There are a lot of companies out there that promise to repair your bad credit in exchange for a monthly fee and upfront costs. A lot of these companies promise the world and guarantee they will be able to help get your credit back on track.

That said, do service providers of bad credit repair actually work?

Many credit experts say no. This is likely because, in many cases, consumers look to repair services to remove bad info from their credit report - even when that information is accurate. If the information is accurate, it will take around 7-years from the date of delinquency for negative information to disappear. So hunker down and get ready to wait it out.

While consumers with accurate (and bad) credit information are left without options for repairing their bad credit outside of waiting, consumers who find inaccurate information that is also harmful can typically handle fixing their credit without the use of a third party.

That said, if you’re looking for a no-hassle approach to removing inaccurate information on your credit report and willing to pay for it - a credit repair service might be the right option.

Consumers interested in handling the repair of bad credit on their own should do download all three reports and review each one individually. When inaccuracies are uncovered, dispute them. When a negative report shows up that is outside normal time restraints, dispute them as well. Consult with any of the national credit bureaus to get the tips you need to dispute a claim. In most cases, you’ll have to go to the original creditor.

So, are bad credit repair services worth the investment to help repair get rid of the bad credit cards on your report? While this typically comes down to how much time you’re willing to invest in cleaning up your credit report on your own:

• If you’re trying to get rid of accurate information - NO.
• If you’re trying to get rid of inaccurate information - MAYBE.

Consumers should just be cautious when they hear of repair services promising to improve all three credit reports while they are still in the process of making up bad debts. Many times, these companies really are selling something “too good to be true.”