When my credit starts to pick up after a credit cards settelment?

Question

i had to use credit solution to settle my credit cards debt ..i just want to know how long it takes after i settle for my credit score to improve..and also does anyone tried the credit repair companies and are they real...

Answer 1

Yes, there are legitimate credit repair services out there. Otherwise, there would be no credit repair services with positive BBB ratings and the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) would make credit repair companies illegal instead of simply regulating how they can operate (ie protect you from being scammed). Put simply, the FTC would not allow the hundreds of credit repair companies across the nation to continue with their business if the whole industry was a scam.



Hundreds of thousands of people have seen great success with credit repair companies so trust them before you trust blanket statements like "all credit repair companies are scams".

In the U.S., the law gives you the right to dispute anything on your credit reports that you feel is inaccurate, misleading, biased, and a few others.  If you feel that any of the negative items on your credit report give lenders an unfair perception of your true credit worthiness, you have the right to dispute those items.

You can dispute these items yourself by ordering free copies of your credit reports and then sending dispute letters to each of the credit bureaus. However, if you are like most people and don't have the time to learn the applicable consumer credit laws or the time to experiment with the tactics for repairing your own credit, you can use one of the many legitimate credit repair organizations out there.

More information about shopping for a credit repair company can be found in the links below. Also included in the links below is a link to the Credit Repair Organizations Act that regulates how credit repair companies can operate.   Pay special attention to sections 404 and 405 as these sections explain what things a credit repair company can and cannot do as well as what your rights are when dealing with a credit repair company.

Of course, you could also just manage your finances responsibly for the next 7 years and wait patiently for your credit score to improve on its own.

Answer 2

In the UK, providing you don't take out any more credit cards/loans and miss any payments on existing ones, it generally takes 5 years for your credit file to return to a normal level.  That's assuming really bad debt (e.g. CCJ's etc).  Often it helps to show that you are capable of managing credit by having a card which you can use to make a small purchase each month and pay off the whole balance on time each month as well.

Different companies have varying standards of credit requirements so it will vary somewhat.

I can only assume the situation is similar in North America