Are you looking for professional help to improve your credit score? We have reviewed 42 credit repair companies and have selected 7 that could help you challenge credit inaccuracies, dispute negative items on your credit report and raise your credit score.
Are you an Iowa resident who is looking to make a purchase but have problems with your credit? If you have suffered a setback due to being laid off or if you simply got behind on your bills and destroyed your credit in the process, help is available.
In Iowa, the cost of living is lower than it is in most other US states. Real estate is especially cheap, being around 24% lower than the national average. With this in mind, it’s no surprise that credit card debt is lower on average in Iowa than in any other US state. The average person has $4,246 in credit card debt, more than $100 less than the 2nd-lowest state and close to $1,000 lower than the national average!
In terms of credit scores, Iowa is also doing well at an average of 729. This is in comparison to the national average of 714 points. Despite the higher credit scores, there are still many people in Iowa who can benefit from credit repair. Averages only represent a mid-point between those with higher credit and those with lower credit. If you’re sitting in the lower end of that range, credit repair might be an option to help you improve your credit score by removing false information from your credit report.
In Iowa, there is a state law that gives extra guidance to credit repair companies looking to serve clients in the state. The Credit Services Organizations (IA Code 538A) law sets up some requirements for credit repair companies in Iowa. This includes:
The Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) is a federal law that also dictates how credit repair can be provided as a service to customers. This law impacts how contracts should be arranged, how credit repair can be advertised to customers, and what kind of service can actually be performed by a credit repair company in the US.
While credit repair is a service that’s sometimes offered by lawyers in Iowa, it’s not exclusive to law firms. Legally speaking, you can even do credit repair for yourself. This isn’t recommended, considering how long and complex that process can be if you don’t have experience doing it already. Working with a trustworthy credit repair company is going to make it easier for you to get the process done correctly without having to struggle through it yourself.
To do credit repair in Iowa, you need to follow this basic process:
Step 1: How to request your credit reports
Getting your credit reports is the first step of the process. You can request these reports from each of the 3 major credit bureaus. Requests can be made online, with the credit reports either being presented to you for download for mailed to you upon request.
Step 2: Looking for inaccurate entries
Once you get ahold of the 3 reports, you need to look closely at each one to check for accuracy. Your credit reports should be holding up to 7 years of information about your payments to credit accounts, open accounts, and more. Look through everything that’s there and check if it’s meant to be there or not.
Step 3: Disputing entries on your credit report
If you do find entries on your credit report that don’t belong, you need to send in a dispute letter to every credit bureau that lists that entry. These letters will initiate the process to have the credit bureau investigate the legitimacy of a credit entry. Unfortunately, it can take a while before the process is finished.
Note: Despite the process only involving 3 steps, credit repair can take a long time from start to finish. Even if you initialize the process with all the right information, it can still take months of following up and communicating with the credit bureaus until they finally remove inaccurate entries from your credit report. That’s why it’s helpful to work with a credit repair company that will have more time to dedicate to the process.
In order to work on repairing your credit, you first need to understand what it is and how it works. Your credit rating is a very important measure of your creditworthiness. Credit rating agencies use this to determine your ability to repay debts and the likelihood that you will default on a debt. People who have good scores are considered low risk and are often offered great terms and easily secure loans. Those with bad scores are often denied loans or given high rates when they are approved. Paying your bills on time and avoiding missed payments are the best way to build your credit profile.
If you find that you are having real issues meeting your various financial obligations, debt settlement, credit consolidation, and credit repair should be taken under serious consideration. If you have been denied credit or if you are looking to make a large purchase and need to improve your credit before you are approved for a loan, credit repair is a good option. Maybe the amount of compound interest has surpassed the principal balance of your debts, or it could be that you are terrified that every time the phone rings it could be a collection agency, whatever the case, credit repair will help you get back your peace of mind and your financial stability.
Of all credit repair options, consolidation is one of the most popular. This may seem like a complicated term, but it’s really quite simple. When you work with a certified credit repair agency in Iowa, they will help you to bundle various smaller payments into one bill. Sometimes this will be old debt that is clogging up your credit report or even active lines of credit that is close to being overdrawn. When you consolidate, not only do you cut down on the number of bills you have to pay, it also shortens the amount of time it will take to pay off your debts.
Once your credit has been repaired, it is important to take steps to maintain your solid financial standing. This means budgeting each month to ensure you don’t overspend and cutting back on impulse purchases. Reducing the number of open lines of credit you hold will also help you maintain a healthy credit score while also removing the temptation to overspend. If your problems stem from a failure to pay on time, consider setting up automatic payments for each account that you own. This not only will keep you from paying late, but it will also help you save money on late fees. The longer you maintain these habits, the better your credit score will be.
Your credit repair company can help you come up with a customized plan to keep your credit moving along the right track long after your past mistakes have been rectified. The last thing you want to do is end up right back in the same place a year later with bad credit, collections, and more on your credit report.
There’s no magic button to fix your credit, but credit repair is close! If you have inaccurate credit entries making your credit score lower than it should be, getting those entries removed have greatly improve your credit score. The more inaccurate entries there are, the more you’ll see your score go up. This process cannot be used to remove legitimate credit report entries.
You need to pay for credit repair on a monthly basis for as long as the process takes. If you want to work with a reputable credit repair company, the cost will be between $79 and 199 per month on average. For some companies, you’ll be asked to pay a setup fee, which is a one-time fee that’s paid as the contract starts. From there, you’ll pay for the service every month until it’s completed or your cancel the contract.
On average, the credit repair process takes between 3 – 6 months in Iowa. Despite the fact that credit bureaus need to respond to dispute letters within 30 days, the process to get a false entry removed takes much longer than 30 days to complete. A reliable credit repair company can help shorten the time the process goes on by following up regularly and responding promptly to information requests.
Iowa allows credit repair to be done anywhere in the state, regardless if the company performing the service is local or not. Credit repair is not location-dependent. Whether you live in a large city like Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, or Davenport or a smaller city like Onawa or Alton, you can access credit repair from a company anywhere in the US that follows state and federal credit repair laws.