Credit Repair VS Credit Building

You may be someone who’s in need of a credit score boost. Maybe your credit score is not where you would like it to be. You may be planning on purchasing a home in the near future, or even a vehicle. Whatever the case may be, you’re looking for ways to improve your credit score. If you’re coming from a place desperation, you may even be willing to pay thousands of dollars for someone to repair your credit for you. However, before you do, make sure you read this post in its entirety.

More often than not, you’ll come across social media post and pages regarding credit repair, even if you don’t go looking for them. Credit scores are a big part of personal finances. When people mention personal finances, they usually mention investing, savings, or credit scores. The topic of credit is just about unavoidable, except in personal finance avenues that revolve around being debt free. Websites such as the Federal Trade Commission consumer information even stress the importance of credit. Are credit scores a big deal? Of course they are. I’ll lend some assistance to you while giving you some pros and cons to help you decide if credit repair or building your own credit is the best option for you.

Is credit repair for you?

Credit repair is when you pay a business money to repair your credit. Normally, you shouldn’t pay a credit repair business anything until you see results. A lot of credit repair companies follow this practice. The con about credit repair is it can sometimes be pricey. Normal credit repair usually charges people between $50-$150 per month, although prices do vary. The results often vary as well. Credit repair is not a guarantee to achieving an excellent or even good credit score. The process usually takes months and personal effort by the client in order to see real results.

There are benefits to having your credit repaired by a business.

• You will have someone handle the dirty work such as account disputes.
• Your credit repair consultant may be similar to a teacher in some cases.
• The results for a credit score increase are sometimes instant.
• While its not guaranteed and results may very, you may see a nice increase to your credit score.

Is building your own credit the better option?

When I started my credit journey I had the choice between paying for credit repair or building my credit score on my own. I weighed my options, did as much research as possible, and decided to build my own credit. Honestly, my credit journey took about 4 years before I received the results I wanted. Of course, I set my goals pretty high in terms of where I wanted my credit score to be. To be fair, I’ll say it took me two and a half years to achieve good credit after starting off with poor-fair credit. However, having good credit wasn’t my end goal. I wanted an excellent credit score and that took time.

The pros and cons of building your own credit score

One of the biggest cons of building your own credit score is the amount of time and patience it takes to do so. As I previously stated, in order to see solid results you’re going to have to put in a lot of effort. The results will not come automatically when you’re building up your credit score. It takes effort, time, and dedication, but most of all it takes patience. That news may come as a shock to the people who believe they’ll achieve good credit instantly by having accounts disputed and deleted. There are a lot of pros to building up your credit on your own though. Here are some of them:

• You can use the money you would have spent for a credit repair company and invest it elsewhere.
• Learn as you go. You will learn more about the concept of credit and what affects your own score.
• You’ll have hands on experience for future reference, even after you’ve built up your credit score.
• You’ll learn enough to help family and loved ones build up their credit score.
• You can take credit for your score increasing.

Choose what suits you best

Whether you’re team credit repair or team build your own credit score, you have to decide which option works best for you. Make sure if you do choose credit repair, you decide to go with a company that has good reviews and will offer to do the work before you pay. If you decide to build your credit score on your own, be sure to practice patience and learn as much as possible. My book Strategies to Master Credit is a credit book that will not only teach you about the concept of credit, but also what can and won’t affect your credit score. I do not offer credit repair services. All of the information I believe you need to improve your score is available in my book. For either option results may vary.

Be sure to check out my book: Strategies to Master Credit.

Darnell R. McKinnon