Need personal credit counseling? If so, before you sign up with any service, be sure you’re aware of all of the money factors involved.

Why? Well, the truth is there are many credit counseling organizations out there that may not have your best interest in mind. And the last thing you need right now is to lose money.

Credit counseling is usually offered by private businesses, non-profit organizations and local churches. To find a reputable service, you can check with the Better Business Bureau or a nationally accredited organization like the NFCC (National Foundation for Credit Counseling).

The Better Business Bureau ratings of credit counseling companies can be viewed on line. Once you find a “AAA” service in your area be sure to ask for a personal reference. With the contact information of a previous customer you can get all your questions answered by someone who actually has experience in dealing with the company.

Another good way to check out credit counseling services is to go online to message boards and websites where you can ask others for their recommendations or get your specific questions answered about a company you’re considering. Hearing people’s different experiences with various companies can be invaluable.

When making your choice, keep these things in mind:

1. The company should offer a full range of services. You never know what you might need until after you start the counseling. For example, maybe you’ll just want someone to help you sort out all your creditors and make a plan that you can carry out all by yourself. Or perhaps you’ll need a full-scale debt management or consolidation plan. Whatever you end up with should be what’s best for you. That’s why you need a variety of choices.
2. All the money you give to the company for paying off your debt should go to your creditors. Some organizations actually take your entire first payment as a fee for themselves. You don’t want that. Besides being expensive it can damage your current credit score. Other companies help themselves to a $10 to $20 “donation” off the top of each payment. This is both expensive and takes longer for your payoff.
3. The credit counseling company you choose should be bonded and insured and willing to work with all your creditors. Although some creditors refuse to interact with credit counselors or debt management organizations, your counselor should be willing to work with everyone - whether or not the creditor pays them. Often, if the credit counselor is willing, they can work out some kind of agreeable solution with the creditor.

A credit counseling company can’t magically make bad things disappear from your credit report, raise your credit score or any of the other “it’s too good to be true” things that many companies promise. (So buyer beware).

However, a good company can give you quality advice, help you to pay off your debt and guide you in reestablishing good credit to rebuild poor scores. And that could give you a new beginning.

Cris Stanford blogs about his personal experiences with bad credit debt consolidation at http://www.PrimeDebtConsolidation.com. Stop by and check it out to make sure you’re getting all the information you need to get your debt under control.

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You are entitled to a free personal credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies if you have been recently turned down for credit. Checking your credit history ensures the information is accurate. Your credit affects your interest rates, insurance premiums, and even employment chances. Taking a few minutes to check your records protects you from paying for your creditors’ mistakes.

Why Check Your Credit Report

Your credit report is used by a number of companies to make decisions about you. Financial lenders categorize your loan application based on your payment history. Life and car insurance rates are also based on your risk level based on your credit and life choices. Potential employers can also evaluate your application based on your credit report.

Besides payment history, your report also includes records of being arrested, sued, taking out insurance policies over $150,000, and where you live. These items stay on your report permanently, unlike payment history that drops off after seven years.

Where To Get Your Report

You have a number of options for getting your report. By applying online, you can get your free report instantly. You can also call or write for a copy of your credit history, but you will have to wait 15 or more days to receive it.

To get your credit report online, you can go directly to the sites of Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You can also request your copy through a third party site. These sites also offer additional services, like providing you with your FICO score. You won’t get that for free from the credit reporting agencies.

What To Do With The Information

Once you have received your credit report, look over it for any errors. Both the credit reporting agency and the information provider (bank, government agency, creditor, etc.) are responsible for fixing errors.

Write to both parties explaining the error. The reporting agency will investigate your claim in usually less than 30 days. If an error is found, the information provider is responsible for notifying all three agencies of the mistake. However, it is also a good idea to check your records again.

Be sure to keep copies of your letters until the matter is resolved on your report. And remember that every 12 months you can get a free copy of your credit report.

To see our recommendations of where to get a copy of your credit report for free, visit this page: Recommended Sources
for a Free Credit Report.

Carrie Reeder is the owner of ABC Loan
Guide, an informational website about various types of loans.

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Let’s say you’re the type of person who’s constantly in debt, and what’s worse, you find it difficult to repay those debts. Or perhaps you’ve declared personal bankruptcy once too often. Or maybe you’ve been a victim of credit card fraud and found that your credit report has been adversely affected because of this. You’re at your wit’s end and are uncertain about what you should do. Can a credit repair company fix all these problems?

Sadly, the answer seems to be a big and resounding no. The majority of financial experts all seem to agree that one would be better off doing the legwork in attempting to repair his or her credit rather than paying a third party to do the fixing for him or her. Despite what most of them claim, a credit repair company can’t just wave a wand and make all your credit problems disappear like magic. If, however, there are inaccurate statements in your credit report, a credit repair company can help you. For a fee, representatives of the company will contact your creditors on your behalf to get errors in your credit report fixed. But then, this is something you can always do by easily yourself, so it isn’t advisable to spend money that you could use to repay part of the debts you have.

What you should be wary of are credit repair companies that promise to remove any and all blemishes in your credit report; even if these blemishes are verifiable, accurate, and not obsolete. If you really do have bad credit, not even the most popular credit repair companies can do anything about it. If any such company promises to fix your credit no matter how bad it may be and especially if the information in your credit report is correct, stay away from them. Most likely, they will use unsavory or downright illegal methods to accomplish this and your personal credit will be ruined.

One tactic they use is this: they will contact your creditors or credit bureaus and claim that the data in your credit report is inaccurate. Your creditors will naturally investigate these claims and while they are doing so, they will remove the “bad” information from your credit report. Meanwhile, you mistakenly believe that all bad credit information is removed from your report and are happy with the way things are going. True, if credit reporting agencies cannot verify the truth of an entry within 60 days, the offending data may be deleted from your report. But after your creditors finish their investigation and find the information to be accurate after all, the unfavorable data will be returned to your credit report - leaving you in the same boat you were in before, or even worse.

Take for instance two such companies: ICR Services Inc. and National Credit Education and Review. They were charged with fraud by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2003 for promising the impossible to consumers; they falsely claimed that they had a computer disk that could free a person’s credit report from notations of late payments, foreclosures, bankruptcies, and the like. Of course, such a disk did not even exist. These two companies did not admit to any guilt, but settled their case for $1.15 million.

So if a person needs to fix his or her credit status and wants to avail of the services of credit repair companies, what should he or she do? Well, you surely wouldn’t be helping the state of your personal credit any if you just go by the seat of your pants and hire the first credit repair firm you find on the Internet. First, you should make sure of your rights as a consumer under the Credit Repair Organizations Act by reading the booklet “Consumer Credit File Rights under State and Federal Law.” Find a reputable credit repair organization by contacting the Better Business Bureau and make sure that the organization you’re planning to hire clearly sets out in print the services they will be providing, the length of time it will take to accomplish what you’re hiring them to do, and a justification of the fees they’ll be charging.

Using a credit repair company to improve your credit rating is not your best bet; it’s not even a good bet at all, according to the experts. Remember that erase information in your credit report if that information is true and not out-of-date. Hiring one for that purpose would just be a waste of money.

Credit-reparation.com provides you with information on credit related issues like credit repair company, annual credit report, credit scores and free credit report info. Take a look at http://www.credit-reparation.com.

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