Should You Use a Credit Repair Service?
If you have bad credit, you've probably noticed ads from credit repair services claiming they can remove negative information from your credit report - sometimes with a 100% guarantee.Some even claim to be able to remove bankruptcies or other judgments from your credit file forever.
The truth is - credit repair services don't have access to any secret strategies or loopholes. They can only dispute charges the exact same way consumers can as outlined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act. (See: How to Fix Errors in Your Credit Report.
The true purpose of a credit repair service is to simply save you time. Rather than doing it yourself, they will dispute the errors on your behalf.
Most consumers - and especially those with bad credit - should save money and just file error disputes themselves. The process is not that difficult.
Credit protection and credit repair scams are one of the top complaints reported to the FTC so you need to be very careful using one if you want to go that route.
Stay away from credit repair services that makes outrageous claims and guarantees.
Remember - there is no easy way to remove negative information from your credit history - unless it is a true error, in which case you can just easily do it yourself.
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