The Importance of Repairing your Credit Report…….Yourself!

By Kimberly Kellish 

It seems to be common knowledge today that we are living in a society overwhelmed with debt. Credit card balances are hitting all time highs and in return, people are running into more and more problems with their credit ratings. These circumstances have led to decreased credit scores which lead to increased fees for credit cards, auto insurance, and can even affect you getting a job!

            A recent study has shown that nearly 70% of credit reports carry some type of error on them. 70%! Statistics like this is one factor which has resulted in the government allowing Americans the ability to receive a free credit report every year. Americans need to become more aware of what is reported on their credit reports to help decrease these errors.

            One business that has begun to flood the web is “Credit Repair Companies”. There are several different websites, many of them claiming to be law firms, which will charge you numerous fees for your credit report repair. Typical tactics used by these credit report repair companies are bombarding collection agencies with letters, asking them to remove your negative items. What consumers need to know is that these tactics, which give the credit repair company’s the nickname “Dispute mills”, are not effective in removing negative credit report items! Typically it does nothing more then raise red flags at the collection agency’s and can even make it nearly impossible in the future for you to try to re-dispute an item on your own. Collection Agency’s will see these as what it is, a mass mailing to get negative items removed, and take it as ungrounded reasons to have items removed.

            Their tactics and fees are one thing to consider but one previously unmentioned thought may be even more important, identity theft! Identity theft is one of the highest crimes in the country today. When you hire a credit report repair company on the internet you may know nothing more about the company then its website address. There first step will be to charge you all kinds of fees, secondly they will want a copy of your credit report so that they can fix your negative items or errors. Now if this is a legitimate law firm or credit report repair company, there may be nothing to fear, but what if their not? You just gave someone access to all your personal information including not only your credit card numbers, loan numbers, but your social security number, address and everything that legally makes you…YOU!

            For those few reasons you need to understand that you do not need to hire anyone to fix your credit report. You can accomplish the same things even the best credit report repair company can accomplish, by repairing your own credit report!

            We shouldn’t become overwhelmed by the process or frustrated by the creditors games. Become informed, learn your rights and regain your credit freedom!