It may sound like a scam, but there are legitimate companies who can actually help you remove errors from your credit report or fix omissions within 72 hours. If you've tried to correct the situation on your own, you know it can take weeks, even months before it is actually straightened out- and if you're in the middle of trying to buy a new home or a vehicle, the 72 hours can really help you get the loan as well as the lowest possible interest rates!



How To Use Rapid Rescoring Services

Unfortunately, individuals can't use the services alone. Rapid rescoring is typically offered by independent credit reporting agencies, and used by mortgage brokers and lenders to help get their customers better loan terms. If a company indicates “instant credit repair” and is geared towards consumers-it has to be a scam.

If you're in the middle of a dispute with a particular item on your credit report, or you have negative items that are there because you failed to make the payments, rapid rescoring is not able to remove the true negative items or work with items that you are currently disputing.

When a mortgage broker or lender uses rapid rescoring on your behalf to remove negatives or make sure omitted information is included, there is no guarantee that you'll see the results on your credit score. Removing errors may help raise a credit score- but it may not. Unfortunately, there is some “unknown” information pertaining to how credit scores are exactly determined, so it's not possible to completely predict changes to a credit score. Most people report great results- but there are no guarantees.

How Rapid Rescoring Works

Mortgage lenders and brokers have relationships with credit bureaus that allow them to move quickly through credit report corrections.

The mortgage lender or broker will collect proof from the borrower of the error in the credit report, and pass it along to a rescorer- a credit reporting agency. The rescorer may contact a creditor directly in order to obtain proof in some cases. Proof can be a letter from the creditor that acknowledges a mistake- such as “consumer was not 30 days late on the payment in March 2007.”

The proof is then sent to the credit bureaus, and if they agree it was an error, they will update the borrowers credit report, which will then update the credit score of the individual.

It can cost up to $100 per error to fix on all three of the major credit bureau reports (Equifax, Esperian, and TransUnion) using the rapid rescoring process.

Better than Rapid Rescoring

Instead of waiting until the last minute to fix your credit, even the mortgage brokers and lenders who sing the praises of rapid rescoring services say it's better to work on keeping your credit report and score in good shape on a continuous basis rather than waiting until you want a loan to worry about fixing it.

The single most important step you can take each year to make sure you are keeping up with your credit report and score is to get your free copies of your reports from each of the three major credit bureaus and spend time checking it for errors. You can also check accounts that are over 7 years old, as they should not even appear on your credit report. Watch for accounts that aren't yours, and make sure they are disputed and removed if found on your report.

If you dispute an item found on your credit report, and the credit bureau say the information has been verified- you can then contact the creditor directly to argue your case. If the creditor agrees to remove the item from your credit report, get it in writing and check your report within a month or so to be sure the action has been taken.

Always keep good records of any investigation and disputes you proceed with regarding your credit report. If the error continues after it should be removed, you'll have the necessary documentation to have it corrected through the credit bureaus and to show loan officers.