I always tell people to fix their own credit and use a credit repair agency in last case. But there are times that you need to use a credit repair agency. If you credit have to many negative items or if you already tried to fix your credit on your own once without success.

Credit agencies are a good option if you dont have the spare time to do it yourself. They have been around for a while, have credit repair experts and usually have a fast turnaround in repairing your credit. You just want to make sure to do your home work before settling with a credit agency. Make sure you ask how long they have been in business, what are their fees, and if they have references.

Credit repair agencies usually charges you a monthly fee for their work. They will first request your credit report from the 3 bureaus: Experian, Equifax and Transunion. Then they will review your credit report and start challenging the bureau to remove negative items.

Credit agencies have a well trained staff and they are very good in disputing negative items. The heart of the credit dispute are the dispute letters. When well written, credit dispute letters will remove items in the first try, but sometimes credit repair agencies have to dispute the same item couple of times.

Credit repair agencies are very professional when writing dispute letters. They are very efficient, persistent and professional at times. You should do your research before hiring a credit repair agency.

If your credit is not that bad and the only things that you need to remove is couple late payments and inquires, you could do that by yourself. It will be a great chance to learn the credit repair system, but if you have a lot of negative items on your credit report such as liens, collection agencies and repossessions and you are not too sure in what to do, perhaps a credit repair agency will be the best option.

My experience with credit repair agencies for the most part have been very positive. They removed bad items from my credit report and I experienced an increase in my credit score of 150 points. But there is always bad apples in any industry, so you want to research well before contracting a credit repair agency.