HOW LONG DOES CREDIT REPAIR TAKE?

How long does credit repair take? That’s a question I get often from client prospects. That question is not measurable. Here’s how I always answer them, “It depends on what’s on your credit report”. Some credit repair companies, unfortunately, use illegal repair credit methods to get fast results.

However, these illegal methods, such as performing “credit sweeps”, can land you in jail. Stay away from companies advertising and guaranteeing fast results. A better question for them to ask me would be, “How soon are your clients seeing results?” or, “What’s the average points increase your clients are seeing?”.

Those questions are measurable. Any credit repair company looking to gain your business should be able to answer questions pertaining to past performance.

There is No Definitive Answer

Successful credit repair does not always mean your score will increase. For example, I had a client that had several collection accounts I was able to remove through my dispute process system and their credit scores did not go up, in fact, they no longer had a score.

Why did this happen you ask? It’s simple, that old saying you’ve heard before applies here, “no credit is the same as having bad credit”. Because my client only had the collection accounts I removed, once they were gone so was their credit history.

Remember, in order to have a score you have to have some type of credit history, or current credit lines, like credit cards or loans. I did my job but my client’s situation remained the same, if not worse.

They needed to build credit or add an authorized user account to start increasing their FICO scores. Again, how long does credit repair take? It depends. Credit repair alone may not solve your problem if you are looking to increase your credit scores. Make sure you have realistic expectations when you decide to repair your credit.

What is Your Mindset?

Whether you do it yourself or decide to use a credit repair company, just know it will take some time. And and in some cases a lengthy time. It’s not an overnight process. Get yourself into the right mindset. Think marathon, not sprint.

To reach credit restoration you will need to be focused, paying attention to detail and determined. There will be ups and downs. Make sure you are up for the challenge.

My clients will generally see results in the first 30-45 days because creditors only have 30 days to respond to the credit bureaus once your dispute is processed. Results may vary as the credit bureaus use stalling techniques to slow down your progress.

Not to mention the obstacles presented by their computer system they use to process and settle your disputes; E-OSCAR. Keep in mind your creditors are the credit bureaus client, you are not.

They are not on your side at all. All you have is yourself and/or the credit repair company you are using. That’s why you must keep your goals at the top of your mind and embrace the tug of war struggle you will have.

What is Your Credit Goal?

Setting goals in life are the key to success in my opinion. If you want to reach them bad enough, you will endure and persevere to obtain them. The first question I ask a potential client is “what are your credit goals? What are you looking to achieve?

I ask because I need to know the end game. What your why is.It could be just to have a great credit score, buy a new home, rent an apartment, or buy a new car.

Once that is established we can begin to go into more details and set expectations.

What is Your Current Credit Score?

I have clients that have low 500’s scores and want a 700 credit score in a few months. Essentially moving up 200 points in a few months. Let me be the first to tell you it is not going to happen. Now again, if you use illegal methods that’s possible, but legally, not as likely. 

Repairing credit can take time by itself, but the other hurdle is raising the credit, which only happens if you have a good payment history, low credit utilization and decent length of credit history.

In six months time, however, you can have made significant progress with all of this and increase your score by 100 points or more. Don’t forget, each dispute round takes at least 30 days to be completed. We have to see what is on your credit report

What is on Your Credit Report?

Going back to my answer, “It depends on what is on your credit report”, your current credit report will play a role in how long the process will take. Repairing several negative items will take some time due to the long and complex dispute cycle. It takes 30 days for a dispute cycle to complete, if your creditors verify a dispute you will have to wait another 30 days to get a result.

Your result may be an update, meaning the creditor updated the information. Updates can be good or bad, sometimes it means they increased a collection balance, or that they removed a negative mark.

If you have different types of negative items on your report that will take time as well. Items like inquiries, bankruptcies, charge-offs, tax liens, student loans, etc., can really add time to credit repair. These are not easy fixes. They do take considerable time to resolve.

How Fast Will You See Results?

As I mentioned before my clients will typically see results from our first round of disputes. You should too if you are disputing properly. There are no real guarantees but disputing items properly help your success rate for sure.

Do not try to sound like some expert and put a bunch of fancy words and drop law terminology on your dispute letter to the credit bureaus. That would be a mistake. They will mistake you for a credit repair company and use delay tactics to lengthen the process. Use informal sentences and simply state what you are disputing and provide the account info for the items you are disputing.

You must also put the reason for your dispute. For a sample dispute letter click here.

Free Credit Repair Consultation

Before service begins, first, we conduct a free credit repair consultation. This is so we can determine if you need credit repair service, or maybe you just need to learn how to build credit to increase your score, which is the case sometimes.

We learn more about you and your particular situation while conducting the credit consultation. Understanding your goals, setting proper expectations and auditing your current credit report is key to building a plan that helps you achieve credit worthiness.

If you would like to be scheduled for a free credit consultation please click here.

Conclusion

By now you know and understand that predicting a time of credit repair completion is difficult to do as there are so many variables involved.

To recap:

• Define your goals and objectives first!
• Make sure you have the right mindset before beginning your credit repair journey.
• Obtain a current copy of your credit report to audit for mistakes and negative items
• Keep in mind that it may take you six months to a year or longer to fully repair your credit.
• If you dispute properly you will see results within 30 days typically

Optional: Get a free credit consultation to get professional advice. Click here to schedule a free credit consultation.