It is widely believed that you can repair your own credit without the help of a credit repair service. The only real way to improve your credit rating is to improve your debt-income ratio and to pay your monthly obligations on time. You don't need a service to help you accomplish this.

What most credit repair counseling services are actually offering you is debt reduction. Using this type of service can actually do more harm than good to your credit rating, as you will end up paying less than the agreed monthly amount and this will result in your payments being reported 30 days late month after month.

Another tactic that credit repair counseling services use is to send to the three credit reporting agencies letters stating that the negative information on your credit report is inaccurate, and demand that they remove this information. Credit reporting agencies are required to remove this information while they investigate the claim that the information is inaccurate. While this investigation is going on the credit repair counseling service pulls your credit report and shows you that your credit score has improved. They then demand payment from you. After this has occurred the investigation at the credit reporting agency will result in the negative information being placed back into your credit file and you are no better off than you were before.

There are some credit repair agencies that are not out to scam you. These agencies will legitimately help you to have incorrect information removed, to have information corrected when you have paid-off items that are still showing past due. They can also help you to have items listed twice removed, or items that are actually your children's clarified.

When it comes down to it, this is about all a legitimate credit repair agency can do to help you improve your credit. No credit repair counseling agency can have negative items removed if they are correct. These items remain for up to seven years, or even longer.

The best thing to do is to handle your own credit issues. You have the right to contest incorrect information and you are in the best position to know what is correct or incorrect on your credit report.