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When you have bad credit getting a loan, credit card, or even a promotion at work can become difficult. There are many reasons that people end up with bad credit, but regardless of those reasons, there are ways to turn things around. Understanding what causes a credit score to drop and your rights as a consumer is the first step in repairing your credit report. Hiring a professional credit repair company in Oklahoma to guide you through the process is the next step in fixing your credit. If you are curious about how a professional credit repair service can help you get back on your feet, we are here to cover all of the basics.
Oklahoma is very low on the cost-of-living charts in the US. It's one of the cheapest states to live in, with real estate being especially low cost. Despite the low cost of living, Oklahoma has fairly average credit card debt numbers. The average person in the state has $5,145 of credit card debt, around $50 less than the national average.
Although housing costs in the state are low, credit scores are also very low on average compared to most other U.S. states. The average credit score in the state of Oklahoma is only 692 points, 22 points below the national average of 714. Some credit scores may be suffering through no fault of the person themselves. If your credit score has any inaccurate entries, this can have a negative impact on your credit score calculations until they're removed through credit repair.
Oklahoma’s Credit Services Organization Act (24 OS 131) is a state law that puts a few specific requirements on any company that wants to provide credit repair in Oklahoma. The main things required of companies are:
The similarly named Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) is a federal law that provides boundaries for any company offering credit repair in Oklahoma or elsewhere in the country. It restricts payment practices from these companies, as well as putting limits on how the service can be advertised to customers, among other things.
The credit reporting agencies that issue your credit reports are often one of the causes of poor credit scores. Lending and credit reporting agencies alike that either report incorrect information or fail to remove inaccurate information have been found to be behind at least 80% of the population's credit report errors. At times, there are accounts that have been paid off that are not updated in the credit reporting agencies' systems. Usually, this is because the original lender did not update all agencies, or they simply did not send an update at all. This drags a person’s score down through no fault of their own. Every derogatory mark on a credit report has a certain time period it can be listed before it expires. Once this time limit expires, a credit reporting agency is supposed to delete it, but often this step is overlooked. This leads to lower credit scores for the consumer when they technically should no longer have some negative items listed.
Having your identity stolen can ruin not only your reputation but also your credit. Your money may have been the target, but once a thief has come and gone, what’s left behind is a slew of derogatory marks and debt collectors chasing you down for money someone else has stolen. In most cases, consumers are able to dispute the charges and transactions on their accounts, but getting them removed from their credit report is much harder. Even if a lender forgives a debt or charge due to identity theft, they can linger on a credit report for years. Working with a credit repair agency is the best way for Oklahoma residents who are trying to recover from identity theft to clear up their credit reports legally.
There's no law that says you have to work with a lawyer to do credit repair in Oklahoma. You can choose to work with any company that offers credit repair in Oklahoma, as long as they are adhering to both state and federal laws. According to federal law, you can even do credit repair yourself, it's just not recommended because of the tedious process and the amount of time it takes to get it done. If you don't have experience. It's better to work with a company that does, since they can help you to take the right steps from the beginning and smooth the process along.
There are typically three steps involved in getting your credit repaired in Oklahoma. These are the steps it takes:
Step 1: Requesting for your credit reports
first, you have to know what you're working with. To understand what's being used to calculate your credit score, you need to request your credit reports. Credit reports are recorded and maintained by 3 credit bureaus within the United States. Each bureau produces their own credit report, so you need to request all 3 in order to get a complete picture of what's going into your credit score calculations. You're entitled to at least 1 free credit report every 12 months from each bureau.
Step 2: Credit report analysis
The second step, after you've received your credit reports digitally or through the mail, is to sit down and go through your credit reports individually. These reports compile information from years of your activities, so it can take a while to go through every entry. Keep your eye out for any information on credit report entries that’s inaccurate or false. Make a note of any mistakes that you find on your credit report, since these will require escalation to the last step.
Step 3: Making your case to the credit bureaus
The final step in the credit repair process is to contact the credit bureaus to request a change or removal of credit report entry. You have the right to dispute incorrect information that's listed on your credit report, since this information is being used to calculate your credit score. While you can't remove any entries by yourself, you can send a dispute letter to each bureau that includes the incorrect information. By showing evidence of the inaccuracy, you can get any frost credit report entries removed or amended.
Note: Credit repair can be a touchy process. It's not particularly complex, but you’ll be able to do it a lot more easily if you know what to expect going in. This is where a credit repair company proves invaluable, since they have experience working with lots of different clients to address issues on their credit reports. They can help guide you on providing evidence and identifying incorrect entries in the first place.
Poor money management is not the only reason for bad credit. Sometimes a medical emergency will come along that destroys your finances and your credit. If you are saddled with high amounts of medical debt and you just can’t keep up with your payments, a credit repair company can help you with medical consolidation. This will bring all of your medical bills under one payment. A credit repair agency in Oklahoma will be able to negotiate with your creditors to find a manageable monthly payment that you can afford. They will also be able to request that derogatory marks from any past due or late payments be removed following the consolidation. As you make your payments on time, not only will your medical debt go down, your credit will also start to improve.
There's not many things that will bring your credit score up quickly, but credit repair is one of them. If you have any inaccurate entries on your credit report, having those entries amended or removed can have an instant impact on your credit score. Payment histories make up more than 1/3 of your credit score calculations, so any false negative information that's included in your payment history could be having a detrimental effect to your score. Removal of those entries we'll reverse that damage.
For credit repair service in Oklahoma, you can expect to pay anywhere from $99 - $169 per month. However, the average is closer to $129 per month, typically with an upfront contract setup fee charged once. The reason credit repair is charged on a monthly basis is because of the unpredictable time frame that it takes and the broad scope of the work.
You can expect credit repair to take anywhere from three to six months in Oklahoma. This is a very normal estimation for this service, because many delays can happen throughout the process. Since the process revolves heavily around communication with very large credit bureaus in the US, any number of things can make it take longer than it's supposed to.
There is no city in Oklahoma where you will be refused credit repair service from legitimate companies. It doesn't matter if you live in a large city or a tiny town, you can access all the same credit repair companies as any other resident of Oklahoma. So whether you live in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, or Broken Arrow, or you live in smaller cities like Longtown, Spiro, or Locust Grove, you don't have to worry about finding a company that offers service in your area.