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.
Your credit plays an important role in your life. It determines how much interest you will pay for loans and even how high or how low your insurance premiums will be. If you have good credit or excellent credit, the world is your oyster and companies will go out of their way to give you their business. At the same time, if you have less than perfect credit or poor scores, it can be very difficult to secure a loan or even land a job. Bad credit is like a big red mark that stops companies from taking you seriously as a consumer. If you are tired of being treated like a lower-class consumer, consider hiring a Michigan credit repair agency to help fix your report and rebuild your credit scores.
Michigan is a cheap state to live in in the United States. The general cost of living, including basic necessities and housing, is lower than the average for the country. Possibly related to this, Michigan has some of the lowest credit card debt averages in the country. Michigan has an average credit card debt of $4,678 per person versus the national average of $5,193 per person.
Despite its low cost of living, Michigan has similar credit scores to many other US states. The average credit score for the state sits at 719 per person, which is just five points above the national average of 714. Whether you have the average credit score in Michigan or not, it can be helpful to improve your credit score through a process called credit repair.
If you have a bad credit score, it is going to be difficult to get ahead. Many services will cost more if you are even approved. Credit repair is a broad way to address negative issues on your credit report that are dragging the score down. Some concerns that can be addressed through a professional repair service are:
In Michigan, the Credit Services Protection Act (MI Comp L 445.1821) gives some guidelines to what credit repair Companies can do in the state. The main area of this law impacts is how contracts can be set up between Michigan credit repair companies and their customers. Contract periods cannot exceed 90 days. After 90 days, a new contract must be signed by both parties.
The federal Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) is the other major legislation that affects credit repair in Michigan. All companies doing credit repair in the state must adhere to this law, which covers how payment can be charged, what services can be done for customers, how companies can talk about the services they provide, and more.
It's not necessary to use a credit repair lawyer in Michigan. Although many lawyers do offer this service, anyone that follows federal and state regulations is able to perform the service for you. Technically, you can even do it for yourself, but this is not recommended unless you have a lot of experience doing credit repair already, plus a lot of free time to speak with representatives at the credit bureaus.
Credit repair is a time-intensive undertaking that will result in a healthier score and few negative marks. The credit counselor will start off by challenging items on your credit report that are inaccurate. If the reporting companies are unable to validate the negative marks, they will be withdrawn from your credit report. Your score will start to go up as inaccurate items fall off. Once the inaccurate items have been stricken from your report, the credit repair agency will start working on late payments next. Once you bring your account into good standing, they will ask the creditor for a goodwill adjustment which will obliterate the negative mark from your credit report.
It is critical to keep in mind that legitimate credit repair takes time. The Fair Credit Reporting Act states that inaccurate entries must be confirmed or removed within 45 days, which will be the earliest you will see changes to your report. Generally, you will start to note improvements as early as a few months, but it can also take as long as a year depending on your specific circumstances.
In Michigan, the credit repair process takes around three steps. These three steps are:
Step 1: Making a credit report request
Before you can begin credit repair, you need to take a look at your credit reports. Credit reports are records of information that is related to your credit. They’re maintained by one of the three major credit bureaus in the United States. Each credit Bureau maintains its own credit report, with each report containing slightly different information depending on which Michigan businesses reported to them. You are entitled to one free credit report from each credit Bureau every 12 months, whether you request it or not. You can request your credit reports online or through the mail.
Step 2: Credit report analyzation
Once you have each of the three credit reports in your possession, the next step is to closely look at them for any inaccurate transactions that might be there. It's not uncommon for credit reports to contain inaccurate information, whether it is a mistake or a fraudulent transaction. By keeping track of your own credit reports and all of the entries present there, you can make sure you're only being judged by the things that you've actually done and not by any inaccurate entries that shouldn't be there. If you find any inaccurate entries, it's time to move on to step 3.
Step 3: Sending off dispute letters
Unfortunately, you can't remove inaccurate entries from your credit report by yourself. But, what you can do is contact the credit bureau that maintains that credit report and request them to remove it for you. This process requires sending a dispute letter containing information about the false entry and evidence of why the entry is inaccurate. After some time and usually many follow-ups with the credit bureau, inaccurate entries can be removed from your credit reports permanently.
Note: Don’t be deceived by the apparent simplicity of the process. It's not as easy as it looks! If you don't already have experience doing credit repair in Michigan, you’ll want to work with an experienced company or individual who does. The final step of sending in a dispute letter and following up with the credit Bureau can often take months. It will take even longer if you don't know what you're doing and you accidentally make a misstep.
Depending on if you have any inaccurate entries on your credit report or not, credit repair can do a lot to improve your score in Michigan. Having inaccurate entries removed from your credit report will make sure that you are only getting judged by your actual payment history. Considering that payment history can make up as much as 35% of your credit score, credit repair will be significant for anybody that has false or fraudulent entries on their credit reports, especially in their payment history section.
On average, credit repair is between $89 to $169 in Michigan. This is charged on a monthly basis from the beginning of the process until it's completely resolved. Most of the companies offering credit repair will also charge an upfront contract setup fee, but this is usually far lower than the monthly fee they charge. Contracts can be cancelled at any time, with all contracts for credit repair in Michigan being prohibited from going on past 90 days.
Like in most US states, credit repair can take on average between 3 to 6 months in Michigan State. Unfortunately, credit bureaus can cause a lot of delays during the process and may not be able to resolve the issue for you until a lot of follow-up has been done after your initial dispute letter.
Credit repair is open to every resident of Michigan. Whether you live in a larger metro such as Detroit, Grand Rapids, or Sterling Heights, or you live in a smaller city such as Eastpointe, Ferndale, or Dorr, credit repair can be accessed from any company around the United States that follows the state and federal regulations within Michigan.