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Question:

Credit Repair: Lexington Law vs. My Credit Group?

I was about to sign up for Lexington Law credit repair, but then I found this http://www.blemishfreecredit.com/credit_repair_firm_comparisons.html today showing another one called My Credit Group. Has anyone used my credit group?...never heard of them but they do look better. It's more expensive than Lexington but seems like they do a little more handholding. I can do it myself but I procrastinate too much and don't have the time...just don't wanna get screwed over in the process or have someone jacking up my credit even more.

Answers:

1) Don't waste your time or money. They can't do anything for you that you cannot do yourself. Google them. Try googling "lexington law scam" and "blemishfreecredit.com scam" They are the same place. You have been warned.

2) blemishfreecredit.com is clearly not the same site as lexington law... although it has a lot of info about them. It recommends My Credit Group which I'm gonna check out... Sure you can do this stuff yourself but I ain't got the time and my credit rating sucks

3) You should do it yourself and save the money. I'm not sure if any of these companies can actually help you. Good luck.

4) I have had firsthand knowledge of this because I've used Lexington Law to research how their credit repair works as oppoosed to doing it yourself, and I'll say this. If you have the money to waste on it, then by all means go right ahead. With the different credit forums, inculding Yahoo! Answers, you can do it yourself for the fraction of what they're offering. Don't get me wrong, they're cordial people and they seem helpful, but you should expect that when you're paying anywhere from $39-79/month. If you really want to repair your credit as badly as you say you do, then the first step is to avoid credit repair services. They don't do anything anymore special than you can do on your own. The first thing that you need to know that knowledge is power. In order to fix your credit, you should know how your credit is scored and how it affects you 1. Payment history- 35% 2. Total debt owed to avialable credit ratio-30% 3. Length of time establishing credit-15% 4. Types of credit established-10% 5. Inquiries and New accounts-10% With that said, there's 2 things when it comes to bad debts and collection items that you should be aware of, the FCRA and statute of limitations. These are 2 diffferent things. The FCRA(Fair Credit Reporting Act) is the timeframe that negative items can remain on your report which is 7½ years from the date it first went deliquent. For example if a debt first became delinquent July 10, 2000 the legal limit that the debt can be reported would be January 10, 2008. Also, there is a seperate statute of limitations that varies by state on how long a debt can be legally enforced. This is different from the FCRA, because depending on which state you live in the statute may or may not expire before the FCRA. here's a link for that http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/statuteLimitations.shtml Another important thing to know is that negative items that are less than 2 years old are hurting your score the most. It's possible that you can settle much older debts for far less in exchange for getting them removed from your report altogether. This is called a "pay to delete". I posted several links explaining this in detail http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/settle_debts.shtml http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/neg_rating_after_settle.shtml http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/CanCreditorSue4SettlementDifferences.shtml http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/ActualDebtSuccesses.shtml http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/debt-negotiation.php There's sites like the one I posted along with a few more than can help you repair your credit cheaper and easier than you would if you paid out of the pocket.

5) Avoid credit repair agencies that charge a fee to improve your FICO score by removing negative, but accurate, information from your credit reports. No one can force credit reporting agencies or lenders to remove accurate information from a credit report. Credit repair companies often take your money without delivering what they promise, or provide only temporary improvements of your score, sometimes by removing accurate information that will reappear later.

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