A credit repair company can help you identify and correct mistakes on your credit report.
A poor credit history and score can make your life more difficult in many ways, from higher interest rates to limited borrowing options. The good news is that bad credit can often be improved—especially when errors on your credit report are dragging your score down. If your credit report doesn’t accurately reflect your true creditworthiness, credit repair may be worth considering. While it does cost money and takes time, understanding how credit repair works can help you decide if it’s the right move for you.
What Is Credit Repair?
Credit repair is the process of reviewing your credit report, identifying inaccurate or questionable information, and disputing those items with the credit bureaus. While you are legally allowed to dispute errors on your own, the process can be time-consuming and frustrating.
Professional credit repair companies, such as Lexington Law or Credit Saint, specialize in this process. Because they handle disputes regularly, they often navigate the system more efficiently and know how to communicate effectively with credit bureaus and creditors.
What Can Credit Repair Help With?
Credit repair generally helps in two key ways: assisting with the dispute of inaccurate information and, in some cases, providing guidance on managing outstanding debt. Common credit report errors include:
- Accounts that don’t belong to you (due to identity mix-ups, divorce, or data entry errors)
- Accounts that were sold to collections but appear twice on your report
- Negative items that should have fallen off your report due to age
- Accounts with incorrect statuses (open instead of closed, or vice versa)
- Incorrect details such as balances, payment history, or personal information
Disputing these issues can be tedious, which is why many people choose to work with professionals. Any item on your credit report can legally be disputed, and credit repair companies submit dispute letters to the credit bureaus—Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian—for information that is inaccurate, incomplete, unverifiable, or outdated.
Credit Repair Can’t Rewrite Accurate History
It’s important to set realistic expectations. Credit repair cannot remove accurate negative information. If you genuinely missed payments or defaulted on a loan, those items typically must remain on your report until they age off naturally.
Credit repair also doesn’t directly “boost” your credit score. Instead, the goal is to clean up your credit report by removing disputable items. Any score improvement comes as a result of correcting errors, not from altering legitimate credit history.
How the Credit Repair Process Works
When you hire a credit repair company, the process typically includes:
- Granting permission for the company to access your credit reports
- Reviewing your reports together to identify errors or questionable items
- Developing a strategy to dispute and correct inaccurate information
Experienced credit repair companies understand the dispute process and how to follow up with both credit bureaus and creditors to ensure errors are properly addressed.
When a Credit Repair Company May Make Sense
Handling one or two simple disputes on your own may be manageable. However, hiring a credit repair company may be worthwhile if:
- Your credit report contains multiple errors
- The mistakes are complex and require extensive documentation
- You don’t have the time to manage repeated follow-ups
- You’re uncomfortable negotiating with creditors or bureaus
Be Careful of Credit Repair Scams
Not all credit repair companies are legitimate. Before signing up, research the company carefully. Look for reviews on platforms like TrustPilot and confirm that the company is transparent about pricing, timelines, and realistic outcomes. Avoid any service that promises guaranteed results or instant credit score increases.
