I want to take a few minutes to discuss credit repair and why it's made such a bad reputation for itself over the years. First of all the actual act of credit repair is not shady by any means, it's the calculated, underhanded predators that turn it into an opportunity to manipulate unsuspicious consumers that are already down on their luck and desperate for help.
Remember, scrupulous credit repair companies are drawing their rules from federal laws and there's absolutely nothing shady about the federal laws. The laws I'm referring to here are the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). This is the place credit repair originated from and this is where credit repair is built to stay. Unfortunately these days you have got every Tom, Dick and Harry running around promising consumers 24 hour or 30 day credit improvement for 100's of dollars up front (which happens to be highly illegal), all the while doing absolutely NOTHING to help repair their credit. Just picture the most obnoxious used car salesman you've ever met and times it by 10,000. There is nothing more disturbing than the usual boiler room stuffed with high school dropouts taking advantage of innocent consumers and claiming high quality credit repair. Please don't let them deter you from true credit repair in line with the federal laws and the repair companies that stay true to these laws and can get results. If anything, take it as a great reason to try and do your own credit repair first.
A last thing you have remember is that credit repair and the elimination of items from your credit report is not the end all fix. It's just the beginning to get where you want to go. In other words there are more steps involved with bringing your credit score back up to where you want it. For example, you have to pay back the debt you truly owe, keep the balances on your credit cards low and most importantly, live within your financial means! Do what you can to clean up your report, but your score will go up a lot easier if you take these steps.
Research and find a credit repair agency that's doing credit repair the right way and get yourself back on track. If you want to do it by yourself that's fine too as there is nothing that a credit repair agency can do that you can't do for yourself if you have the time, so please don't fall victim to some phone agent that claims otherwise.
Credit repair will work, but like with any other industry there are predators out there who will lie, cheat and steal for their own personal gain! Please don't forget this and thank you for listening and good luck on fixing your credit.