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 suffering from bad credit? Do you get turned down for credit at every turn? If so, professional credit counseling may be the answer you are looking for. Credit repair is not as easy as you may think, but with time and dedication, it is possible to turn your score around and work towards financial health at the same time. A Minnesota credit repair company will be able to help you get rid of negative marks and depending on your needs, rebuild your credit as well.
Cost of living in Minnesota is on par with the national average in the US. Most basic necessities are averagely priced, while housing is lower than the national average. Because of this, it's not surprising that Minnesota ranks low on the list of credit card debt average by state. In Minnesota, the average person has credit card debt of $4,769, more than $400 less than the national average of $5,193 per person.
Minnesota has some of the highest individual credit scores on average of any US state. The average person has a credit score of 742, far above the national average of 714. If you fit into the category of people with a lower-than-average credit score, credit repair may be a way for you to fix your credit score quickly and remove any damage done by inaccurate records in your credit report.
In Minnesota, there is a specific law that applies to credit repair companies. This is Minnesota State Laws MSA 332.52. The main impacts of this law include:
Throughout the US, the federal Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) dictates how credit repair service can be advertised to customers, what service is allowed to be provided for a charge, and how contracts should be laid out, among other things.
Credit repair sounds like something you would do to your car, but only it involves your credit score instead. A credit repair service will dispute items on your credit report that are inaccurate or that do not belong to you. Accounts that should have fallen offer and also other negative marks will also be targeted. Credit repair companies are able to help repair credit much quicker than a person repairing it alone would be able to accomplish. Usually, rebuilding a person’s credit score will follow the credit repair service to help restore the report to a healthy state.
There's no reason to work with a lawyer or a law firm to do credit repair in Minnesota. A lot of companies offer credit repair as a service to Minnesota residents, including many law firms. However, there is no requirement for credit repair to be done by a lawyer or a law professional of any kind. Instead of looking for a lawyer to do the job, it's better to work with a company you feel comfortable with, whether that's a law firm or not.
There are three main steps to the credit repair process in Minnesota which would go as follows:
Step 1: Requesting all 3 credit reports
in the US, there are 3 main credit bureaus that track all of the credit-related activities you do. These 3 credit bureaus maintain their own records, which are called your credit reports. Because each business you interact with might send their information to different credit bureaus, it's important to request a credit report from all three of the major bureaus. All credit bureaus must provide a free credit report every 12 months to everyone that requests it, which you can do online or via mail.
Step 2: Studying entries on your credit reports
With these three credit reports in hand, set aside some time to study the entries within each and confirm that all of the information is accurate. Unfortunately, mistakes happen regularly in credit reports. These are not usually malicious mistakes, but can include inaccurate information as well as fraudulent entries. Look through all reports closely and mark anything that looks out of the ordinary or inaccurate to you.
Step 3: Sending disputes over credit report entries
If you find entries in your credit reports that are not accurate, you have the right to dispute these entries with the credit bureaus directly. While you can't remove these transactions on your own, credit bureaus must remove entries that are found to be inaccurate from your credit report. Dispute letters must be sent to each credit bureau that lists the inaccurate entry in their report. They must include information about the inaccurate entry as well as evidence to show its inaccuracy.
Note: Although the process is only three steps, these steps are not as simple as they seem. Technically speaking, you can do credit repair on your own. However, when you get to the third step of sending a dispute letter and following up with credit bureaus, the process can be tedious and difficult if you don't already have experience with it. This is why it's recommended to work with a credit repair company in Minnesota instead of trying to do the process by yourself.
Anytime that a change is made regarding corrections on your credit report the credit bureaus are obligated to formally inform you. While most corrections hold, sometimes a creditor is able to prove the validity of the debt that causes the derogatory mark. In these cases, the account and the derogatory mark will be reinserted on your credit report. One of the more destructive things about having bad credit is the sheer number of calls, and letters consumers receive from debt collectors. This can lead to stress and a general ambivalence towards repairing issues that led to a poor score in the first place. A good credit repair company will be able to stop debt collectors from harassing you and in many cases will work to come to an agreement for less than the full amount due. When the bad debt is paid off, then they will work to have the derogatory listing removed. Consolidation is another option that can help lower debt and improve a person’s credit score at the same time. Credit repair companies will also work to manage medical debt and bankruptcy charge-offs removed.
Depending on how much your credit score has been affected by inaccurate entries in your credit report, you could see a lot of improvement from credit repair in Minnesota. Credit repair cannot fix accurate or legitimate entries, but it can remove false entries that could be dragging your credit score down. Because of the weight payment history has on your credit score, this process is very important to salvage your credit score.
Most credit repair companies in Minnesota charge between $89 to $189 per month. The reason this service is charged on a monthly basis is because of the wide time frame that it can go on and the amount of work that may be required during that time. In Minnesota, most companies will also ask for an upfront contract set up fee that’s a one-time payment along with your normal monthly payments.
You can expect credit repair to take between three and six months in Minnesota. This is a regular time frame for credit repair throughout the US, because of the amount of time credit bureaus can delay in responding to your initial disputes and requesting evidence. unfortunately, there is no way to speed up credit repair, but working with reputable company in Minnesota can make the process go as fast as possible.
You can do credit repair in every city in Minnesota, small or large. There are no location restrictions for this service within the state. Customers can even choose to work with companies that are based outside of Minnesota, as long as they follow all state regulations active within Minnesota. So, whether you live in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, or Rochester, or you live in a smaller city such as New Hope, Alexandria, or Rockford, you can access credit repair when you need it.