Beware of these common claims made by credit repair companies:

• "We can erase bad credit":  The truth is that no one can erase bad credit information from your report if it is accurate.
• "Only we can remove old or inaccurate information": The truth is that if there are legitimate errors on your report or information that is old, you can correct the report yourself without paying a lot of money to one of these companies.  "Legitimate errors" means that the information is inaccurate, not just that it is information you don't like.
• "Old information" means credit information older than 7 1/2 years, or bankruptcy information older than 10 years.

"The information on your report is accurate but we'll erase it anyway":  The truth is that if this means lying to the credit reporting agency, it is illegal.