Best Credit Repair Services

The best credit repair services can help bring a bad credit score up significantly, and make a good score even better.

There are a lot of companies offering to fix your credit, but most of them do little more than you can do yourself in just a few hours.

How do you find the best credit repair services? Searching online will find you hundreds, if not thousands of services, but it's important to understand some of the key differences in services available.

The first thing to be aware of when looking for the best credit repair services are the scams.

Any credit repair service that offers promises should be suspect. According to the Federal Trade Commission, "No one can legally remove accurate and timely negative information from a credit report."

The best credit repair services however can help a great deal within the bounds of what is allowed, and in many cases can provide consumers with the benefit of their experience. These companies can advise you on steps that can be taken, some of which you might not be aware of.

Some of the best credit repair services are "debt consolidaters". These agencies contact your creditors on your behalf and negotiate a discounted "settlement". They then combine these and create a single-payment arrangement. You send the debt consolidater a single check; they in turn send individual payments to the creditors.

Before enlisting help to fix your credit, it is advisable to obtain copies of your credit score from all three credit-reporting agencies: Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax. By law, you are entitled to a free credit report every twelve months. These reports can be requested at the same time, or spread out over time.