With so many new and inexperienced credit repair providers entering the market, many of which are simply turnkey businesses using third party software to power their service, it becomes difficult to determine who you can trust with your credit reports. Here are three tips for spotting a quality credit repair company.

Working to clean up your credit is something you can do yourself at little or no cost. While this sounds enticing, the reality is that self credit repair is rarely as easy as it first seems. Effectively repairing your credit by yourself will probably take a significant amount of time and education.

The credit repair world can be a scary place. Given the abundance of news articles, television stories, and "expert" pieces warning of fraudulent credit repair services that get pushed out by well regarded media outlets, it can appear as if the only logical course of action is to steer clear of credit repair companies altogether - a course of action many news outlets seem to advocate.

Charge offs can take a serious toll on your credit score, so much so that a single charge off could result in denial of credit. If you are looking to increase your credit score, it is worth looking into the steps you can take in an attempt to remove a charge off from your credit file.

Collection accounts can take a serious toll on your credit rating, with higher collection amounts taking a large toll than smaller amounts. If you are looking to improve your credit score, it is worth it to look into the things you can do in an attempt to delete collections from your credit reports.

Late payments can take a serious toll on your credit rating, especially if payments are reported to be of 90 days late or more. If you're looking to improve your credit score, it is worth it to look into the steps you can take in an attempt to remove late payments from your credit file.

The Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) has established guidelines credit repair providers must abide by that you can use to help select a legitimate credit repair service and avoid being victimized by a credit repair scam.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act was passed to protect your right to fair and accurate credit reporting, but it is still up to you to work toward that goal. When working to fix your credit by disputing questionable items in your credit reports, you are enforcing this right.

Consumers have the ability to add a one-hundred word statement to your credit file in order to explain the circumstances behind any negative listings. While the concept is good, unfortunately it is very unlikely that this 100 word statement will have any impact on your ability to get a loan and there is zero chance that it will improve your credit score.

There are a few quick things you may be able to do to increase your credit score which could produce big returns for a small amount of work. But if your credit score is in need of a larger fix, it's going to take more than a quick credit fix.