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Do It Yourself Credit Repair

May 12th, 2008

The basics of “do it yourself” credit repair are very simple. The idea is to remove inaccurate information from your credit report. The information that many companies charge for or include as “free reports” attached to some other report that they are charging for can be found easily. Free credit repair information is available from various organizations. Real free credit repair services do not exist.

Do it yourself credit repair software is being sold on the internet. Do it yourself credit repair information is being sold in the form of conventional and e-books. Sometimes free credit repair information is used as “bait” to attract interest in subscriptions to “credit info” magazines and newsletters. Often this information that companies are charging for is worthless. Free credit repair information is available from the Federal Trade Commission.

Do it yourself credit repair is possible if you have three things to invest; time, patience and know-how. Step one is to obtain personal credit reports from the three major credit bureaus. At one time this was a time consuming process in and of itself, but a recently enacted law has made at least this part easier. Consumers can now obtain copies of their credit reports from all three major credit bureaus at one website; www.annualcreditreport.com. This is free credit repair information that anyone can use, but misspellings will lead to impostor sites that are only trying to sell more stuff. It is understandable that companies want to make money, but to purposely mislead consumers seems wrong somehow.

The next step to do it yourself credit repair is to evaluate the information on those credit reports. Beware, they are not easy to read, they may be several pages long and the company names that are listed may be unfamiliar. At this point, those who are easily overwhelmed give up, but the hardy keep going. They start writing the necessary letters or contacting the credit bureaus over the internet when possible. Even do it yourself credit repair is not free credit repair. It costs valuable time for one thing. In those situations where letters are necessary, it costs postage, of course. And, other than the annual free report, the credit bureau will charge for each subsequent report that is needed to verify that items have been removed.

If your credit is not that bad and you only have a couple of items to be removed, then do it yourself credit repair may work for you. If, on the other hand, you have numerous items causing you problems, then do it yourself credit repair will be frustrating, time consuming and possibly ineffective. The credit bureaus may ignore requests that are not “worded” correctly and although they are required to investigate within thirty days, they sometimes ask for more information. Once that information is received, they have another thirty days to investigate. What at first seems like a free credit repair solution may turn into a nightmare.

There are reasonably priced options to do it yourself credit repair. This may not be free credit repair, but it will be effective credit repair. Although there are many companies which offer credit repair services, a legal firm, specializing in credit repair issues can offer the most effective services. If you choose a company that does not consist of a legal team familiar with credit law, then you may still end up disappointed. If you choose to try do it yourself credit repair, you may be disappointed. If you choose the right credit repair service, the only thing you will end up with is a better credit score. For more free credit repair information, visit the Credit Repair Blog.

The writers and editors of the Credit Repair Blog are committed to providing accurate information about bad credit repair. Visit us at http://badcredit-repair.blogspot.com

Free Online Credit Scores

March 29th, 2008

Credit scores are scores that show a person’s financial creditworthiness. The credit score is used to verify whether the person qualifies for a loan, or any other credit, based on whether he has repaid his previous loans satisfactorily. In other words, a credit report is a reflection of the past credit history of an individual. Credit score is used by banks and other lending companies to estimate how risky the borrower is. It helps them to determine how much loan can be given and at what rate of interest. Credit scores are also sought by employers and landlords for determining the eligibility of the applicant.

In the US, the credit score is based on the FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation) score that is calculated by using certain mathematical and statistical techniques. There are also other versions of calculating credit scores such as Beacon and Empirica. A FICO score is based on various factors including: punctuality of payment in the past, capacity used (ratio of current revolving debt to total available revolving credit), length of credit history, types of credits used and recent credits obtained. FICO scores range from 300-850 wherein a score below 600 is considered “bad”, while a score above 720 is considered “good”. Every US citizen can obtain a credit report from a reporting agency as per the FACT Act (Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act).

Every person can get his/her credit report from each one of the credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, once a year. All three reports can be ordered at the same time. A free report can also be obtained more than once within the same year in certain situations like if a person is on welfare, or if the report was inaccurate because of fraud, if the person is unemployed and is looking for a job. If a company takes adverse action against the applicant such as denying application for credit, insurance, or employment, one can ask for a report within 60 days of receiving notice of the action. There are also other companies that provide free credit scores and reports using their own tools and resources. They also provide other services such as free alerts about changes in the credit report, and advice about loan lenders and credit card companies that would provide credit suitable to the client’s credit score. However, the free offers are generally used to just attract people towards their other services. The free services are only for limited periods and usually require registration to their other paid services for accessing free credit scores.

Free Credit Score provides detailed information on Free Credit Score, Free Online Credit Scores, Free Credit Report And Score, Free Credit Score Services and more. Free Credit Score is affiliated with Free Government Credit Checks.