Here's a piece of credit repair advice: you need to consider the benefits and costs to using a credit repair agency.
If you opt to repair your own credit, you'll save the monthly fee you would be paying an agency. You'll send letters and make calls and know exactly where you are in the process at all times. Also, if you make all your own contacts, you'll provide the personal touch to make it all more believable.
Repairing credit yourself is the most flexible. If you want to wait, you can. If you're ready to act, you can. You can make the decisions an agency might have to call and ask you about anyway. For example, if you see a charged off account that's 6 years old, it might make sense to leave it alone rather than dispute it since it will fall off anyway after 7 years of inactivity.
A couple of reasons you might want someone else to work on your credit are that it does take a little time and that you might struggle with self doubt and wonder if you were doing it right. When it comes down to it, credit and financial health are one of those things that you probably shouldn't pay someone else to do. It's like your physical health or raising your children. Yes, you can pay for someone to help now and then but it's ultimately your responsibility.
Fortunately, there is more information than you could ever need online about how to repair your credit. The challenge is sorting through it and putting it all in order. My advice is to find a reputable book or course that puts all the pieces together for you.
What about using an agency?
Chances are, a credit agency will do exactly what you could do. They'll send letters. They might give you credit repair advice to close or open lines of credit. They'll probably tell you to ask for better rates. You'd probably feel more secure knowing someone was working on your behalf.
Unfortunately, the experience of many consumers has been that credit repair agencies take your money and then just spit out a form letter on your behalf if that. Maybe the reporting agencies see the letter and reject it based on not enough information. They don't like anything that looks like spam either.
Then you'll wonder what's happening as the credit repair agency collects a monthly fee month after month. While you're waiting there will probably have been some other things you could have been doing to improve your credit if you would have known.
My advice is to skip the agencies and spend that money on a good book or course. Take responsibility for your own financial future.
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