The first answer is “No.”

No. And we’ll go further: no one can, and federal regulators treat that promise as a hallmark of fraud. Scores respond to your entire file — payment history, utilization, age, new credit — not just the items anyone disputes. We publish the honest range of past client outcomes on our results page, including the 18% who saw no meaningful change. If a company guarantees a number, that’s your cue to leave.

Generally, no — accurate, verifiable, timely-reported items stay until their legal reporting window ends (usually seven years; ten for Chapter 7 bankruptcy). We dispute what’s inaccurate, unverifiable, or outdated, and occasionally a goodwill request works on an isolated slip. Anyone promising to erase accurate history is either lying or planning to re-dispute in circles on your dime.

Yes. Truly. You can get free reports from each bureau through the federally authorized annual-report site, dispute errors directly, and the bureaus must investigate — the same 30–45 day clock we work under. Our free DIY kit includes the letter templates we use ourselves. People hire us for thoroughness and follow-through, the way you might hire a preparer for taxes you could legally file alone.

Each dispute round takes 30–45 days by law, plus about five business days for results — so a single round runs six to eight weeks end to end. Most engagements take two to four rounds: three to six months total. Identity-theft cleanups can run longer. Any “results in 30 days” claim is arithmetic that doesn’t survive contact with the statute.

After the work. Credit-repair invoices arrive at the end of each month for the month just completed — the Credit Repair Organizations Act makes advance fees illegal, and we’d bill this way regardless. DMP fees start only after creditors accept your plan. Settlement fees are charged per executed settlement you approve. The review that starts everything is free.

Hiring help to dispute credit-report errors is legal and regulated by the federal Credit Repair Organizations Act: written contracts, honest advertising, a three-business-day right to cancel, and no advance fees. The industry’s bad reputation is earned — by advance-fee shops, guarantee peddlers, and CPN sellers. Our answer is this website: every claim ranged, every fee timed after the work, every “no” said out loud.

A “credit privacy number” is marketed as a fresh SSN-like identity for credit applications. Using one is fraud — often built on stolen Social Security numbers, frequently children’s. The seller keeps the fee; the buyer keeps the felony exposure. We turn away anyone who asks, and we’d rather lose the sale than watch you take that risk.

A DMP pays your debt in full at better terms: modest score impact, no tax surprise, 3–5 years. Settlement pays less than you owe on defaulted debt: real score damage, likely 1099-C taxable income, lawsuit risk while you save, 1–3 years. The honest sorting question is whether you can fund a realistic monthly payment. Our debt-relief page has the full side-by-side table, downsides included.

Yes — expect it. Settlement generally requires accounts to be (or go) delinquent while funds build, and “settled for less than owed” remains on your report for up to seven years. We model the damage with you before you enroll, not after. If a settlement pitch skips this question, the pitch is the product.

Possibly. Creditors generally report forgiven amounts of $600 or more to the IRS on Form 1099-C, and that amount may count as taxable income unless an exclusion (like insolvency) applies. We flag the likely 1099-C amount on every settlement offer we present and suggest you confirm with a tax professional. Nobody should discover this in April.

Federal law gives you an unconditional three business days to cancel a credit-repair contract — no reason, no penalty. Past that, our own policy is cancel-anytime with a note; you owe only for months already worked. There is no early-termination fee, because exit fees are how bad firms hold hostages.

People whose reports are accurate and recent (repair would waste their money), anyone on a too-tight deadline we can’t honestly meet, anyone asking for credit sweeps or CPNs, households where our fee would compete with rent, and cases where the math points to bankruptcy — those get an attorney referral, free. About one in four free reviews ends with us recommending something other than hiring us.