First Choice Credit Repair Services

What is Credit Repair?

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In a nutshell, credit repair is deleting incorrect information from your credit report. You have undoubtedly seen the humorous television commercials about the poor soul who found out the hard way his credit score was trashed. Did you know many poor scores can be improved through credit repair? How do you do it? By systematically disputing inaccurate, erroneous, and unverifiable entries on your credit report.

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Is Credit Repair Legal?

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Yes it is. Credit repair was made possible by the Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1971. This law gave ordinary consumers like you many new rights; one of the most important of which was the right to dispute inaccurate information on your credit report.

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The Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA) of 2003 added even more rights, including the right to receive a free copy of your credit report each year. You can’t repair what you don’t know is there; and this law made it possible to easily take that first step in credit repair --- getting your hands on a copy of your own report. There are also strong new regulations on how creditors must deal with identity theft cases, fraud alerts, and how they must dispose of consumer information.

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What is the cost of having poor credit?

 

The most unfortunate aspect of having poor credit is you may have difficulty securing a loan and you’ll pay higher interest rates if you get that loan. Over the course of a home mortgage for example, higher interest rates brought on by poor credit and a low credit score means higher monthly payments and the fact that you may end up paying as much as an additional $150,000 for your home over the course of the mortgage.  You may have to pay higher interest rates for credit cards and auto loans and perhaps have to place a cash deposit to secure that credit card and come up with a larger down payment for that auto loan. Even utilities such as power, water, cable and telephone service may require a larger security deposit.

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Do You Need Credit Repair?

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Credit is the lifeblood of economic growth of individuals as well as corporations. Your financial life is intertwined with your credit availability. In short, your credit is your life. If you doubt that consider that the majority of payments you make every month are affected by your credit quality.

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Home loans, rent, car payments, credit cards, installment loans, car insurance, cell phones, health and life insurance, and even monthly utilities are all based on the quality of your credit. Today, more and more new employers are relying on credit reports to help make hiring decisions.

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Can Credit Repair Companies Be Trusted?

 

As with any industry, there are companies who provide legitimate services, delivering real measurable results, and there are those who will tell you what you want to hear hoping to make a quick buck off of you through fraud and deceit. Beware of those frauds that make unrealistic promises. The reality is that we can provide a valuable service and help you achieve your goals, but any particular outcome can never be guaranteed. We at First Choice Credit Repair Services can only guarantee that we will work with you to help you enforce the rights that have been provided for you by Federal law. These rights are broad and expansive giving the consumer the tools needed to ensure a fair and accurate reporting of their credit.

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What Makes Credit Repair Effective?

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In the past credit repair methods were largely restricted to bombarding the credit bureaus with letters. The hope was to mail lots of disputes to the bureaus, confusing both the person entering the disputes and the person at the creditor receiving the disputes. The belief was that if the creditor didn’t respond in time, the item would be removed.

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These types of methods are rarely effective anymore. Even if items get deleted, they are usually put back on the credit report shortly after.  How can this happen? Even though creditors have 30 days to respond to the dispute before it is deleted, a response 60 days after the fact still gives them the legal right to put the item back on the report. 

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To effectively and permanently delete negative credit items, you have to ensure the item did not get deleted because the creditor or credit bureaus made a mistake, or couldn’t verify the item. Once you know how to do that, the item will be deleted and stays permanently off your report. Over the years the credit bureaus have gotten much smarter. Most of the dispute process is now automated through two computer systems the credit bureaus use. The key to success in disputing items on your report is understanding how these computers work and that's our specialty here at First Choice Credit Repair Services.

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How Long Is The Credit Repair Process? 

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In order for us to be effective with our credit repair process, we customize our services according to our client's personal situation. Each client is different. The credit repair process can take 45 days up to as much as 6 months.  You will begin to see results within 30-45 days from the initial disputes. 

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Does Paying Old Bills Restore My Credit?

 

Absolutely NOT! When you pay an old debt, the negative credit listing doesn’t disappear. Once paid, it will appear on your credit report as a paid delinquency, charge off or collection. Even worse, the new activity on the account can hurt your credit score. You will not get very far paying your debts unless you also work to restore your credit report at the same time.

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How Long Does Negative Items Stay Listed?

 

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires that most negative credit items be deleted from your credit bureau file in no more than seven years, except for bankruptcy, which can be reported for up to ten years. These are the time limits for reporting negative credit. The creditor or the credit bureau can choose to have the negative credit information deleted whenever they please. There is no legal requirement to report any information to the credit bureaus unless they choose to do so. Inquiries may remain on the credit report for up to two years.

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How to Get a Free Copy of Your Credit Report?

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There is only one true way to get a free copy of your credit report with no strings attached --request your report online at www.annualcreditreport.com.

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You can also download the request form at www.ftc.gov/credit and mail it to:

 

Credit Report Request Service,

P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.

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You can also call toll-free to receive your credit report at 1-877-322-8228.

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You should be able to download your credit report immediately on the Annual Credit Report website. It will take up to 15 days to receive your report if ordering by mail or phone.

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If you have any additonal questions, please don't hesitate to pick up the phone and give us a call at 1-800-972-8207