Any reputable companies to help fix your credit?

[Anonymous]

I have under $5,000 in debt that has been sitting for the past 5 or so years.  The only debt I currently have are student loans which I am current on (paying on time every month) but I have been delingquent on them in the past.  I've got enough money to pay in full all previous debts but I'm not sure how to go about it.  I also don't have a lot of time as I work 60-80 hours per week and the free time I have I am usually working on the side.  

I was hoping to find a company that knew Louisiana law that could help me go through my credit report and get as much removed from my credit report as possible.  I tried spending some time researching on my own and it's all very overwhelming.  I don't think I have the time to do it all myself and would rather pay someone a few hundred dollars to take all the grunt work off my hands (sending letters, negotiating, etc).  

I'm looking to buy a house in the next couple of years so I really need to get my credit back on track.  Any help is greatly appreciated.  

[NJTurnpike]

you could ask questions here. as many as you like. many are willing to help and more specific the better the advice you'll get.

It really does behove you to understand how personal credit worthiness works.

[Anonymous]

It just looks like there are a lot of certified letters you need to send and a lot of time to negotiate and whatnot.  I have maybe an hour a day of free time during the week and I typically spend it with family.  That's why I was hoping to work with a company to do most of the stuff for me.  

[Anonymous]

Anyone?

[Anonymous]

I agree with the previous poster that if you can perhaps take a couple of hours a week or even every two weeks, it would really be to your benefit to do this yourself.

Remember, even if you have an agency take care of this, you will have to make time working with them and getting them information they need. The worst you will have to do is get a few letters, tailor them to the creditor and then continue to send them out until you get a yes.

However, if you are set on having someone else do it, perhaps you can google attorney's in your area and see if any of them work with credit repair. I know people have done some agencies (and if you look on this site you will find the popular ones) with mixed results but I would think working with one attorney for a flat rate would be the least amount of headache. ''

Sorry I don't have a specific attorney or agency to recommend but I think if you took some time to really see what you had to deal with, you might be surprised it to be extremely manageable. I know when I first started getting my credit on track I felt overwhelmed and thought I could not see the light. But it does get easier.

I wish you well on your credit repair journey and hopefully you will get your house!

[Crossdivided]

IMHO, id use GetErDoneYourself, inc.

in all seriousness, im not trying to be smart, my humor is always dry on my first pot of coffee of the morning.

my reasoning is this...

credit rebuilding involves alot of (id venture to say mostly) asking for 'concessions' on the CRA reporting party's part (ie favors). things like PFDs, GWs, etc, may SEEM like 'negotiations', but for the most part their just plain ole asking for favors (100% favor on GWs, PFDs 'if i pay it please do me the favor of deleting').

so, i ask you...if someone was asking YOU for a favor, would you respond better by that person straight up explaining why and talking to you personally (call, letter, fax, whatever)? or would you rather get a letter from that person's 'legal representative' DEMANDING that favor (well atleast most people take official letters like that as demands whether they were or not)?

at the end of the day, you have to keep in mind that 'big corporate entity' youre trying to appeal to still has living, breathing human beings running it. your GW letter isnt read by KickYoAzz Collections Agency, but rather a 'johnny' or 'suzy' in the accts dept / cust svc dept / corp ofc / whatever.

anyway, thats just my story, and im stickin to it.

[Countingpennies]

I considered getting help to fix my credit. For me, it's not so much a time thing as I have a tendency to keep my head in the sand about these things, and when I do come up for air, starting to deal with it all makes my head spin.

I'm dealing with it. what I found, you will have to do some homework (get your 3 CRs, go over them, etc.) one way or another, maybe a few hours at first. I started by disputing things online (many here advise against it, but it cleared up a lot of stuff for me.) This process took at most 20 minutes per CRA. Then you wait, and there is a lot of waiting involved. The first round took about 2 weeks. Got my updated CRs, went over them again (about an hour.) I still have a few items that are not correct. I decided to work on the two most obvious. Wrote my letter, made copies of my support docs, and took them to the PO, for CMRR; one hour at most. Now, I'm waiting again, estimated time is 30-45 days. It's a process, and doesn't have to be a second (or in your case, a third) job.

As I said, you will have to take some time initially, but you would have to do that anyway if you turned this over to an agency. The rest you just take one step at a time, and once you start, each step kind of becomes routine. You really have nothing to lose by trying.

[Shogun]

There are people who have had great success from using a third party for their rebuilding, however there are a great many who have encountered problems due to using a third party.  It's a YMMV type of thing.

Also be aware that the CROA prohibits third parties contacting the debtors, so all they really do is dispute after dispute to the CRAs.  This can cause a plethora of problems.