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A lot of these credit repair services do nothing more than take your hard earned money and then proceed to do what you can do yourself. That's if your lucky. Some will take your money and do nothing at all.

The best way to repair your credit is see where you are first in terms of your credit. Order a copy of your credit report from the three credit bureau agencies. This gives you a chance to see what debts you have and which are not paid on time.

Bad credit can stay on your credit file for as long as seven years depending on the severity. If you have a charged off account which means you did not pay on this account for as long as 4 to 6 months, this will remain on your file for seven years. How do you know if it is charged off? In some cases it will say it right on your credit report. (Charged off). Another way to tell is with the credit rating.

If you have a I-9 that means the account has been charged off. So the "I" means this was an installment loan such as an automobile loan, or a loan for furniture or appliances. Installment loans means you have monthly payments (equal monthly payments with the exception of the first or last - sometimes), and you have an assigned date when this loan will be paid. Maybe you took out a car loan for 60 months or five years. You know in five years, assuming you make all payments on time your loan will be paid off. So you know what the date is.

When you have an R-9 that means the account has been charged off as well. The "R" means this is a revolving account such as a credit card, or a gas card, or a department store account, such as Macy's, or Target, or Wal-mart. When you make purchases on revolving accounts you don't know what they payoff date is going to be, unless of course you pay your balances in full every month. However if you have a balance of $3,500 with an interest rate of 18% and you pay the minimum payment every month you really don't know when this account will be paid off. Of course there are computer programs that will compute this for you. However the point is these are revolving accounts. Your balance revolves from month to month.

The best way to clean up your credit is to start making payments on your debts. Anything you have not paid on for a period of seven years should fall off your credit report, with the exception of taxes owed, child support, student loans and government related loans, or tax lien judgments. These will always stay on your credit. If you did not pay on a credit card for seven years this will indeed fall from your credit report after seven years.

If you have something on your credit report which is not yours and you have no knowledge about it whatsoever, then you need to send in a letter to the credit report agency to dispute this item.

Learn more about this author, Melvin Richardson.
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