Credit Repair: Should You Pay to 'Fix' Your Score?

A good credit score is a mandatory practice that you should always try to maintain. A good credit score opens a lot of doors for being approved for various kinds of financial services such as low interest loans, credit cards and mortgages. So what is basically a “good” credit score? A score of around 700 on the FICO scale is considered a good credit score. What if you don’t have a good credit score? Then comes the topic of credit repair. 

What is basically credit repair?

Credit repair is basically improving your credit score by eliminating all the errors and disputes related to your credit reports. In order to repair your credit, each and every information you provide should be 100% authentic, otherwise it will be rejected by The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). 

Should you hire credit repair services?

As mentioned above, improving your credit score is highly essential when you have a poor score. In such situations people generally seek the help of credit repair companies to improve their scores in a month instead of waiting for 5 to 10 years. But are these services really worth it? 

The pros of credit repair services can include: 

• The credit repair job is done by an expert
• Good and verified companies are better at negotiation
• A faster processing

According to experts, don’t be fooled by the above attractive pros of the credit repair companies! If you do so, you might fall into a trap unknowingly that can do more damage than benefit! 

Here are some of the cons of credit repair services:

• Monthly cost: These repair services don't come free. It can charge anywhere from $60 to $200 per month. When you are in debt and are thinking of ways to improve your credit score, paying a company to do so is not smart!
• No full control: The credit repair services won’t give you full control. You will have to act according to them and this can include their say on your loans, your spending habits and even your income! 
• Scams: You can easily fall in the trap of some credit repair companies that are actually fraud. This will result in losing both your credit score and your money!

Most of the credit repair companies employ certain tactics that are not legally allowed. They can send letters regarding the negative points and disputes in your credit report in the hope of it being removed by mistake. Another tactic used by them is to add your name in the credit account belonging to a different person. This can result in bank fraud and decrease your credit score further. 

After comparing the pros with the cons, the best thing to do is to avoid these “credit repair” companies. The only legitimate and legal thing that these services can provide is to erase the negatives and disputes in your report. These can be fixed by you and that too free! 

Though these credit repair companies might provide faster services, the stakes are high! Since you are already in debt or you need to improve your credit score, it is always advised to avoid the risk of being associated with a credit repair company and improve the credit score on your own.