The only good thing is that I was able to crunch back.
I looked into ways to repair my credit and along with that, credit repair cost. My first instinct was "Hey I don't know much about credit. I'm going to let a professional handle it!" I talked to a couple of places that offered to clear my credit. It became painfully obvious that it wasn't going to be cheap. My mind changed really quick. I wasn't prepared for that credit repair cost. I mean I was looking at 1,500 just as a base for myself and my wife. Add to that, according to what I was told any settlement agreements and I was on the hook for a bit more than what I expected.
I was prepared to settle only after every attempt was made to dispute what ever was possible. The bills had gone so high after all their junk fees that I was at about double the amount. There was no way I was going to pay their junk fees. I tried working with them and they refused to work with me.
Looking around the web I found a lot of information, unfortunately it was old. I read about disputing derogatory credit and after the sticker shock I had I was open to options. Credit repair costs were in the thousands for me and after I ran my credit and realized how high some of the accounts had reached I was going to start working on it myself.
I found some useful credit repair reviews on various products that claim to help you clean your credit in 37 days, with magic and all sorts of stuff. Honestly, I thought it was all bs. I fell for the bs, being that I had two options look into that option or I was going to have to wait for 7 years to do anything.
With limited options and trying to keep my credit repair cost down, I went through the material and started to use the programs. I learned a lot about credit for sure. I just didn't know if I was going to accomplish anything. I had not put anything into practice. Yet.
I started with this one tactic that has you dispute in several steps. I thought disputing was just denying the account was yours. I was very wrong. I started by disputing with a collection. I asked them validation of the debt. The collection company must show proof that he has a contract with the original credit to collect from me. According to the manual, many collection companies don't always have records of this and its a good way of starting. No luck on that account.
The collection company had a contract.
Fortunately I had other options. This is where it was very useful to have these credit repair manuals. They gave me options of what to do when the dispute doesn't go. I had another opportunity to dispute by having the collection company show proof of the debt. Fortunately this collection company had only internal records. Those aren't enough. They have to provide you copies of the original documentation you signed when you applied for the account. Being that the account had moved from one company to another they didn't have enough records. I disputed with the bureau and got the account of my report.
That was the turning point of my credit repair cost. I felt confident I was going to be able to clear most if not all of what was there. It wasn't going to be over night but it was going to happen.
I disputing every single collection my wife and I had. We managed to clear about 35% of the collections by either having them removed or settling on the amount. In most cases at 30% of what we owed. This alone brought our credit repair cost drastically down.
If I had to recommend disputing to someone in need I would say check out the credit repair reviews They can help.
Can I fix my credit myself
