Credit repair is a process that can take anywhere from one to six months, depending on the number of disputes you need to file. On average, consumers complete the credit repair process in three to six months, but it may be shorter if their reports only contain a few errors. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix for credit repair. The length of time it takes to rebuild your credit history depends on the severity of your credit problems and how your credit history was affected. It could take just a few months or require several years of commitment.
However, there are steps you can take right away to help you get your credit back. If everything goes according to plan, you could start to see an improvement in your credit score within 30 days. If not, wait at least six weeks, if not longer. Most credit repair companies charge a monthly fee for their services, so the credit repair process can become expensive after a few months. The credit agency usually has 30 days after receiving your dispute to investigate and verify the information.
They will contact the company that provided the information and ask them to investigate. The credit agency must send you the results of the investigation within five business days of its completion. You can go from having bad credit to a fair one or, better yet, with a secured card. Paying attention to rating factors will help you better understand what you can do to improve your credit over time. Credit repair companies cannot guarantee that your credit will be repaired, but they can help you address any negative, unfair or inaccurate information that harms your credit profile.
Initially, you should only have one secured credit card to recover your credit, although you may eventually want to consider having two. An automated software failure by a creditor could send the same erroneous information to credit bureaus every month, which could include it back in your credit history. Some credit repair companies may offer credit monitoring as an add-on or as part of a regular monthly service plan. You can try challenging an exact element of your credit file yourself, but a credit repair service cannot do this for you. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and have not been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any other party. All of them are dedicated to finding incorrect or expired information in a customer's credit history and then working to correct or delete it from the customer's profile.
You can use WalletHub's free credit scoring simulator to calculate how long it will take to recover your credit and how certain financial decisions could affect your score. To avoid a credit repair scam, don't work with a company that promises to increase your credit rating. Bad credit isn't a life sentence - good news for about one-third of people with scores lower than 620. Lying about problems that appear on your credit report can come back to haunt you; no legitimate repair service should ask you to lie. Removing incorrect or outdated information from your credit report is always a good idea; reviewing the reports of each of the three major bureaus at least once a year is one way to find inaccurate information. That could be enough to raise a score to the next level and open up new loan or credit offers.