What they won't tell you is that they will take a hefty percentage for their service and there are other downsides that will impact your credit. You can start a fix it yourself credit program that does everything a credit agency can do to improve your credit - and more! The steps you take to fix your credit don't just end when your credit score is restored - but when you put into place a real wealth-building plan to support you and your family's needs for the future.

If you have bad credit, and want to improve your credit score, where do you begin? To be as effective at fixing your own credit as a credit agency, you need to have some help and direction. Do what the credit agencies do: map out a plan for yourself to follow, including the debt you have to repay, your income, what must be paid each month, and create a budget for yourself. You'll include timelines too, to show when credit cards will be paid off, and the monthly payments can start going into a savings account to make you rich instead of making the bank!

When you get started, make sure you have realistic expectations. Credit repair agencies that claim to fix your credit within days or weeks are probably scams. There is no legal way to immediately wipe clean a legitimate, bad credit history - except through bankruptcy. The only way to repair your credit is to start making payments on time, pay off credit and close accounts, and keep at it. There are certain things you can do to show results more quickly than others.

But the biggest resource you need is patience, along with a good checklist of steps to take to start a do it yourself credit fix program. As you go down your list of things to do to fix your credit, you will gradually see improvement your score will climb a little higher each month, and your debt will not be such a burden as you pay it off systematically.

It's very important to get a copy of your credit report. Federal law now allows you to get free copies of the three major credit reports (Experian, TRW and Equifax). When starting a do it yourself credit fix program, you should get copies of all three credit bureau reports, because each reporting agency may have slightly different information. With your credit report in hand, you can find the errors that could be causing you to have a lower score than you deserve, and take steps to get that corrected.

Then you will need to prioritize your debts, and start paying them off. Knowing which ones to pay first can be tricky highest interest rate, or highest balance? Why not pay off the LOWEST balance you have, and have the good feeling of starting to get rid of your debt. Once you pay off the lowest balance account, CLOSE the account generally, it will improve your credit report the fastest to show one less account.

Once your debts are prioritized, you can start to pay off debt faster by finding extra cash to apply to your bills each month. Whether you cut back on expenses (there are some very simple ideas you can use right away) or find a second source of income to dedicate just to your bills, paying more than your minimums each month is the only way to really get rid of debt fast and boost your credit history by keeping current.

If you're having trouble paying your balances, call the credit card companies. It's likely that they have several programs to help you pay less today to get caught up, or lower your interest rate, or provide some other way for you to cope with high balances. After all, they want to be repaid! Most of the time they will work with you, and for the companies that refuse, switch your balance to another, lower rate card if you can, or make sure you pay that company off first.

If your do it yourself credit fix program includes prioritizing your debt and paying more than the minimum monthly payments, you will be well on your way to improving your credit score on your own and save cash in the process.