You may have bad credit and are looking for a way to get it fixed. It is very tempting to use a credit repair company to solve your financial woes but you absolutely need to be very careful if this is the path you choose. You don’t need one of these companies to rebuild your credit rating and they often are only in the business to make large amounts of money off of you, the desperate consumer. It is easy to take care of the problem yourself without taking a chance on fraud or illegal activities and without paying a huge fee.
Credit repair services claim that they can magically erase your bad credit. This is not true because the only way for this to happen is to determine that the credit information is inaccurate. And, you can easily get incorrect information erased from you record on your own by simply sending a dispute letter to the credit reporting agency. They are obliged to investigate your claim and respond within 30 days to your letter. You do not need a credit repair service to do this for you and it will only cost you a little bit of your time and a postage stamp. These companies claim that they can even get rid of accurate information on your credit report. This is untrue. Legitimate credit information cannot legally be removed from your report.
In order to obtain good credit and keep it without using a credit repair company, you should request a credit report from one of the following: Equifax, Experian or Trans Union. Be prepared to pay a small fee but it is free if you have been denied credit for any reason during the past 60 days. Another way to get a free report is to be unemployed in any 12 month period and your plans are to apply for a job in the next 60 days. You can also get a free report if you are on welfare or you believe your report contains inaccurate or fraudulent information. Your request for a report must be in writing and contain your name, birth date, social security number and where you have lived during the past 5 years.