Credit Repair Companies Offer Advantages

A Personal Story About Credit Repair Companies. Back around the turn of the decade, I was a sales representative at Bellsouth. My salary was not too bad. I was getting about $35-$40 an hour plus some handsome bonuses. Then the avalanche started. Our sales center was closed. Sales reps started being laid off, and I was one of the last to go.Thank fortune I had socked away a pretty decent amount of savings, but I was recently moved into a fine new home. Three months rolled around full of unsuccessful job hunting. My family is dedicated to home schooling so my wife did not work;Our $1700 mortgage payments became difficult to meet and it is hard to catch up once you start sliding with payments of that size. I had to drop my ATT cell phone and my Comcast cable along with a number of other nice-to-have items. I still owed them back payments.My credit rating slid from excellent to poor in a matter of a year. It is scary how difficult that can make your life. I had to pay cash for everything. Perhaps that is a good practice anyway, but everyone needs a little credit.As I was worrying my head off, a friend suggested I try a credit repair company. I did some careful research. I understood that there were a lot shysters out there. After raking through the Better Business Bureau ratings and online financial forums, I found a company I thought I could work with.The folks there were wonderful. The took me in and explained to me all the intricacies of getting a credit history back on line. They specifically aimed me toward the loan I needed. You know, just realizing what your credit report says about you is terribly important.The credit repair folks reminded that every American should get their free credit reports annually so they will know how the financial world looks at them in terms of creditworthiness. They told me to check each agency: TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. You can pull them up on your computer and see how to go about getting the free reports. Or, call their customer service representatives. Either way, you get your reports pretty quickly.I learned a lot when I got mine. As I was going over them with fine tooth comb, I came across a lot of alien stuff. My dad and I carry the same name, he is the senior, I am the junior. I saw a few of his items that were not in the best of standing on my reports. Checking social security numbers got those yanked quickly.I found a couple other small debts that had completely slipped away from me amounting to a couple hundred dollars. I settled both for $70 and got that off too. Over time, you can learn to take care of your credit yourself. But, myself, along with the negotiating skills of the credit repair company, renegotiated payment settlements with lower interest rates. Some other marks had nothing to do with me at all and we got those yanked, too.Finally I landed a decent job – Lucky! Now I use a well-defined percentage of my take home pay toward my bills and I am slowly paying them off one by one. After eight months, my credit is now respectable. I do not have problems getting most loans.When I was in need of help and building a pretty sorry credit history, the credit repair counselors were a great help. As your credit clears, some of these companies can go on to help you with a personal loan, a debt consolidation loan, mortgages, and refinancings once credit starts improving.Just shop carefully to find the right agency, check credentials and bona fides, talk with the folks to see if they make you comfortable. Credit repair companies provide an excellent and much needed service.