is pulled we really have to go through it and check those disputes.

Scott, I've worked with clients with credit issues for over 20 years and have explained how they can dispute innacurate, outdated and erroneous information on their own but sadly 99% of them never follow through.  Granted there are many bad apples in the business just as in any industry but usually the problem is the process is over-sold and promises are made that are impossible to meet, it's the old "let the buyer beware" and make sure you know who you're dealing with.  By the way I'm sure your meant credit "bureaus" and not credit "unions".