Does Credit Restoration Work?

A credit score is a vital statistic for any American in modern times. More than just a risk analysis for creditors, your score could determine whether you get a job and how much you pay for utilities, a cellphone and cable service. You may have noticed ads for credit restoration services that promise to clean your record. These can work, but are not necessary to rejuvenate your credit score.

Credit Restoration Basics

Credit restoration works, and legitimate credit repair companies have a few weapons at their disposal to help you out. The credit restoration service may go through your report with you and look for common errors, such as an incorrect posting date on a collections account, and dispute the mistake with the credit bureaus. The bureaus must investigate all serious claims and remove any negative item if they cannot verify its authenticity. They might also settle with a creditor to have a delinquent account removed in return for a full payment on the debt.

Considerations

While credit restoration is real, you do not need to hire a company to this work for you. Disputing errors with the credit agencies is a free service. You can also negotiate personally with lenders to delete a bad item. Some restoration techniques only you can do, such as adhering to a budget to reduce overspending.

Credit Restoration Takes Time

Unless you have several mistakes on your credit report or can negotiate bad accounts off your credit report, credit restoration is not an overnight fix. Negative incidents, such as payments that are late by 90 days or more, tend to weigh more heavily than positive data, especially if they are recent. It is not out of the realm of possibility, however, to see an appreciable boost to your score in a few months if you start restoration now.

Tip

You can start your own credit restoration plan by setting up automatic bill paying with your online bank account and putting as much money as possible toward your existing debts. Part of rebuilding credit involves using credit, so you may need to apply for a new loan. Do not, however, apply for too much credit if you are a new borrower, because several new accounts will lower the average age of your credit history.