The content is accurate at the time of publication and is subject to change.
There is a whole world of companies that make money with people who have a bad credit history. These companies make great promises and claims, exploiting the pathetic situation that bad credit history can lead a person too. One must start with the basic knowledge that finding themselves with a bad credit history is not the end of the world, and it is definitely not at a point when they decide to improve it. But in every step from there on, you need to guard yourself against fake claims and fake companies which try to make money out of your need.
You will have to start with your credit report for the road to redemption. This is where you have to start to understand the ropes of caution too. Sites like annualcreditreport.com will give you a free credit report that you are entitled to once in a year. The Federal trade commission too has advised people to be careful about the sites you choose. There are toll free numbers you can call for further information. However, you must guard yourself with many sites that apparently offer free credit report, but with a catch. Invariably you will find yourself being asked to buy something else for the report or pay some charges that you had not expected to, at the first place.
There are many credit repair companies which claim that they can get the negative credit items off your report. To start with no third party can edit or influence any sort of changes in your credit report. Again, if the negative information about you is correct, the credit bureau is entitled to keep it on your credit report till the stipulated amount of time which could be 7 years, 10 years or sometimes for a lifetime. The only thing these companies can do is provide a conflict to data providers of the bureaus and ask them to explain the negative balance. Most data providers who do not have well maintained records can allow you to get rid of that negative information. But there is nothing which a third party credit repair company can do that you cannot and hence most of the times doesn`t make much sense at all to pay them.
If you have bad credit, you also should know that the federal laws only approve some ways of collection of debts. You can stop the debt collectors from harassing you or following means which are not as per what the law allows, which includes meeting you between friendly hours and not visiting you at office if you do not allow it. This however doesn`t erase your debt and you can be sued by your debt collector. Similarly there are many companies, which offer you loans in spite of your bad credit. This is one place where you really need to be careful. There are some authorized and trusted lenders whom you can approach. You might encounter car loan lenders who follow a buy here, pay here policy which can lend you in great trouble too, due to overpricing and high interest rates.
