Credit repair is the process you need to take when inaccurate information occurs on your credit report. Do not ignore any inaccurate, misleading, or unverifiable information on your credit report because it can lower your credit score. A lower credit score results in a higher interest rate on a loan or mortgage that you want to get. It doesn’t have to be like that. The Fair Credit Reporting Act is a federal law that provides you with the right to correct the information that is erroneous in your credit report.
So, theoretically, it should be easy to do a credit repair. You ask for a copy of your credit report from all three credit agencies and thoroughly review credit reports. If there is any inaccurate information you dispute it. Then the credit bureau corrects it and you get your credit score as high as it should be. Unfortunately, it is not that simple.
Nowadays, these agencies are overwhelmed with various disputes for data correction. Credit bureaus are required to investigate a dispute within 30 days and notify you of its estimate within 90 days. It often happens that their estimate is not in your favor. The reason for this is usually the quality of the dispute letter consumers send to the agencies. The dispute letter, among other data, should contain proof that the information in a credit report is inaccurate. For most consumers, it is not quite clear how to compose a quality dispute letter. What to do when your dispute claim is rejected by a credit report agency? The answer is – seek help from a reputable credit repair lawyer. But, how much does a credit repair lawyer cost?
Where to Start With Credit Repair?
You should review your credit report on a regular basis. You have a right to request a copy of your credit report from all three major credit reporting agencies. You can do that at http://www.annualcreditreport.com/.
A study conducted by Federal Trade Commission reveals that one of five consumers had an error on at least one of their credit reports from Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion. The study also says that five percent of consumers have errors that lead to paying more for loans and insurances. These statistics should serve as an example as to why you need to review your credit report more often. Usually, people request their credit reports prior to applying for a home or a car loan. Realizing there is a mistake listed in your credit report is a serious situation that requires an immediate response. You should act promptly. The ultimate goal of credit repair is to clean up your reports and improve your credit score.
There are three possible ways to dispute mistakes listed in your credit report. You can do it yourself, you can use the services of one of many credit repair companies or you can hire a credit repair lawyer.
You Can Do It Yourself But…
By the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you are provided with the right to correct any erroneous information in your report. You don’t have to be a lawyer to identify potential errors and address credit report agencies to correct negative items. But this might not be the end of a credit repair process.
The process itself could be very frustrating and time-consuming as it requires at least a series of phone calls to credit bureaus. Also composing dispute letters sending them and waiting for your claim to be accepted or rejected is usually nerve-wracking because your credit score is at stake. In order to be successful in this process, you need to understand consumer rights very well and have persistence and time to deal with this serious situation. But it is possible to do it yourself. It is just the result that might not be good enough because of your lack of experience with the matter.
Avoid Credit Repair Organizations
Using for-profit credit repair organizations and companies to repair your credit and improve your credit score is not so smart idea. These companies often make unrealistic promises that they can remove correct, though negative, information from your credit report. You can be seduced by these promises but negative items legally stay up to ten years in your credit report if they are correct. There are no tricks and shortcuts to make them go away.
These credit repair companies typically use uninventive tactics disputing every item listed in your credit report, trying to take advantage of the FCRA requires credit report agencies to verify every disputed information. This is an attempt to overwhelm credit bureaus hoping they will remove information without verifying it. There are also some other tactics they are using, and some of them are fraudulent, deceptive, and even illegal.
Is It Worth To Hyre a Credit Repair Lawyer?
How much does a credit repair lawyer cost and is it worth hiring one? Those are the two questions that bother many people with a low credit score. Here are the answers – it doesn’t have to cost you anything, and yes of course it is worth hiring a credit repair layer. Read on to find out why.
There are many things an experienced credit repair lawyer could do in correspondence with credit reporting agencies and your creditors. Lawyers specialized in credit repair are dealing with credit report agencies regularly. Their experience and expertise are a crucial ally on your behalf to get the inaccurate and negative items removed from your credit report. Usually, a credit repair lawyer will first review your credit reports to identify potential errors and ways to improve your credit score. You should know that a negative item, if accurate, is not possible to remove. A good credit repair lawyer knows this fact and will focus to negotiate items that are inaccurate with credit report agencies. Also, a lawyer is the right person to negotiate the settlement amount with your creditors on your behalf. A settlement with creditors could help clean up your credit report and improve your credit score. If your creditors sue, you will need to be represented by a lawyer. An experienced credit repair lawyer will know if you have a case against credit report agencies. You are entitled to monetary compensation when the damage is done to you by the act or omission of the credit report agency.
An experienced credit report lawyer will take a case contingent. This means a credit repair lawyer gets paid from the outcome of the case. If you get monetarily compensated, the lawyer who represents you gets paid. Now you get it why a credit repair lawyer doesn’t really cost anything. Of course, there are other ways to pay for the services of your lawyer, but this is the best option by far and seems like a fair and square arrangement between a lawyer and a client.
Improving your credit score is always time-consuming. Credit report agencies do not react to your disputes at a high pace. Also, these agencies are permanently overwhelmed by various consumers requests and make mistakes. It often happens that grounded disputes are rejected. Credit repair lawyers from Cook Law LLC in St Louis attained a high level of expertise in credit report matter to bring you peace of mind, less stress and less frustration raising your credit score as an ultimate goal. So the answer to how much a credit repair lawyer costs is always the same, it doesn’t cost you anything. At Cook Law LLC you can get a free of charge consultation to evaluate if you have the case against credit report agencies by the rights guaranteed by the Fair Credit Report Act, or to simply present you with the options available for you in your specific situation.