You should exert the effort to be on top of your financial situation, which means that as much as possible, your income should be sufficient to cover all your necessary expenses. In parallel to this, you should also ensure that your bills are settled timely because any late payment can hurt your credit score. However, there are instances wherein no matter how cautious you are with your credit score, you may find errors in your credit report that need to be fixed. It is in these instances wherein you may need to engage the services of a credit repair agency.
But is hiring a credit repair agency worth it? The simple answer is that it depends. Yes, hiring a credit repair agency is worth it with the following scenarios:
Deal with Complex Issues
When you have to deal with complex issues surrounding your credit report, then it may be worthwhile to hire a credit repair agency. For instance, you may be faced with issues like a duplicate collection of data or if your situation has several negative issues, then perhaps you should get some help. However, you need to ensure that you only engage with the best company for credit repair. In this case, they will be able to guide you through the entire process of credit repair.Read more aboutDIY Credit Repair: How To Improve Your Credit Score Fast read more
On the other hand, you need to be wary of credit repair companies that promise to remove all negative information from your credit report, particularly if this is accurate information. Thus, when a credit repair company suggests that you dispute even the accurate information in your credit report, then this should be a red flag already because it is tantamount to fraud. A reliable credit repair agency won’t also pressure you to pay for their services upfront.
Immediately Use your Credit
Another instance where it is worthwhile to engage the services of a credit repair agency is when you immediately need to use your credit. For example, you may be planning to start a small business within the year. In this case, you need to ensure that you have an excellent credit score, particularly if you intend to apply for a loan to fund your business venture. Thus, consider getting services that clean up your credit report. Keep in mind that an additional 50 to a hundred points in your credit score will already go a long way when it comes to increasing your chances of being approved for a loan.
Lack of Time
Finally, when you simply don’t have the time to deal with your credit repair issues yourself, then it is worthwhile to hire credit repair services to help you handle your credit report issues. Keep in mind that the credit repair process is a time-consuming one that most people with full-time jobs won’t be able to handle accordingly. With the services of a credit repair company, you won’t have to go through the grueling process yourself.
On the contrary, you can also work to fix the problems yourself by:
Disputing errors
You have the opportunity to dispute the errors you find in your credit report directly with the major bureaus. In this modern time, almost everything can already be done online, even disputing the errors in your credit report. This proves to be one of the fastest ways to start fixing your credit report issues.
Working on your payment history
Another thing that you can do in an attempt to address your credit report issues yourself is to work on your payment history. Thus, make sure that you pay your bills on time and avoid any late payments. Remember that late payments can drag your credit score down deliberately. In this case, exert the effort to bring a late account current as soon as you can.
Using less of your available credit-repair
Lastly, you should also exert the effort to use less of your available credit to lower your credit utilization ratio. The lower it is, the better your credit score and credit report will be. In this case, what you can do is attempt to make multiple small payments in a billing cycle. This will eventually help reduce your credit utilization ratio.
There are instances wherein it is worth it to hire a credit repair agency, particularly when you need to deal with complex issues as well as when you need to use your credit immediately. It is also beneficial to hire a credit repair agency when you simply don’t have the time to attend to the issues of your credit report yourself. Otherwise, it might be better for you to consider fixing your credit report by yourself.
