If you are one of the millions of Americans struggling with poor credit brought forth by years of frivolous spending, then you should seriously consider hiring a credit repair business, or going the route of free credit repair. Poor credit comes about when a consumer meets at least one of the following criteria.

1. To many credit cards to be able to successfully keep up with all payments on time each month.

2. Only paying the minimum amount on your credit cards which forces interest to be kicked in if the amount is not eventually paid off in full.

3. Living above their means

For most debt stricken individuals you will find that they meet all three of the aforementioned criteria. Generally you will find users who, for whatever reason have decided that living with cash is not as fun as living with credit. Once the consumer falls into this pattern, they begin to pay lower monthly payments, due to the fact that they have to many credit cards to be able to satisfy all of the payments with. Luckily there is a solution to fixing poor credit, and it comes through the form of credit repair. Credit Repair is a process through which either a hired company, of the individual takes the time to make changes in their spending patterns as well as work with creditors to lower interest rates.

In a nutshell credit repair involves contacting the credit report companies and asking that any false statements on the credit report be removed. Although this sounds like something that may not happen very often, a consumer may often be surprised to find that more times than not, a credit report is an inaccurate presentation of the persons true credit profile. Secondly the consumer must begin to try and work with the creditor to lower the interest rate, based upon a payment plan that the two parties would agree to stick to until the balance has been paid. The process of repairing your credit is a long and arduous one although it is with good reason. Poor credit can hinder a persons ability to buy a car, home, or other utility, as well as rent any of those items.

Users who opt for free credit repair as opposed to outsourcing the work to a credit repair business are usually those who have so much debt piled up on their books, that they truly believe that there is no real way for them to afford a $500 or more debt care professional for hire.

At the end of the day the easiest, best, and most effective way to never have to deal with either free credit repair or the credit repair business is to follow these three rules.

1. Only have one credit card

2. Pay off that credit card in full every single month

3. Do not live above your means

As hard as it may be for people to accept the fact that they cannot purchase everything that they wish they could, the repercussions of a poor credit rating, and a stockpile of debt are not worth that gold watch, or new car.