I was out to dinner with several girlfriends recently and one friend was asking about a lawyer who claims that, in three months, he can bring her bad credit up from the 400's to the 700's! I immediately thought, "Are you kidding me?" Talk about a shister!
So I did some researching and according to Joe Ridout, spokesperson for the nonprofit group Consumer Action, he states, "The was they operate is that they'll dispute everything on your credit report that is negative. While the dispute is in effect, these negative items can be taken out of commission for the short term, so for a couple of weeks' time, your credit report or score looks better." But that is temporary. He goes on to state "They could tell you to apply for a new employee tax ID number. But it is illegal to do so."
And knowing this now, do you think giving these shady characters your private information, such as your Social Security number and birth date isn't screaming out "Identity Theft?" You might as well have put a lawn sign on the front of your home with the same information.
There is no short cut to improving your credit score. All you can do is pay your bills on time, get rid of any false information on your credit reports (get free reports at annualcreditreport.com) by contacting your lenders and pay off debts as soon as you can, especially anything that has gone to a collection agency. And if there is any negative items on your report, keep them to the bare minimum and prove yourself to be trustworthy by not letting it happen again. It takes time, but you will gain the trust for credit once again.
Here are the links to the individual credit reporting agencies:
Experian: http://www.experian.com/
Equifax: http://www.equifax.com/home/en_us
TransUnion: http://www.transunion.com/
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