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.
For those dealing with bad credit, it is easy to be swayed with promises of an easy fix. We are sure you have heard advertisements on the radio or maybe have noticed them on television. Before jumping at the first offer for help you see, it is important to do your research to avoid falling into a credit repair trap. There are a lot of resources available in North Carolina to help you repair your credit on your own as well as those dedicated to connecting you with reliable credit repair companies that will advocate on your behalf.
The cost of living in North Carolina is right around the national average. While it’s not one of the cheapest states in the country, it’s also not a very expensive state to live in. The levels of credit card debt per person reflect this reality, with the average person have $5,151 in credit card debt. This is just $42 lower than the national average.
On the same trend as the debt and cost of living, North Carolina’s average credit score is close to the US average. At 707, it’s just 7 points under the US average of 714. While 707 is a respectable credit score, there’s always room for improvement, especially if your credit score is lower than average. Credit repair is a service that removes or updates inaccurate entries on your credit report, so your credit score can be calculated on accurate information only.
In North Carolina, the Credit Repair Services Act (NC Gen Stat 66-220) is a law that addresses credit repair companies. Under this law, all such companies will need to:
All companies doing credit repair in North Carolina also need to follow regulations laid out in the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA). This is a federal law that requires credit repair companies to provide written contracts to all customers, limits how they can advertise the service, and restricts how payments to after the service is provided.
It’s not necessary to work with a lawyer if you need credit repair in North Carolina. The state does not require credit repair to be done by a lawyer or law firm, so you can work with any company you want, no matter if they have legal qualifications or not. As long as you choose to work with a company that has a good reputation and experience with credit repair, you can end up with a good result.
In North Carolina, the credit repair process boils down to 3 main steps:
Step 1: Make requests for your credit reports
Credit reports are records that hold information relevant to your credit usage, including payment history, open credit accounts, and more. These reports provide the information used to calculate your credit score, so they’re an essential part of understanding what’s happening with your credit. Credit reports art compiled and maintained by 3 different credit bureaus in the US, all of which are required by law to provide you with a free copy of your credit report every 12 months, upon request.
Step 2: Analyze credit reports for issues
Once you’ve received your credit reports, it’s time to look them over for anything that’s inaccurate or incorrect. Unfortunately, it’s very common for credit reports to have mistakes, whether they’re from simple data entry errors or fraudulent use of your personal information. By checking up on your credit reports annually, you can keep things from getting out of hand and deal with any inaccuracies as they come.
Step 3: Contact credit bureaus for disputes
When inaccurate or incorrect information appears on your credit reports, you need to contact the credit bureaus in charge of those reports to dispute the entries. Credit bureaus are the only ones who can change or remove information on a credit report, so this dispute process is necessary to resolve whatever issues you find. Dispute letters can only be issues for legitimately inaccurate information, and they need to include evidence to support your claims.
Note: Credit repair is simple, but not straightforward. The process is easy enough to understand, but going through it is harder than you think. That’s where a credit repair company comes in. They can walk you through everything and help you follow the process correctly from the start, leading to a higher chance of success without as much back-and-forth.
When you have bad credit, it can be hard to get approved for even a basic line of credit. After being turned away so often it is easy to fall into despair thinking that there is no solution to get you out of your current bad credit cycle. However, it is possible to fix your credit and even rebuild your score. There is no quick way to repair your credit. In order to fix your score legally, it takes time, effort, and proper financial management. You can work on many aspects of your credit on your own such as working to make your payments on time and paying off accounts in collections. Hiring a credit repair company to advocate on your behalf is another option. They will work to get rid of erroneous entries, challenge inaccurate or old accounts, and also work with collections agents to get settle debts that are dragging you down.
When you have a poor credit score it can be hard to qualify for loans or even certain lines of credit. However, just because you have a bad score doesn’t mean you will be automatically denied. Lenders all have their own criteria when it comes to approving a person's application for a loan, line of credit, or housing. Some companies will look at your credit report and make a decision based on your recent history. Others will look at the type of debt or negative marks you have on your report instead of your score. If you are not sure what a company will consider, you can always ask them about their lending standards before you place an application.
To better understand what we mean, consider this example. Say that you are interested in buying a new car, but your score is being pulled down by medical debt. If your other open accounts are all in good standing, the lender may still extend a line of credit for your purchase. Another example is when a person has old charge-offs on their credit report. These marks tend to linger on your report for years, even when you have maintained a good payment history ever since. A lender may ignore the charge-off or bankruptcy by taking your current payment history into account. It is always good to check your credit and consult with a North Carolina credit repair company before placing an application.
Credit scores can be massively improved by credit repair in North Carolina if your current score is being affected by inaccurate information on your credit report. Having these inaccuracies corrected makes it so your credit score is being calculated only based on legitimate, up-to-date entries. This gives you a clearer path forward in fixing your credit score, making your efforts actually count.
If you’re going through the credit repair process, you can expect to pay somewhere between $59 - $199 per month, with the normal average being $129 per month. It’s charged on a monthly basis because the time it takes to complete the process varies so widely.
Credit repair takes an average of 3 – 6 months from start to finish. This is wide time range because the credit repair process can run into a lot of delays, especially considering how much communication is needed with different parties throughout the whole ordeal. Credit bureaus need to respond to legitimate disputes letters within 30 days, but there will likely be some back-and-forth after this to finalize the issue.
You can access credit repair from anywhere in North Carolina because there are no restrictions based on location within the state. Large cities like Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, or Durham have the same options for credit repair as smaller cities like Sanford, Hillsborough, or Edenton. Companies that are following federal and state laws to operate in North Carolina can offer their services statewide.