This question has probably been asked, and answered on this board countless times, but I'll give my two cents. In my humble opinion, I don't think credit card companies can do anything for you that you can't do for yourself.
I agree whole-heartedly and feel pasionately on this one so I'll join Jasper, despite this being a few days older. They use the same laws, same tactics, and same letters you do--*IF* they are ligitimate. Many, if not most are just document mills, sending the same letter to the same creditors and bureaus on behalf of thousands of clients each month. They largely have the same chances of getting inaccurate information removed as you do. While they are specifically prohibited by the Credit Repair Organization Act from stating otherwise, they can through exploiting failings of the system have negative accurate information removed. What they often fail to disclose is that by asking them to dispute accurate info you are commiting fraud. That warning being said there are very few credit repair organizations that do provide a valuable and worthwhile service. If your home was on the line, would you try to handle it yourself if you could instead have someone as talented as PsychDoc working hand in hand with you? This board itself is a testiment to the fact that much of credit repair attempts is about experience and perception. If you are willing to take the time, and make the effort to educate yourself then by all means do it yourself...you will be all the better prepared for any future events. If you find an attorny acting as a credit repair organization, or the rarest beast of them all, an upstanding credit repair company, their experiance could easily be worth the fees. Improving your credit score is more than removing negative information--it is a lifestyle change. It involves getting out of 'bad' debt for good, but keeping a very small (less than 10% of your net pay) amount of good financing to provide a track record for you borrow against should the need ever arise. "pop65" in a word, NO. Credit repair companies cannot or do not do as they say. There are a very small number of exceptions; but I would not that in a recent conversation with a prosecuting FTC attorney for credit repair organizations I was told that there may be a good credit repair company, but that the FTC had never seen one.
