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Credit Repair Advice: DIY Vs Agencies

By Tiffani G Peterson
Oct 28, 2009
A piece of credit repair advice: before your hire a credit repair agency consider the pros and cons.

If you opt to repair your own credit, you'll save the monthly fee you would be paying an agency. You'll send letters and make calls and know exactly where you are in the process at all times. Also, if you make all your own contacts, you'll provide the personal touch to make it all more believable.

Repairing credit yourself is the most flexible. If you want to wait, you can. If you're ready to act, you can. You can make the decisions an agency might have to call and ask you about anyway. For example, if you see a charged off account that's 6 years old, it might make sense to leave it alone rather than dispute it since it will fall off anyway after 7 years of inactivity.

You should consider hiring an agency if you're short on time, have the extra money and don't want to be bothered to manage your finances. Also, if you struggle with low self esteem and couldn't bring yourself to call your credit card company on the phone, then an agency is right for you. Chances are though that no one fits that description. Like maintaining your personal health and raising your own children, your finances are something you should attend to yourself.

If you're not sure what to do, there is more credit repair advice online than you could ever need. The challenge is figuring it all out and putting it in order. My advice is to find a reputable book or course that puts all the pieces together for you. Learn from another person's experience and save yourself the time.

Using An Agency

Chances are, a credit agency will do exactly what you could do. They'll send letters. They might give you credit repair advice to close or open lines of credit. They'll probably tell you to ask for better rates. You'd probably feel more secure knowing someone was working on your behalf.

Unfortunately, the experience of many consumers has been that credit repair agencies take your money and then just spit out a form letter on your behalf if that. Maybe the reporting agencies see the letter and reject it based on not enough information. They don't like anything that looks like spam either.

If you're waiting for the credit repair agency, you might be missing out on other things you could be doing in the meantime. When they're being paid by the month, the incentives are stacked against them moving quickly and keeping you informed.

My credit repair advice is to avoid the agencies and spend part of that money on a good book or course. Take responsibility for your own good credit score.
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