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for up to seven years and possibly longer if it is a tax lien or child support issue. The bottom line on credit repair companies is that they can't do anything that you can't do yourself.

Find a credit counseling service. If you are deep in debt and behind on payments sometimes a credit counseling service can be your best ally. Good credit counseling services will work with your creditors to establish a payment plan to pay back the outstanding balances over time. They will also negotiate to have the creditor stop reporting the item as past due on your credit report. Many times they are able to negotiate the removal of older reported late payments as a "goodwill gesture" after the balance has been paid in full.

Hire an attorney. Sometimes inaccurate information is hard to remove from your credit reports and in these cases an attorney may be able to help. Even if you know information is inaccurate the company reporting it may show it as accurate in their files and continue to update and verify the information with the credit bureaus. Many times a simple letter from an attorney can resolve the issue. If not, the attorney can file suit to force the creditor and credit bureau to correct the information.

Now that you know all of the possible ways to find and correct information you are ready to clean up your reports. Don't put it off, start today. You never know when you'll need to apply for new credit and keeping you reports clean now will help increase your chances of getting the credit you need later.

Learn more about this author, Dale G. Holmes.
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