If you want to find an industry with a horrible reputation look no further than credit repair. Over the years I have seen countless companies coming to my office wanting me to send all of my applicants for a mortgage who had bad credit to them. Most of them stated the same thing, I will get it removed. Lets face it, if you owe the debt, it will not be removed. Most of the creditors sell debts owed to collections companies. These collections companies will not go away until you settle on the debt or pay it in full. The 3 credit bureaus do have to respond to a dispute within 30 days which must be verified. If the dispute is not verified, it must be removed. Credit Repair companies will dispute derogatory information on your credit report for you, but you can do the same thing yourself for free. You can also dispute items from your credit report on-line now.

Online bureaus for dispute:

- Experian = https://www.experian.com/consumer/cac/InvalidateSession.do?code=DISPUTE

- Tran union = http://www.transunion.com/entry/disputeonline

- Equifax = http://www.equifax.com/online-credit-dispute/

The advantage of using a reputable credit repair company is they dedicate all their time during your normal working ours to dispute inaccuracies on your credit report. Most working people dont have time to do this. So you are paying someone else to do this since you dont have the time to do it yourself. So is Credit Repair a scam? Well not exactly. They are a legitimate business as long as they give you the correct information. Can they get information removed you owe? They can if the bureaus dont respond in time, and believe me the bureaus are set up to respond quickly. There systems are automated now. They can blast through a dispute letter in a few key strokes. The Bureaus will also disregard repetitive disputes as frivolous. Credit repair companies claim that if the following inaccuracies are on your credit report, it has to be removed.

Credit Bureaus reporting: $190.02

Should be reporting: $190.20

The FTC claims that this is false.

So the big question is Credit Repair a SCAM? Well there are a lot of credit repair companies out there that just take your money, and hope you go a way. So make sure you get references when using a credit restoration company. There are reputable companies out there, and there are companies that just take your money.