Credit Advice

There is some truth to what Credit Karma has to say about credit repair companies but if you carefully choose the right one & research your options then you will probably be better off than actually doing it yourself unless you are a legal assistant who loves research & writing. It takes time, patience, lots of reading & research on consumer laws, writing, negotiating and credit monitoring to keep your credit in good shape. I know because after years of restoring my own credit & that of friends and family, I decided to start my own credit repair consulting company.

I decided to go with a credit repair company before I had to declare bankruptcy. They were mostly ineffective. They only helped to remove one derogatory, untrue item from my record.

At that time, I dumped them and started writing my own letters. I even wrote them by hand. This seems odd, but I wanted the credit company reviewers to know that the letters actually came from me. Back when I had the consulting company, I did get a letter from one of the bureaus asking me if I was actually writing to them, or if I had a company doing it. Ouch!

When I started writing my own letters, things changed a lot. I had the derogatory, untrue items mostly removed. This took my credit up about 100 points, and lowered what they claimed that I owed.

I still had to declare bankruptcy over medical bills, however I learned an important lesson. There is no reason, with truth, sincerity, and a little research, why the determined person cannot be more effective than a company.

I looked into these so-called companies that promise to be able to reduce the credit balances you owe. They all seem to say the same thing, reduce by as much as 40% or more. What they advise you to do is stop paying all creditors and just work out a payment plan with them, and then they'll negotiate for you w/ the credit card companies. What they don't tell you though is if you do that, you run the risk of making things much worse for yourself - and that most credit card companies do not negotiate with these so called credit repair firms - most are scams.

how can i get a list of what is on my credit report?

A vast majority of credit repair companies do not work. Credit repair tactics can range from things you can easily do yourself to solutions that are felonies. Here is a list of the common approaches used by these companies.

1. Constantly Disputing Derogatory Credit Information - By law, a creditor has 30 days to respond to disputed items. If the creditor does not, then the credit bureau would have to remove the disputed item from the report. A group of credit repair companies have built a practice of spamming creditors and bureaus alike with disputes. These disputes clog resources for people with real inaccuracies.

In addition to wasting resources, this solution does not work. Creditors will simply add the negative information back on the next reporting cycle and they have every right to do so. No company can guarantee removal of accurate and timely information from your credit report.

2. Piggybacking on Someone Else's Credit - This practice involves borrowing someone’s good credit score to boost your own credit. For a period of time, this worked for many people. However, all the major credit score models and credit bureaus have caught on to the process and have since changed their scoring methodologies to deemphasize the value of piggyback account, generally rendering it much less valuable.
3. Using a New SSN or EIN (File Segmentation) - Some credit repair companies will advise the consumer to apply for an EIN "Employer Identification Number". These EIN are the social security numbers of businesses and have the same number of digits as a social security number. As such, the credit repair companies then have the consumer use this number as their SSN on loan or credit applications. Since these new EIN numbers are not associated with the users credit report, it is like starting from scratch.

What the credit repair companies do not tell you is that you are committing fraud and potentially a felony. In addition, it is usually caught by the lender anyways. Using a new EIN number would show that you have no credit history and the lender would require additional checks.


In many of these cases you will spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars with no impact on your credit score. If are serious about getting help, contact the National Foundation for Credit Counseling to find counseling for a low fee.

I did all the paperwork & phone calls my self and raised my scores of 661, 669, 671 to 699, 709 & 744. I kept seperate files for all three credit bureaus, made copies of all letters & documentation sent out & recorded all names & dates of the people I spoke to at each agency.  I also purchased three books about repairing credit, which had sample letters that you can use to send to either the credit bureau or the creditor.  The one book that I used the most was "The Pocket Idiot"s Guide: Repairing Your Credit".  All the books say the same thing, send you letter to the credit bureau first, and if they do nothing, then send your letter to the creditor & make sure that this letters have documentation to support your claim.  I don"t send registered letters, because of the sucess that I have had without doing that.  I do have the time & patience.  To be successful, you should have the following tools:  Computer, printer, dictionary, note pad (8x11), a smaller note pad (this is for your user names & passwords that you use for diffent credit agencies as well for all of your accounts. ) I would recommend that you include www. credit karma.com in your list of tools.  It compares credit cards, auto loans, house loans & credit advice and has been a great help to me. If fact, I was able to refinace my auto loan from 9.5% to 3.14%, which reduced my monthly payment from $435.55 to $387.00.