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A large number of the consumers in Tennessee suffer from lower credit scores through no fault of their own. While late payments and poor money management can lead to derogatory marks on your credit, inaccuracies can also pull your score down. Both credit reporting agencies and creditors often place the wrong information on consumer credit reports that can cause the score to drop as much as 100 points. If you are looking for ways to improve your credit score and get rid of erroneous entries, there is professional help available.
Tennessee is broadly seen as a very affordable US state. The average cost of living within the state is low compared to other states. This might be a factor in why the state has a lower credit card debt per person than the national average. The average person in Tennessee has $4923 of credit card debt, around $270 less than the national average.
Despite the lower-than-average costs in the state and the lower levels of credit card debt, Tennessee has a below average credit score. The average credit score in Tennessee is 701 points, 13 points less than the national average. If you're struggling with a low credit score in Tennessee, credit repair may be able to help you get back on track by removing any inaccurate entries which could be bringing down your credit score unfairly.
State laws in Tennessee set some boundaries for credit repair companies operating within the state. The Tennessee Credit Services Businesses Act (TN ST 47-18-1001) requires that all companies providing credit repair as a service must:
Besides the state law, the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) is a federal law that also impacts credit repair providers in Tennessee. Under this law, all companies that offer credit repair anywhere in the US must ensure they follow specific payment practices, inform customers about credit repair appropriately, and provide written contracts to all customers.
Many credit repair companies operate in Tennessee. While some of these companies are law firms or do have lawyers employed, it's not necessary to work with a lawyer to get credit repair in Tennessee. This is good news for you, because it gives you more freedom to work with a company you feel comfortable with rather than having to sign on with the nearest law firm.
There are 3 main parts to the credit repair process. In Tennessee, it looks like this:
Step 1: Collecting your personal credit reports
each person in the US has a personal credit score that's calculated based on 3 individual credit reports. These reports are generated and compiled by 3 different credit bureaus operating in the country. You are entitled to request a free copy of your credit report from each of the different credit bureaus at least once every 12 months. You need to request a credit report from all 3 so you can have a full picture of what’s being used to calculate your credit score.
Step 2: Investigating credit report entries
Once your credit reports arrive, either digitally or through the mail, it's time to dig in and see if there’s any information on there that’s inaccurate or fraudulent. Credit reports often contain information from the past seven years, so there might be a lot of individual entries to go through. However, considering how many credit reports contain errors, it's important to look at every entry to see that it's accurate and correct.
Step 3: Contacting credit bureaus for revisions
When you locate a mistake on your credit report, the next step will be to send a dispute letter to the relevant credit Bureau and to request them to make appropriate changes or to remove incorrect entries entirely. You'll need to provide information to demonstrate the inaccuracy of the entry, then the credit Bureau will do their own investigation to follow up.
Note: Credit repair is no walk in the park. Communicating with credit bureaus to request changes to your credit report is difficult, with credit bureaus being hesitant to make any changes without an overwhelming amount of evidence to prove that the current report is incorrect. Working with a reputable credit repair company can help you present a better case up front and get the issue resolved more quickly.
While you can take some steps to fix your credit on your own, there are many benefits to leaving it up to professionals. Working with our professional Tennessee-based credit repair specialist will take the pressure off of you so that you can focus on more important things. They are able to spend more time negotiating with creditors, debt collectors, and even the credit reporting agencies to knock of derogatory marks. They also have the skills needed to get things done without having to bounce around from one department to the other day in and day out.
Identity theft is a serious issue that affects a large percentage of the population each year. While most consumers can reclaim lost funds, it takes a lot more effort to restore credit. Monitoring your credit report is the best way to prevent damage to your credit report from identity theft before it becomes severe. The problem with having your identity stolen is that not only do thieves take your money, they can also trash your credit without you having any way to stop it. Credit reporting agencies can put a freeze on your report which will alert lenders that your identity has been stolen, but this does not prevent coeditors from reporting negative transactions that were completed by the scammer. Working with a credit repair company in Tennessee will give you the tools and the skills needed to start removing derogatory marks on your credit report that are a result of identity theft.
Debt collectors have a habit of going for blood when they are trying to collect monies owed. As a consumer, if you are facing collections from more than one creditor, these collections efforts can really hamper your way of life. From threatening phone calls to letters demanding payment, many of these collections efforts surpass the bounds of decency and land firmly in the realm of harassment. Collections agents and companies that harass consumers for dues are actually breaking the law. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act prohibits harassment when attempting to collect a debt from a consumer and working with a professional Tennessee credit repair company can help you assert your rights. Not only will they be able to make the harassment stop permanently, they can also work to get rid of accounts in collection on your credit report for good.
As soon as you sign up for credit repair services in Tennessee, the company you work with can stop the collections calls and letters that have been keeping you up at night. They will send out cease and desist letters so that you can focus on repairing your credit instead of worrying about avoiding calls and letters from debt collectors. In many cases, they will be able to negotiate a payoff amount that is below what is listed on your credit report. Many debt collectors will even agree to remove derogatory marks from your report once the account has been settled. In the event that paying off an account in collections is not an option, there may be other options that will help you repair your credit legally. Debt consolidation, credit card consolidation, and even debt repayment loans are all options that can be explored on the path the better credit.
There's not much you can do to make your credit score increase quickly, but credit repair is an exception in Tennessee. When there are inaccurate entries on your credit reports that are negatively impacting your credit score, removing those entries through credit repair is going to have a quick and noticeable impact on your credit score calculation. This process is only available when you have inaccurate entries on your credit report, and it cannot be used to remove legitimate negative entries.
Fixing your credit through credit repair service in Tennessee is going to cost anywhere from $79 to $149 per month that the service is active. The average company charges around $120 per month, with most companies also charging an upfront contract setup fee at the beginning of the contract.
Credit repair is an unfortunately long process. There's no way to make it go faster, because the delays are not usually on your side of the equation. Credit bureaus may drag their feet in solving any issues you have and may not address them quickly. For this reason, credit repair in Tennessee can take between 3 to 6 months on average.
There are no cities in Tennessee that are ineligible for credit repair service. It doesn't matter if you live in a large metro like Nashville, Memphis, or Knoxville, or if you live in a smaller city like Millington, Ripley, or Rockwood, you can access the same credit repair services as anybody else.