(Source: NCPW)- People with poor credit histories often are targeted by companies that promise to clean up their credit reports so they’ll be able to qualify for a car loan, a mortgage, insurance, even a job. Just as often, these “credit repair” companies say they need a fee of a few hundred – sometimes, a few thousand – dollars before they can go to work on your behalf. The truth is that no one can get accurate negative information removed from your credit report. It’s illegal.When negative information in your report is accurate, only the passage of time can assure its removal. A consumer reporting company can report most accurate negative information for seven years and bankruptcy information for 10 years.
Other important things to know about credit repair companies:
* By law, credit repair companies can’t require you to pay them until they’ve performed the credit repair services they promised.
* You can ask the three major national consumer reporting companies (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) to investigate any information in your credit report that you believe is inaccurate or incomplete. There is no charge for this investigation.
* You can contact any of the three major national consumer reporting companies directly. The consumer reporting company and the provider of the information about you (it could be a person, company, or organization) must correct any inaccurate or incomplete information in your report – and there’s a time frame they have to work within.
* Any credit repair company that claims to be able to legally remove accurate and timely information from your credit report is lying. There’s no quick fix for bad credit. It can be fixed, but it takes time and a conscious effort to pay your debts.
* If a company suggests that you apply for an Employer Identification Number to use in place of your Social Security number so you can create a “new” credit identity – and then, a new credit report, drop them like a hot potato. It’s a federal crime to lie on a loan or credit application, to misrepresent your Social Security number, or to get an Employer Identification Number from the Internal Revenue Service under false pretenses. You could be charged and prosecuted for mail or wire fraud if you use the mail, telephone, or Internet to apply for credit and provide false information.
The fact is that anything a credit repair company can do for you legally – and for a fee, you can do for yourself at little or no cost. Read Credit Repair: How to Help Yourself to get started, and visit ftc.gov/moneymatters for practical tips, videos, and links to reliable resources on debt collection, job-hunting and job scams, vehicle repossession, managing mortgage payments, and foreclosure rescue scams.
People can also cut their own hair, but many choose to go to a professional. Of course you can do the same thing a credit repair co. does, but I’m sure you’ll get stuck and give up regardless wether it’s accurate or not. Pointless article. What you want people to be down for 7-10 yrs?
PB(Quote) (Reply)
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Yes, I agree with PB. This is one more of these so called “consumer oriented” articles using common knowledge and public information to write about a specific topic in a very general and often uninformed way in order to bring traffic to a site.
To say that you don’t neeed a credit repair specialist for things you can do on your own is the same as saying you don’t need to go to a barber shop to get a haircut. Anyone can use a pair of pair of scissors to cut hair, but should you?
Guy Barre(Quote) (Reply)
Like or Dislike:
0 
0