By David Pilley on July 15, 2010
.jpg.aspx?width=75&height=75) If you have excessive or outstanding debt, your credit score will go down. When your credit score goes down, lenders are more wary about giving you a loan. What can you do to repair your poor credit score?
Well, you can’t remove any of the information from your credit report. That’s fraud, which can put you in jail. However, you can ask for an investigation into the information on your file. The Fair Credit Reporting Act says you are entitled to a free report if a company takes “adverse action” against you, such as denying a new application for credit, insurance or even employment. (Remember, one of the factors employers take into account when hiring new employees is his/her credit history.)
If there’s one thing you should not do, go to freecreditreport.com. Pay no attention to the catchy jingles on TV; do NOT go to the site for a free credit score. It will ask you to sign up for a credit monitoring program, and it will charge a fee. Do NOT go to any site that wants you to pay for credit repair services before they provide any services. According to the Credit Repair Organizations Act, this is illegal. Credit repair companies cannot require you to pay until they have completed services they have promised. There are only three credit reporting companies you can trust: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. If the website does not recommend you to either of these companies, do not ask for a credit report. If the site tells you it can get rid of the negative information on your credit report, go no further on that site. Once again, that is fraud, and you could go to jail.
A credit repair organization must give you a copy of the “Consumer Credit File Rights Under State and Federal Law” before you sign a contract. There also has to be a contract, telling you what you are allowed to do. The organization cannot perform any services until you sign the contract, and it can’t charge you, either. If it does, it is a scam!
Again, the only three trustworthy companies dealing with credit repair are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. They have a central website, at annualcreditreport.com. Here, you can ask for a free copy of your credit report once every 12 months, as you are entitled to do so by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. And I can’t say this enough, but don’t listen to the catchy TV jingles. Freecreditreport.com might tell you you’d be a happy bachelor with a dog and a yard if you go to their website, but in reality you’ll just be in more debt.
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