Credit repair involves eliminating inaccurate and harmful information from your credit report in order to increase your score and increase the likelihood of approval for loans and credit cards with lower interest rates. The process typically takes 30-60 days depending on how severe your problems are and the time you dedicate towards fixing them.
To repair your credit, it’s essential to identify errors on your report and dispute them with credit bureaus or information furnishers (the companies providing data to bureaus). A reputable credit repair service can assist in this effort by reviewing reports to detect serious inaccuracies before employing various strategies to convince bureaus or information furnishers to remove incorrect data from reports.
No matter if you opt to do it on your own or hire a credit repair service, this step will likely take the longest. You must research each error reported to credit bureaus by companies reporting them directly to them and send out letters disputing it; credit bureaus have 30 days to investigate disputes filed.
Once you’ve successfully challenged errors on your credit report, it may be time to build a positive credit history again. This may involve opening a secured credit card or small personal loan; paying down balances on existing cards; or simply increasing payments so your utilization falls. A healthy credit score will enable you to qualify for loans with lower interest rates as well as save money long term through lower utility and insurance costs.
Though you could potentially see improvements within 30 days, many individuals need time and dedication before their credit shows significant changes. Due to late payments, defaults, and bankruptcies that remain on your report for seven years, derogatory marks such as late payments can have an enormously detrimental impact. But with time and strategy on your side, restoring your credit can become achievable again. If you want to speed up the process of credit repair, take a look at one of our recommended credit repair companies. They all provide free consultations and can guide you through every step of fixing your credit. Your credit repair partner can also keep you on track so you don’t miss any key deadlines that could cause delays in the credit repair process, while being on guard against scams that ask for upfront payment or fail to disclose legal rights.
