When you’ve got bad credit, you want to fix it as quickly as possible. Your credit score not only affects your financial future, but your financial present. If you were planning on making any large purchases (or even something as simple as a new cell phone) your credit will be checked, and you could be denied if you have bad credit. This can be especially frustrating when your credit doesn’t reflect your actual spending habits. While it might be a malicious hacker that’s destroying your credit, it could also be something as simple as a mistake.
Using a credit repair company is often the smartest way to fix these errors— as professionals, they have more experience in negotiating with the credit bureaus— but is it the fastest? With mortgages and leases on the line, you’ll want to solve the problem as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, credit repair is not always a speedy process.
What Keeps Credit Repair From Going Faster?
According the the Fair Credit Reporting Act, credit bureaus have 30 days to respond to disputes. If they fail to verify the negative items on your report, then they have to remove them. This isn’t a very long time if you work for one of the three bureaus and have to deal with mountains of disputes every day, but it can be a long time if you’re the one waiting on your credit score to improve. However, every dispute can take extensive time to verify, because credit bureaus will have to get verification of negative items from your lender. If there are any irregularities, as there would be if you were a victim of identity theft, it might take even longer.
However, compared to the seven to ten years these negative charges could stay on your credit report, 30 days is a breeze. Given the way the system works, how fast credit fixes are depends largely on your point of view; how long repairs take is slightly more predictable.
How Long Will It Take to Raise My Score?
Ultimately, the exact timeline will depend on your individual situation. You should probably see the effects after a couple months, though it will depend on how you measure it. The Credit Pros estimate about three months before you see a noticeable change, CreditRepair.com improves scores by an average of 40 points after four months, and Lexington Law claims a similar figure of 24% of negative items removed after four months.
This are several months of negotiation and intensive paperwork. However, consider that these companies are professionals. Lexington Law is composed of actual lawyers that specialize in credit repair law; CreditRepair.com has been doing this for 20 years. They can repair your credit quickly, especially quicker than you could do yourself. You probably have other things to occupy your day, personal and professional responsibilities, and you also have to navigate a system that you have limited experience with.
Considering all this, using a credit repair company will definitely be faster. Otherwise, “getting back to the credit bureau” will just be another chore that you put off, like getting groceries or weeding the yard. Plus, the pros know exactly which items to dispute, how to go about the process, and which ones demand first attention. A credit repair company is the easiest way to repair your credit quickly.
Fixing your credit should be on the top of your priority list, but when you’re not sure how to exactly go about this time-consuming process, it might drop a few points in favor of more immediate problems. Instead, paying someone to make it their top priority is a huge weight off your shoulders. Focus your attention on building up sound financial habits so that this doesn’t become a repeat problem, and you’ll be wiping your hands of the whole situation in no time.
For more information on the top credit repair companies, visit The 5 Best Credit Repair Companies of 2020.
For more information on credit scores, visit the Fiscal Tiger credit score resource and learning center
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