"Who Else Wants to Know How I Got Negative Items DELETED from My Credit Report & Raised My Credit Score 180 Points?"

Managing your finances is not easy, especially if you have not been educated on how to do so. Throughout my life, I have learned how to manage my finances throughout a series of mistakes that have taught me valuable and costly lessons. I am sharing my story with you in the hopes that you can avoid some of the pitfalls that I experienced.

I learned that when you are young, financially naive, and making the least amount of money, that creditors are happy to extend you credit. Since your credit report is clean, lending institutions and credit card companies are willing to take a risk on your ability to manage money and use credit responsibility.

Before I was 28, I had a hefty car loan, three credit cards, and monthly bills that I could not afford. I ate macaroni and cheese and worked as many hours as I could to keep my head above water. Despite my good efforts, I became delinquent on my bills and my credit report suffered as a result.

I spent some of my hard earned money on a credit counseling service, but all they had to offer was a repayment plan that made my credit file even worse as it compromised the debts. They did nothing to increase my credit scores. At times, it almost seemed like they were working for the lenders. By the time I was ready to move on, they had taken over $400 of my money, and done nothing to improve my situation. Oh, and did I mention, they offered no guarantees, nor refunds.

My story is not a unique one. Managing lines of credit is difficult and many people fall short of success. I was able to help my situation by working with credit repair professionals. They worked tirelessly on my behalf to clean up my credit report.

They contacted my creditors and collection agencies and helped me settle old debts for pennies on the dollar. They also challenged the negative items on my credit report with the lenders. As it turns out, some of those black marks could not be verified as accurate and they were removed.

In the end, I learned that sometimes good people have bad credit. A poor credit report is nothing to be ashamed of unless you do not do anything to correct it. The best way to take control of your credit file is to hire a professional to increase your credit scores correctly.

In the United States, you cannot live without credit. My credit was marginal at best, until I took action to straighten it out. I did not use a do it yourself system or a fly by night credit repair company. Instead, I did some of the work myself and hired a credit repair professional to do the hard part. The results were remarkable! I was so successful that I am willing to share my story with you.

The first step in repairing your credit is having a complete picture of your credit file and obtaining a copy of your credit report from the three credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union.

I learned that due to the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), consumers are entitled to a free copy of their credit report every 12 months or when they are denied credit based on information that is included in a report. There is a website, toll free number, and mailing address to order all three reports from.

Once I had my credit reports, the next step was reviewing the information contained in them. This is where it got difficult. I saw items in collections, short payments, and 30-60-90 day late payments. I am unsure how these were determined and how to verify if they are accurate.

I owe the local telephone company a bill for $300, that has been sold to two different collection companies over the past 3 years. That debt was listed three times! (once as a debt to the phone company, and one for each collection agency.) I was confused to say the least.

It was about this time that I called a professional that specialized in credit repair and consumer law. After an initial consultation, I learned that the information on my credit report had to be accurate by law. I also learned that it was the responsibility of the credit reporting agencies and the lending institutions to ensure that the information was accurate, not me.

The credit repair professional assured me that any formation that was not verified as accurate, would be removed by the credit reporting agencies. I was able to rest easy and let the professionals do the work for me.

It took about three months from start to finish for the entire process. In the end, the collection agencies were sent running, and my credit report was updated to reflect accurate information. The lending institutions were forced to respond to my attorney’s requests for information regarding the payments I made to them as far as four years ago.

I am completely satisfied with the outcome. While my credit is still not perfect, all inaccuracies have either been removed or updated on my credit report. Some of the creditors neglected to respond to my company’s requests for information in a timely manner and the negative information was removed from my report by default. After months of being denied credit, today I received approval on a modest size car loan. This is certainly the first day for the rest of my life.

Press release: The latest in a series of credit scams has hit the internet. Overseas credit card companies are offering credit cards, with no credit check, and the promise of rebuilding your credit file and restoring your ability to secure additional loans. They charge a large fee for what is actually a prepaid credit card, disguised as a personal line of credit. The line of credit is determined by the amount of deposit you send. The set up fees range from $100-$300, in addition to the deposit money. Consumer protection and watchdog groups are receiving reports from thousands of defrauded consumers who learn that their ‘credit cards’ do not provide any credit history as no line of credit is actually extended. The so called secured line of credit is all smoke and mirrors.

This is only one of many reported consumer scams that unsuspecting consumers are fooled into believing. So many people are desperate to establish even small lines of credit, that they are willing to believe these too good to be true offers.

The truth is that there are no easy fixes for poor credit. Building credit takes time and good financial management.

One thing that you can do to quickly impact your credit ranking is to have a credit repair company assist you in correcting errors on your credit report. It is estimated that 8 out of 10 credit reports contain errors. Given the overwhelming amount of bad debt and high unemployment, creditors are barely able to manage the reporting that goes along with default accounts. Errors are bound to happen as the lenders struggle to keep up with the increasing number of loans that are in late or default status.

Luckily for consumers, there is legislation in place which provides a clear cut method for disputing and correcting such errors. Credit repair professionals are well versed in the consumer laws that govern credit reporting in the United States. Hiring a professional and experienced credit repair company ensures that your requests for error resolution will be taken seriously. It takes a professional to effectively manage the credit repair process.

Do it yourself kits, sold for upwards of $500, offer nothing more than an outline of the process that you can locate for free on many consumer and government websites. If it was so easy to do it yourself, then the credit repair industry would not exist.

If you are like most Americans, you are struggling with your monthly bills. More than 25 million people in the United States have information on their credit reports that is serious enough to bar them from obtaining loans with competitive terms. Other’s credit is so poor that they are unable to turn on utilities in their name or have a checking account.

Maybe your credit is not so bad. You have some late payments, but overall you pay your debts. Even in this situation, you spend thousands of dollars additional in interest fees as a result of your poor credit score.

Depending on your unique situation, there are methods to improve your credit score. If you have no unpaid obligations, a few late payments and seeking to improve your score overall, you can do the work yourself.

• Pay down your credit cards – Paying off your installment accounts has an immediate positive impact on your credit score. The reason for this is because you are demonstrating to potential lenders that you can manage credit lines responsibility. The theory is that just because you have available credit, you do not need to use it.

• If you do need to utilize your revolving charge accounts, instead of charging on one card, spread the same amount over several accounts. The reasoning here is that while you are using your credit lines, you are not at the limit for any card. This method is easy to manage as you can log onto your credit card company’s websites daily to track your charges and stay within your monthly budget.

• Call your creditors and ask if they would consider removing the late payments from your credit file. If you have been current within the last 6 months and ask nicely, they have been known to grant this request, once.

If your credit report is way beyond this type of repair, your best option is to hire a professional to assist you with negotiating with the creditors. A professional can effectively communicate with the credit provider in a way that gets their attention. Credit repair companies take care of all the communication with the credit card companies. They are experts in their field and are generally very effective. You can also choose to hire a law firm specializing in credit repair. Either option will create a strategy based on your unique situation.

With the fallout of the poor economy, credit repair companies are popping up all over. There are an endless amount of credit repair companies that make guarantees about the services they perform. They make outrageous claims, have hard sell tactics, and then contact you daily until you finally sign up with their company.

Credit repair is possible, but only if you can avoid the scams that are out there. Here is a list of the most popular scams, and what you should know to avoid them.

SCAM: Our services will get you a new, clean credit file with all three reporting agencies.

REALITY: There is no legal way to set up a new credit file or to accomplish what is commonly referred to as file segregation. . A credit file is based on your social security number, birth date, and name. There is no way to ‘set one up’. Your credit file actually comes into existence when you apply for and obtain credit. It is an automated process that is done by a computer, not by a person. Some companies offer to obtain a Federal Tax ID number in order to use when you are applying for credit. The catch is that on the Federal Tax ID application, you must use your social security number, which is then cross-referenced on your credit file with the Federal Tax ID number. At one time, more than ten years ago, this method worked due to a loophole in the existing systems. With the new technology, it no longer works. It is also a Federal offense to even attempt this method, as it is an attempt to defraud the Federal government.

SCAM: We speak the secret language of the credit bureaus; we have a special relationship with the credit bureaus; we have a revolutionary, patented method of removing credit.

REALITY: Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), there are rules governing credit repair. There is no secret method, language, or relationship that will trump these rules. Making this claim is the equivalent of someone promising that they can remove tickets off of your Motor Vehicle Report. It is ludicrous and an outright lie. Many reports are surfacing regarding companies who offer outrageous promises to gain many customers quickly and then they take your money and close up shop. Since a high majority of these companies are overseas, you have no hope of ever getting a refund or enforcing the guarantee.

SCAM: Paying a deposit or upfront fee to begin services.

REALITY: The Credit Repair Organizations Act prohibits any company from taking money until after it does what it promised. Any company not following that Federal regulation is either overseas and not obligated to adhere to it, or a fraud. Even charging a small amount upfront is illegal and a bad sign.

SCAM: We will clean up your credit and get you a car, mortgage, or other type of loan.

REALITY: This is a recent scam that costs consumers the most. The consumer pays out for the credit repair services and then is told that they have been pre-approved for the loan promised. In the meantime, the fraudulent company mimics the lending institution, asking for more money and documentation to process the loan. You spend countless hours obtaining pay check history, bank statements, references [that take months to check out]. The consumer is duped into a false sense of security because they are sending documents to a ‘lending agency’. The consumer is made to feel lucky that a bank is even considering them for a loan. The process drags on for months. By the time you are fed up and ask for your money back, they have closed up shop and left town.

In the long run, the best choice for credit repair is a legitimate and referred credit repair company or an attorney. Unlike the thousands of scamming, unethical, and untrustworthy companies out there, I can recommend a credit repair company or attorneys who are professionals, who devote their entire careers to the field of consumer rights and consumer law.

By hiring an attorney, who specializes in credit repair, you can avoid being scammed by fly by night companies, who promise to make miracles happen and then shut down their web sites leaving you broke and confused. One such Law firm is Lexington law firm. Their team of professionals has been doing credit repair for years. As a credit repair specialist, Lexington law firm does not need to make empty promises. They have been helping people clean up their credit for years. They establish realistic expectations up front, and explain their plan of attack for your unique situation.