Legal Credit Repair Services

Legal credit repair services claim that they are consumer advocacy rather than credit repair service. If you want to engage them, know that they cannot do anything that you cannot do yourself. But if you are feeling overwhelmed, as often is the case with someone in your position, and/or you recently received a windfall of money, this can be a valuable service.

They will offer coaching and support along the way. Know that this does not come free or cheap and they will try to keep you a customer for as long as they can. One strategy that they will use to keep you is to offer you additional services such as credit repair monitoring. But consider if you really need these additional services.

The promises that legal credit repair services make when they are trying to win your business are often lofty and tempting but I promise that you really can do whatever they can do and more.

They claim that they will dispute the items for you, but nowadays it is so easy to prepare the credit report disputes yourself. You can write, call or process the dispute online yourself.

You will usually sign a retainer agreement with them that lays out what service they will provide, but remember, they are lawyers who know how to cover their tracks. You will be required to pay a non-refundable retainer fee, usually 5 to 15 days from the time you first engage their service. This is because under the Credit Repair Organizations Act, credit repair companies cannot require you to pay until they have completed the services they have promised.

In the first 5-15 days before the retainer is due, they will assist you in obtaining your credit report. Obtaining your credit report cost an additional $10 up front, even if you already have procured them yourself only a few days ago. Then, there is a monthly fee ranging from $49 to $100 depending on the level of services that you want from them and the severity of how bad your credit it.

They categorically state that they cannot guarantee how long your credit repair will take and encourage you to “give it sufficient” time to work. Of course they want to keep you as a customer for as long as possible.

One inaccurate thing the legal credit repair service may tell you, so as to keep you a paying customer for as long as possible, is that you can only dispute 4 items on a credit report at a time. They say if you dispute more than 4 things that the credit bureau will throw out your case and not work on it but that is virtually impossible. By law, the credit reporting agency must investigate and respond within 30 days to each dispute, no many how many items you dispute.

The repair service could do all the disputes at once and be done with it in 30 days, but how would that benefit them? Customer Beware!

The Federal Trade Commission and all three credit bureaus warn consumers to contact the credit bureaus directly rather than using these intermediary services that will bleed you of your money unnecessarily.

No matter how tempting these services should, save yourself the hassle. You are indeed capable and you can do your own credit repair.

Return to the Credit Repair Home Page from the Legal Credit Repair Services.