Is hiring someone to repair your credit suggested?

[belle032]

I have been struggling with repairing my credit for two years now.  I am fortunate that finances are no longer an issue for me because I have an excellent paying job but my credit is holding me back from moving on in life, particularly from buying a house.  Since I can afford too, do you recommend hiring someone to repair my credit?  If so, what should I look for?  Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!!  Thanks

[Anonymous]

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@belle032 wrote:

I have been struggling with repairing my credit for two years now.  I am fortunate that finances are no longer an issue for me because I have an excellent paying job but my credit is holding me back from moving on in life, particularly from buying a house.  Since I can afford too, do you recommend hiring someone to repair my credit?  If so, what should I look for?  Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!!  Thanks

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I wouldn't recommend it. There is absolutely nothing that "someone else" can do that you can't do yourself. Nothing. "Someone else" wouldn't even be as invested in the results as you are, and certainly won't be sharing in your pain should they manage to make matters worse for you (as is often the case). Save your money & the aggravation. You can do it!

[belle032]

Thanks LilMirth.  I only consider hiring someone because I'm not nearly as educated about credit repair as I wish I was!  I know I could technically do anything they could however not if I don't know what I'm doing. I

 If you don't recommend hiring someone, does anyone have suggestions as to what I need to do on my own?  I currently subscribe to scorewatch and that is how I am monitoring my score.  My most recent reported score is a 609.  I dropped 13 points this week because balance increases reported.  I pay my Credit card balances in full each month but somehow balances reported.  I guess due to timing.  According to "Understanding my Score" this is what is hurting me:

1. Delinquency + collections

2. Bad Payment History

3. Short Account History

4. Recent Collection

I don't really know what to do from here.

[RobertEG]

First step for any improvement plan:

Focus first on monthly delinquencies on each OC account.

List each monthly delinquency on each OC account by date and severity (e.g., 30-day late 5/2005; 60-day late 6/2005, etc)

Add 7 years from each individual delinquency, and you have a complete summary of when each monthly  delinquency individually drops from your CR.

After doing that, then turn to each charge-off and collection in your CR.

The single date to identify for each CO and CA is the date of first monthly delinquency on the OC account that preceded the CO or CA.  Just go back to the list of OC account delinquencies already compliled, and locate that date.  Add 180 days to that DOFD, and the OC or CA must drop from your CR after 7 years from this date.

Once you have all of that information, come back here for advice on how to deal with each.

[Anonymous]

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@belle032 wrote:

If you don't recommend hiring someone, does anyone have suggestions as to what I need to do on my own?  I currently subscribe to scorewatch and that is how I am monitoring my score.  My most recent reported score is a 609.  I dropped 13 points this week because balance increases reported.  I pay my Credit card balances in full each month but somehow balances reported.  I guess due to timing.  According to "Understanding my Score" this is what is hurting me:

1. Delinquency + collections

2. Bad Payment History

3. Short Account History

4. Recent Collection

I don't really know what to do from here.

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First thing is to opt-out. You can use the link in my siggie below.

If you haven't done so already, pull all three of your credit reports from annualcreditreport.com, and snag a highlighter. First, make note of any incorrect information reported. Next, highlight your derogs. Once you've got a clear picture of what you need to work on, it's time to do some homework: What Steps Do I Take? Do I DV? PFD? 

Finally, as RobertEG suggested, come back here and tell us all about your baddies. We'll give you our $.02 and more about what you might do to wrangle those baddies.

[mauve]

When I saw the title of this post, my first instinct was to give you a very succint answer:

"No."

The longer answer is: deal with each derogatory item.  Hiring someone else could easily make your situation worse, and *may* make your situation better.