There are dozens of companies that will promise to repair your damaged credit, but you should be aware that they can’t deliver on those promises. The only thing that signing up with these companies will likely accomplish is that you’ll have even less money to work on your credit card debt.

While credit reports are not maintained by the federal government, there are some governmental controls over the way reports are kept. One of the rules is that the credit reporting agency has no right to remove a particular entry unless that entry is proven to be incorrect. That means that an agency that promises to repair your credit has no more power to do so than you have.

So does this mean you’re on your own?  Actually, there are two ways for you to tackle credit card repair. You can start working on repairing your credit on your own, or you can seek out a credit counselor. Credit counselors are non-profit agencies that will take you through a series of steps, including creating a budget and negotiating payments with your creditors. This might mean a new payment plan that you can meet so that your credit begins to look better almost immediately. But remember that credit repair is a long-term project and you’ll have to be diligent with your payment of credit card debt in order to keep the momentum going.