Being in the mortgage business for the past 15 years I get worn out and beat down by fly by night credit repair companies that promise the world. I've heard everything from "We can improve your buyer's credit scores by over 100 points in less than 30 days" to "Our credit repair company removes bankruptcies in no time at all."

With our nation's economy in the toilet, people's debt loads are on the rise. Many people are having problems just making minimum payments. Some aren't even doing that. As a result the demand for credit repair has increased. Along with it we are seeing a rise in credit repair scams.

Pretty tough not to be seduced by an ad promising to wipe out your collections, charge offs, even foreclosures! BEWARE!!! If it's too good to be true, it probably is. Wouldn't it be nice to just max out every credit card in your wallet, never make a payment and then have a credit repair company just wipe it out as if it never happened. I'm sorry folks. If the debt is legitimate, YOU OWE IT!

On the other hand, 1 in every 4 credit reports contains errors. Errors such as data entry can cripple your credit score. Think about someone with a similar name who's crummy pay habits are being reported as you. Then there's the unthinkable yet fastest growing crime in American of identity theft.

Now you've got a realistic claim against a creditor. What should you do? You could call a credit repair company who, for a fee will obtain your credit report, identity the errors and write dispute letters for you. Or you could do it yourself for free. The Fair Credit Reporting act says that anyone can dispute mistakes on their credit report for free.

There are many sites out there that offer free credit reports. Pick one, get your credit scores and see if you've got errors on your credit report. Since everyone these days are looking at your credit scores you could end up resolving an unknown problem and saving thousands of dollars on your next big purchase.

Don't let yourself get caught up in a shady credit repair outfight that's promising to improve your credit scores. No one has the right to remove accurate information from a credit report. They can't do anything that you can't do for yourself. Save that money and use it to pay down your debt.