Is credit repair a scam or can it be done?
 

Way of toptic but anyway;

Someone said something in a thread and it got me thinking. My GF is trying to repair old credit all her shit is paid off but her credit still sucks balls. Is there any legit hope of credit repair or any services that actually work?

She's been disputing everything but getting nowhere so far.

Thanks!

it's all scams. any service provided it's for the money.

i have been using this one service for 2 yrs

They use loopholes and shit , it doesnt take overnight but shit has gotten deleted and stuff

http://www.lexingtonlaw.com

Works out by loopholes, you can do it yourself too without paying anything.

OK how's that? We dont mind paying if the shit is legit ya know.

thats one of my mainstream sites, its just a book that tells you the loop holes. Search around google and you can find the info for free and save yourself the $50

They dispute shit to the credit bureaus, then they have to investigate. If for example Amex doesnt give back proof or verify it within 30 days or so then by law they have to delete it ...

what they do not tell you is that once they have something knocked off, it can return whenever the creditor decides to contact the reporting agencies.

i did it myself and found it easier...actually i wrote a post on this awhile back... i'll need to find it.

Yeah works like that, there was a post about this too a while ago.

here's some good tidbits:

http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showth...hreadid=237125

Scams. All you can do is wait 7 years, and even then it never goes away. :2 cents:

Had friends use them, it's takes time but it works :)

We tried this a few years back...Maybe it was just the attorney we had...but he wanted us to do all the paper work month after month. If we were any good at that we wouldn't have been in the mess we were in in the first place. You have to stay on top of it but it can be done.

After paying her off her debts 100% (#1 priority) she should get a secured credit card (a card where you pay a security deposit, which sits in an interest bearing account until you cancel your card with the balance paid in full). Then she should just start using it for all her normal expenses... groceries, bills, rent/mortgage etc.

With all the shit you spend monthly she could be putting $1k - $2k on the credit card each month and paying it off in full without incurring any interest .. and thus building positive credit VERY fast.

After a year or two she can start applying for real credit cards. As soon as she's approved for one she can cancel the secured card and get her deposit back, plus interest. Then it's just a matter of repeat. The more you borrow and pay back on time, the more you build credit.

My mother had a horrible credit rating .. she had declared bankruptcy at one point .. and this is how she rebuilt her credit. It's also what I'm doing to build credit since I have none.

Shit!! I hate all this stuff in the US about "credit scoring" and "bureaux" crap.

The lot is no more than "aiding" card companies to conduct loan sharking on a legal level.

The CEO of VISA even openly stated that their "aims" are to provide credit to anyone knowing full well the "capture" time would come in their lives when they defaulted on a payment and created a "profit center" for the card companies.

Even the marketing of cards is "legalized fraud" - check the small print and see how little that "low interest rate" really is! :-)

Fuck em all! :-) "Use" them and offer no "profit" - don't use the "credit" on cards. If ya ain't got the money - don't buy shit!
Cash is king - always will be! :-)


PS... Means ya may have to stand and wait while they check for counterfeit bills at the paypoint - but tis amusing watching em :)

The only reason its a ripoff is because you can do it yourself for free.

Well some area scam and some really know the loopholes but not everything is as it seems you may very well pay and not get anything for it. Everybodies siuations are different...

Buy her a videocam and let her be a webcam girl. That'll repair her credit in no time!

I just use my bankcard, its visa, but usable as long as there is money in the account. Fuck credit cards. I had $30,000 at 29% interest once. I was raped in full.

Best credit tips I ever got:

- Never close old credit card accounts, even if you don't use them...just cut up the cards...credit scoring takes status of long term credit accounts as one of it's scoring factors.

- If you can only afford to payoff some debts and have to allow others to go in arrears...pay off your small debts first rather than your large ones...every small debt is a hit on your scoring record...while value does count...having 10 $300 arrears accounts hurts your credit more than one $3000 in arrears

- Understand your credit card terms and how/when interest is charged. ESPECIALLY IF YOU DON'T PAY THE FULL BALANCE. Most people think purchases are interest free if you pay them at your next statement...nope...basically if at any time you don't make full payment (even if you make the min. payment), your card becomes interest bearing...all purchases still on your account and all purchases from that point forward have interest charges immediately until you have paid your balance in full (not all CCs are like this, but many are).

- Get a copy of your credit report at least once every nine-twelve months and look it over thoroughly. Be certain to dispute any discrepancies

exactly. do it yourself. it takes less time then having someone else do it for you. most credit score sites will let you dispute right from their backends, or do it the slow way by mailing in the disputes when you receive your credit reports my mail.

Wow....I hope they at least used lube

Depends on the "service" offered. I find these nothing compared to traffic ticket legal companies...they're the biggest scams of all time =)

But as others have pointed out it's always a good idea to research what you're capable of doing before hiring a service and hoping they'll do more than laugh at you once the check has cleared

This is what I did and it has worked very well! It does take time, but you build real credit. I started with an unsecured credit card (one of the sleazy ones where you get a $250 credit limit, but almost all of that credit line is eaten by the startup fees.) I built that up to a $1,000 limit by always carrying a balance, but having that balance be less than half of my limit, and always paying more than the minimum payment.

Next came a gas card (same deal, stay below 50% limit and overpay) and then a regular credit card.

At this point I got turned down for not having any major installment accounts (mortgaga, car loans, etc) so I took out a small personal loan from local company, and paid it off in just a few months. Then I took a larger loan and have been overpaying that. This personal loan shows up as an installment loan, so to credit companies it looks the same as making a car payment.

I've got the credit I need now with the only limit being the short length of time I have had the accounts.. In another 6 months to a year I will have a longer payment history and should be all set.

I went from a 300 credit score to over 700 in a matter of two years. One time a real estate agent laughed and said I had the worst credit he's ever seen. Now I have close to a million dollars available in credit.
So here's the lowdown.

You can clean up your credit but it takes time. Depending on your goal I would not advise paying anything that is already in a 'writeoff' status. Not right away, unless you are trying to buy a house then they have to be paid. Start by getting a copy of your credit report from all three agencies. Mark all negative items, usually they will be the same on all three reports but once in a while you will have a few thats not on all three. Find the oldest two on one report and dispute it with that agency only. Do not dispute the same thing with all three agencies at the same time. You do not want the creditor you are disputing to get contacted by three different agencies at the same time (unless of course its a valid dispute) because you are hoping that they forget to respond within 30 days. If they get contacted by all three most likely it will motivate them to send a response. On the second credit report dispute two others and same with the third. The reason to do only two at a time is because if a credit agency thinks you are disputing things erroneously they will not investigate at all. After you have done this wait until you get a response from the credit agencies, they will either tell you the negative mark is valid or they will remove it. Then do the same thing again with two more negative items and so on. If you're lucky you can get about 50% of the negative items removed. The ones that you can't get off you contact the company you owe the debt to and ask them if they will settle for half of what you owe, usually they will unless its a fairly new debt. After you reach an agreement tell them your only motivation for paying the debt is to clear your credit and would they please remove it completely if you pay them. Most will do it but not all. The ones that won't you will just have to live with but hopefully you will only have a few negatives at that point and they will eventually drop. Then get yourself a secured credit card and start building your credit from there.

hit me up on icq i can help

Since when is it a ripoff to charge people for information they can't/won't obtain themselves? This is what research companies do all the time...

A lot of people swear by these guys.