How are credit repair agencies able to remove collections?

[CreditOCDinCali]

I'm curious how credit repair agencies work. I've heard a bunch of success stories where people pay an attorney or credit repair agency to remove negative items off their credit report without paying a dime to the collection agency or creditor. How does that work?

[Rebuilding69]

You mean disputing the listings even if they are correct & hoping the creditors dont respond?

[Anonymous]

I wonder about this too.  I have a paid collection that i have disputed several times, tried debt validation, GW letters and the damn collection wont go away. I have BBB and CFPB cases open right now and still waiting!

[Rebuilding69]

As far as the bunch of success stories, I'm willing to bet at least 10x that amount did the same thing on their own w/o paying the repair agencies. Heck, look at these forums....faaaaar more ppl on here did it on their own. Part of the rebuilding process is understanding how we messed up to begin with as well as understanding how the whole process works, so we can fix the mistakes instead of just shoving some more cash into someone else's hands to do what you could do yourself.

But if people want to waste money these companies will be there to lighten your wallet....

[gdale6]

There are no shortcuts in credit rebuilding its going to take time and effort. There are equal stories on TLs returning that were once removed by such credit repair agencies.

[Anonymous]

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@CreditOCDinCali wrote:
I'm curious how credit repair agencies work. I've heard a bunch of success stories where people pay an attorney or credit repair agency to remove negative items off their credit report without paying a dime to the collection agency or creditor. How does that work?

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Like many other more experienced folks have already stated, it appears that credit repair agencies don't do much that you couldn't do for yourself, for the cost of writing a letter and mailing it.

For example, if you have an account that is already past the reporting SOL, one written dispute letter can easily remove that TL off your report.

I've only needed to use a consumer lawyer once but that litigation extended beyond the alleged debt.

[CreditOCDinCali]

Well I did hire a credit repair attorney. I was getting frustrated and my patience began to wear down. I was tired of going back and forth with collectors for months on end. He supposedly can't make any guarantees, but he has 5 star reviews and I heard he works wonders. I was just curious how it works, cause like I said, I got fed up dealing with collectors.

[RobertEG]

Depending upon what your credit repair will involve, if disputes are needed, then use of a credit repair organization can actually be a disadvantage.

Direct disputes are often better than disputing through a CRA, as they ensure that all of your supporting documentation and arguments are received by the furnisher of the disputed information.  The CRAs dont forward all information and comments to the furnisher.

Credit repair organizations are expressly exempted under FCRA 623(a)(8) from filing a direct disputes, and the implementing rules at 16 CFR 660.4 go further, permitting a furnisher to dismiss any direct dispute without any need for investigation if it even appears that there was any assistance by a credit repair organization in its prepartation, including the simple use of a form provided by a credit repair organization.

[jsantiago102]

Good morning all.
I have a question, I had 2 collection accounts with HSBC Bank that I disputed the DoFD date on and the results were as follows:
TU- deleted both totally
EX- Upgraded both to Paid/ Never Late and the history deleted, showing as in good standing.
Equifax- still showing as collection account.

My question is the following, how should I handle this remaining account? I know they are not supposed to show differently on reports but I am a little leery of how I should proceed because I believe they deleted before the 7 yrs. and do not want them to re report it! Also, I have a CO with Portfolio for one of these. Any advice would be appreciated.

[mwv813]

Many credit repair agencies use a software like Credit Repair Cloud to automatically dispute information without actually looking at your file.  The software will log into your report, grab the info and automatically start disputing everything.  I know I hired a company that did (I didn't know until it was too late) and all they did was hurt my score.  Yes there were a few quick wins, but I could have done that myself too.  In the long run, my high score dropped almost 100 points when I hired this company.

Stay far away from them and do this on your own.  I've had a good amount of luck by using information found in thie forum.  Just go to the search box and type in "[Creditor name] delete success"  

Example: Capital One delete success

Look at the latest threads and see what others experiences have been and follow suit.  It works!