Credit bureau disputes are at the core of most credit repair efforts and for some consumers and even professional credit repair companies, their credit repair efforts start and end here. For some, this can be an effective strategy.

When you are disputing a negative item on your credit reports with a credit reporting agency (credit bureau), you are essentially saying “I don’t feel this negative item is being reported fairly and I would like for you to perform an investigation in order to verify that it should be included in my credit file.” This can be done by filling out and submitting a form on the credit bureau’s website, by phone, or by mail, which is the recommended method. After receiving your dispute, the credit bureau first has to determine whether your dispute is legitimate or is “frivolous or irrelevant” (exactly what this means is at the discretion of the bureau). The legitimate disputes are then investigated by contacting the original furnisher of the reported information and requesting that the verify the listing is correct. The credit bureau have 30 days (although they tend to stretch this out) to perform this investigation after which they must delete the negative item if the original furnisher is unable or unwilling to verify its accuracy.

In many cases, credit bureau disputes are much more successful at removing negative items from your credit report than you would expect. Aside from the fact that many credit reports contain errors that cannot be verified, the fact that many information furnishers simply don’t have the capacity or the desire to respond to credit bureau verification requests means that disputed items are frequently deleted even when they describe something like a late payment or repossession that actually happened.

On the other hand, when a negative item ends up on your credit report because a creditor has bad information on their books (they say you were late on a payment when you never were), credit bureau disputes may be worthless when it comes to getting this error removed from your credit report. The credit bureau receives your dispute, requests verification from the original creditor, they check their inaccurate records and verify the negative listing, and you are no closer to having that inaccurate negative credit listing removed than when you started.

While credit bureau disputes may be effective, you could make the argument that they don’t work well. Credit bureau disputes can result in accurate negative information being removed from your credit reports while genuine errors continue to count against your credit score.

So what can you do if you have errors on your credit reports that keep getting verified and remain listed on your credit reports? You evolve to the next phase of credit repair which is dealing directly with the furnishers of the information in your credit reports. It’s time to bypass the credit bureaus and talk to the lenders, credit card companies, and courts that are reporting to them.

There are a number of tactics for getting your creditors to stop reporting negative information about you to the credit bureaus ranging from simply asking nicely for them to remove the listing from your credit report (goodwill negotiations), to more forcibly demanding that they prove to you that what they are reporting is accurate (information requests), to forcing them to jump through certain hoops to prove you owed them a debt in the first place (debt validation). When combined with credit bureau disputes, this full arsenal of credit repair tactics tends to produce the best results helping you remove more negative items from your credit reports in less time. For this reason, it is little surprise that most of the major credit repair companies like Lexington Law, MyCreditGroup, and Academy Credit now offer direct creditor interventions along with standard credit bureau disputes.

Insurance premiums combine to make up a substantial portion of most American’s monthly bills. Between home insurance, car insurance, health insurance, and others, it is likely that you are paying many hundreds of dollars every month to protect yourself from the worst case scenarios that life sometimes throws at us.

But while carrying the proper amount of insurance is very important step in ensuring your long term financial stability (an estimated 60 of all bankruptcies results from medical bills), there are steps you can take to lower your monthly insurance premiums so you will save money while not sacrificing coverage.

Repair Your Credit Score

Over 90 percent of major auto insurance providers take your credit score into account when determining auto insurance premiums. Why? Because studies have shown that on average, people with lower credit scores file more claims and in turn cost insurance companies more money. For this reason, if your credit score is hurting, expect to pay more for car insurance regardless of your driving record.

If your credit score is less than desirable, you may be able to repair it either by yourself or with the help of one of the many quality credit repair companies operating today. And as an added bonus, after improving your score, not only will you be able to qualify for lower insurance premiums, but you’ll be able to save even more money via lower interest rates on credit cards and loans.

Get a Home Security System

Just like your car insurance provider will lower rates based on safety features in your car such as air bags and anti-lock brakes, home insurance providers will also reward risk reducing features in your home such as a home alarm system. If you already have a home security system, make sure your insurance company knows about it. If not, there are many good reasons to consider installing one on top of lowering your insurance rates. Even if you don’t end up saving money since in many cases the money saved on insurance will be offset by the monthly monitoring fees, you’ll still have the benefits of having a security system such as decreased odds of a break-in, intrusion detection, and fire alarms that will dispatch to your house even if you are not at home.

Bundle Multiple Insurance Products

Many insurance providers will offer a discount of 5 to 15 percent if you purchase two or more policies from them. Ask about discount for bundling and see if the cost of having multiple policies through one company is lower than carrying comparable policies with a variety of insurance providers. And while you are at it, if you have been with one insurance company for a number of years, see if you can get an additional discount for being a long-term policyholder.

Having a collection account on your credit report is always a bad thing. Even an isolated collection listing can lower your credit score enough that you won’t be able to get approved for low interest rate loans which can end up costing you a significant chunk of change. A lone collection account which may have been for only a hundred dollars or so could amount to many thousands of dollars when you factor in higher interest rates and higher car insurance premiums because of the effect it has on your credit score. For this reason, before applying for a new home loan or other type of credit, it is advisable to try getting collections accounts removed from your credit reports.

If you have a small number of paid collections on your credit reports that are of a relatively small value, you’ll want to start by sending the collections agencies a goodwill letter. Goodwill letters are you asking the collections agency nicely to stop reporting the collection account to the credit bureaus. And while this may seem like a futile attempt, goodwill letters have proven to be surprisingly effective credit repair tactic.

When writing a goodwill letter, the goal is to humanize your situation and make the person on the receiving end of the letter feel bad for your predicament. A sample goodwill letter to a collections agency might read as follows.

“Dear Sir / Madam,

Last year I received a parking ticket during the last week of school because I was running late and had to take the first spot I could find. In the confusion of finals week, the semester break, and the start of a new semester, I neglected to pay the fine and it was sent to your collections agency. Immediately upon receiving notice from you, I paid the amount in full.

My husband and I recently began shopping for a new home and have discovered that the negative listing on my credit report is hurting our ability to get approved for some financing. I’m writing to ask if you would kindly remove the collection listing from my credit report.

Best regards,

Jane Doe”

Sometimes it is as easy as that: a short, simple, non-threatening letter written in a friendly tone. If the letter does its job, your credit reports look that much better and your credit score can see a sizable improvement. If not, worst case scenario you are out the time it took to write the letter and the cost of first class postage.

One thing to remember is to make sure you do not try to use this method to remove an unpaid collection account. Not only will it not work, but it could make matters much worse for you. This seems like a common sense rule, but it is something people sometimes do not think about, especially if they are enlisting the help of a credit repair company to help clean up their credit reports.

Late payments on your credit reports are never a good thing. Exactly, how much a late payment affects your credit score depends on how late you are and how many late payments you have, but every late payment is negative and your credit score would be in better shape if they were removed from your credit reports.

The credit bureaus are allowed to report a late payment on your credit reports for up to 7 years, but this does not mean a late payment MUST remain on your credit reports for that long. There are a number of things you may be able to do to get a late payment permanently removed in much less time.

Ask and You May Receive

If you have minor late payments on your credit report, your creditors may be willing to stop reporting it to the credit bureaus as a thank you for being a customer and to ensure your ongoing business. If your account is in good standing, try calling your creditor and asking them to stop reporting the late payment. If they are not willing to or you are unable to reach someone with the authority to do so, try also sending a brief but polite follow-up letter reiterating your request.

Disputing Late Payments

If your creditor is unwilling to remove the late payment, which will probably be the case if you have been late multiple times or have accounts that were not paid until 90 or 120 days past their due date, there are still other things you can try.

If you feel that the late payment is unfairly lowering your credit score (is misleading or unclear) or is inaccurate (not yours, wrong information, duplicate listing, etc.), you can dispute it with the credit bureaus. You can submit a credit dispute online via the individual credit bureau websites, however, credit repair experts suggest writing your disputes and mailing them via certified mail. That way you have a record of your disputes and verification that they were received.

Upon receiving your disputes, the credit bureaus have 30 days to verify that the late payment is being reported accurately. If they are unable to do so for any reason, then the late payment must be corrected or deleted from your credit reports.

Getting Help Deleting Late Payments

Getting late payments removed from your credit reports is not always easy, especially if you have a number of late payments which many people looking to repair their credit score do. For this reason, many people turn to professional credit repair companies to help clean up their credit reports.

Because credit repair companies have the knowledge and experience gained from helping a large number of people delete late payments, they will likely be able to generate better results in less time than if you were to work to clean up your credit yourself. On top of that, the best credit repair companies will be able to employ a number of other advanced credit repair tactics not discussed in this article.

The last thing someone with a low credit score needs is yet another financial setback which is just one reason why credit repair scammers are such a cancer in the credit world. They promise the world to people who are desperate for a good credit score and at a minimum, leave them lighter in the pocketbook with zero improvement to their credit. And at worse, they can lower people’s credit score, get them sued, or even get them in legal trouble.

Credit repair scammers have also managed to damage the reputation of the the entire credit repair industry causing consumers, companies, and officials to doubt even the best credit repair companies, many of which have been in business for a decade or more and combined have helped millions of people legally increase their credit scores. And perhaps this is the worst thing about credit repair scams; they keep people who could truly benefit from credit repair services from giving it a try. For every person who does get taken by a credit repair scam, there are probably dozens more who have avoided all credit repair companies because of the fear of being taken.

But this does not have to be the case. There are signs you can use to detect a credit repair scam and by being aware of what to look out for, you can weed out the shady companies and find a credit repair company you can trust.

Here are four warning signs of a credit repair scam:

Get a Clean Credit Report

This gets pitched as the ultimate way to get rid of bad credit. Instead of trying to clean up your existing credit reports, these scammers claim to be able to help you get a brand new credit report. And while they may be able to do so by tricking the credit bureaus to generate a new report using a fake Social Security number, having that new credit report will not solve your credit problems. Not only will you still have poor credit (no credit does not equal good credit), but if you attempt to use your new credit report to get a loan or other line of credit, you are breaking the law. You could end up with the same poor credit score plus a criminal record.

Require aLarge Upfront Payment

Thieves want to get your money and get away. They’ll break your car window, grab the stereo and run. They’ll come through your back door, head straight for the jewelry and get out of the house before anyone is the wiser. Credit repair scammers can be the same way. They’ll take all the money upfront, often times many hundreds or thousands of dollars, and while they may pretend for a while to be doing something to help you, they already have what they want and are merely covering their tracks. Any company that requires you to pay hundreds of dollars before they will do anything for you should be avoided.

No Contract

You have a right to know what a credit repair company is going to do for you, how much it will cost, and when you will be expected to pay. You also have a right to know all the fine print surrounding any guarantees and to know exactly what the cancellation procedure is. And because of this, the Credit Repair Organizations Act requires that credit repair companies provide you with a written contract that must be signed before any credit repair work can begin. Simply put, if a company does not have a contract, they should not have your business.

Cash Transactions Only

What better way to get away with a con than to make sure you get all your profits in cash? There’s no paper trail and no method for charge backs. Once you have the money, it is up to the other person to prove not only that you acquired it fraudulently, but they also have to prove exactly how much you have taken. And for a few hundred dollars, most of the time, it simply isn’t worth the work which is a perfect situation for a credit repair scammer. These days, unless you are the neighborhood lawnmower, just about every legitimate company accepts credit. Be very skeptical of any credit repair company that does not.

There is a type of company that, even though it is regulated by federal legislation and has been in existence for decades, is among the most denigrated in the country. Despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of Americans have been benefited by the services provided by the companies and individuals who comprise the industry, there are still people who are convinced that the whole industry is a farce and any company operating within it is a con-artist.

After seeing the main heading of this article, it is pretty obvious the industry we’re talking about here is the credit repair industry. Despite the fact that the oldest credit repair companies have been around for 20 years, that credit repair companies have been able to help people delete millions of negative items from their credit reports, and that the federal government created the Credit Repair Organizations Act in order to regulate the credit repair industry and not to wipe it out, there are so-called “experts” in the media, in major corporations, and in government positions that claim that any company who offers credit repair services is trying to take advantage of you.

There are a few reasons why people believe credit repair services are a scam. For starters, there have been far too many “credit repair” clinics whose goal really was to scam people. These clinics promised the world but ended up just taking people’s money. Left and right people were getting suckered by these con jobs to the point that the media and legal attention these clinics received was large enough to put a shroud over the entire industry. Instead of spending the time to separate the good services from the bad, many people simply opted to believe that the entire industry was fraudulent.

And making this conclusion was pretty easy because there are some pretty massive institutions that want people to believe that credit repair companies are not to be trusted. And who are these institutions? They are the credit bureaus who manage your credit file and the lenders who make use of your credit score. The credit bureaus do not want people to try to clean up their credit report. It’s bad for business. The credit bureaus make money by receiving information about you, assembling it in a report, and selling it. Credit repair causes them to have to do additional work that costs them money and when you are dealing with hundreds of millions of credit reports, it would cost them dearly if everyone out there started working to clean up their credit. On the other hand, many lenders such as credit card companies don’t want you to clean up your credit because when you increase your credit score, they cannot demand as high of interest payments. So, given the scale of the companies that would prefer you didn’t attempt to repair your credit and the fact that their profits are on the line, it is little wonder that when people look to confirm their concerns about credit repair services, they are able to find plenty of information. Also factor in the budgets these organizations can dedicate to lobbying lawmakers and planting stories in media outlets and there is little wonder why the proliferation of anti-credit repair information dwarfs anything from the pro-credit repair crowd.

When looking at all these factors it is easy to see why so many people believe that there is no such thing as credit repair and why it is so difficult to convince them otherwise.

Someday the situation may change. Each day, as more and more people are able to successfully improve their credit score with help from credit repair companies there is a broader base of people who know credit repair works to contend with the population that believes it does not. But until there are enough success stories to turn the tide, those who do their research, find a reputable credit repair company, and work to fix their credit will be the fortunate few because their credit scores will look that much better than those of the people who will do nothing.

As you get started with learning about fixing up your creditscore, you will find that there are a variety of types of credit repair letters you may need to write. Unfortunately, there is no perfect credit repair letter that will work for all people in all circumstances. Instead, you’ll need to find the appropriate letter for your situation.

Credit Repair Letters

Listed below are a few examples of types of credit repair letters you may come across as you attempt to fix your credit reports. This is not an exhaustive list, but it does give you a general idea of the variety of letters you may need to write.

Credit Bureau Dispute

This is the letter that most people think of when they think of credit repair. The credit bureau dispute is you telling a credit bureau that you would like them to confirm the accuracy of an account listed in your credit reports. In a credit bureau dispute, you are basically telling the credit bureau they need to prove that an item is accurately listed on your credit report. If they are unable do so, then the account must be corrected or removed.

By law, you can dispute any items that are inaccurate or, in your opinion, give others an unfair impression of your creditworthiness. You should not dispute items that are accurate and verifiable.

Credit Bureau Dispute Follow-up

The same laws that grant you the right to dispute your credit reports also state that the credit bureaus are supposed to process your dispute and follow up with you within 30 days, but this often times does not happen. You may need to follow-up your initial dispute letter with another letter stating that you have already sent in a dispute, that you should have received a reply by now, and again detailing which item or items you are disputing. This letter lets the credit bureau know you are serious about correcting your credit and you will not give up just because you don’t hear back.

Goodwill Letter

Not all negative items can be disputed with the credit bureaus. Plus, just because you dispute an inaccurate item doesn’t necessarily mean it will be deleted. Sometimes you will have to work directly with the creditor who is reporting the negative item.

The goodwill letter is the least confrontational of these credit repair letters to creditors. In a goodwill letter you are asking nicely for the creditor to remove a negative item. You can bring up your current good standing with the creditor or ask for sympathy because of the effect the listing is having on your credit rating in your request for the deletion.

Debt Validation Letter

If a credit bureau dispute doesn’t do the job and your creditor is not receptive to your playing nice, it’s time to play hardball.

By taking advantage of your rights under a number of consumer protection statutes, you can make creditors and collections agencies have to prove that a debt is owed by following specific protocols set forth by these laws. As is the case with the credit bureaus, if they are unable or unwilling to do so, the negative accounts must be deleted from your credit reports.

Getting Help with Credit Repair

After researching credit repair, or even after beginning the process of cleaning their own credit reports, people often times see how difficult credit repair can be. Fortunately, there are many reputable credit repair companies out there who have the knowledge and the experience to help make the process simple and effective.

Shopping for a credit repair service is no easy task. Contrasting the quality of services provided by two different credit repair companies is no picnic to start with and then when you take into account the fact that a small percentage of people know very much about credit repair in the first place, it is plain to see why so many consumers have a difficult time confidently selecting which credit repair company to sign up with.

Add to this the volumes of bad information floating around regarding credit repair and the decision of which company to chose becomes even more difficult. No longer is it just about narrowing down a company, there is the added element of deciding whether or not to use a credit repair company at all. So afraid of getting duped by a credit repair scam, many consumers instead choose to do nothing about their bad credit.

But for those who do realize that the legitimate credit repair companies really are able to help people, something that the many thousands of people who have successfully cleaned up their credit reports with the assistance of a credit repair service can attest to, it becomes a challenge to figure out which company to trust. As would be expected, each company claims to be the best choice so, trying to get unbiased information about the services of credit repair companies, many begin researching credit repair review sites as well as websites featuring company complaints.

This may appear to be a good idea, but as many people have noticed, rarely are these reviews sites unbiased. Sites like CreditRepairReviews.net and CreditRepairCompanyReview.com are almost certainly maintained by the very companies they endorse, and sites like TopConsumerReviews.com and BlemishFreeCredit.com are operated by affiliates of the companies they reviewed. Now, this is not to say that the reviews on these sites have no value, but it is important for you to keep in mind that they are likely biased towards whichever affiliate offer pays out the best.

Also keep in mind that this bias goes beyond reviews sites that have positive things to say. You also need to think about the source of complaints on sites such as RipOffReport and the BBB. Sometimes these complaints come from competing companies, unhappy customers who misrepresent the facts, or potentially from the website operators themselves. RipOffReport, probably the biggest name in whistle blowing on the internet, has been accused multiple times of listing inaccurate or embellished negative information about companies which for them is a very lucrative business model since they have charged companies $50,000 or more to clean up these damaging listings.

So instead of basing your decisions on what may be false credit repair reviews, it is worth the effort to education yourself about credit repair and the services credit repair companies provide. Then, set aside an afternoon to call a number of credit repair companies so you can get an idea of how responsive they are and how professionally they conduct themselves.

FICO – More Than Meets the Eye

Fair Isaac and Company is the developer of the FICO score, the credit score used by most lenders today. The exact formula is not published, but Fair Isaac offers a breakdown of the categories of influence, and the relative importance of each. The breakdown is a helpful starting point for anyone in credit repair mode who wishes to optimize his or her scores, but it is only a starting point…

Credit Repair and the Logic of FICO

If you are in a credit repair program and aspire to optimize your credit scores it is handy to understand the logic behind the scenes. Fair Isaac is in the business of providing lenders with a measure of the risk they will incur in lending you money. Fair Isaac has spent years analyzing the implications of every measurable behavior and developed a formula to communicate risk with a single number. Here is a breakdown of the components of the FICO score along with some powerful tips you can apply to your own credit repair efforts.

Pay History

Your pay history makes up 35 percent of your score. Clear enough, but let’s take a moment to understand the implications. A late payment is an indication of financial stress. Financial stress translates into risk of default, and FICO communicates this risk to lenders by reducing your credit score. A lower credit score says, “don’t lend to this person.” But there is more involved. FICO weighs recent late payments more heavily than older late payments. A brand new late payment can send your credit score to a level that no lender will consider. On the other hand, anyone in credit repair mode should be happy to hear that the impact of a late payment fades quickly as time goes by.

Balances – Installment

Your account balances make up 30 percent of your score. Both installment and revolving accounts are considered. Let’s take a quick look at installment debt before discussing the far more important category of revolving debt. When installment debt, such as a car loan, appears on your credit report FICO sees it as an unknown and drops your score to warn lenders of the new risk. After a few months FICO acknowledges your ability to manage the payments and adjusts your score accordingly. Not a big credit repair concern.

Balances – Revolving

Revolving balances are tricky and may hinder or help your credit repair efforts more than you think. You can clean up your credit report, pay your bills on time, and still end up with a miserable credit score. FICO puts a huge emphasis on the relationship between your balance and your high credit limit. The latest FICO model acknowledges six balance-to-limit ratios: 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, and the deadly over-100 percent category. The two lower tiers will increase your scores, the middle tier is neutral, 80 percent is bad, 100 percent is awful, and as for the deadly over-100 percent category – I think you get the message.

Credit Repair and Your Balances

People often get a credit card, and quickly use it to the limit. Sounds like fun! Unfortunately, a new account with a high balance is credit repair suicide. The new account warns FICO about unknown stress on your budget, and the high balance says that you are out of control. This may not be the case, but big brother is watching and he doesn’t like what he sees. But there is some good news too. If you take that same new account and keep the balance below 20 percent of your high credit limit for 6 months FICO will think you are fantastic and reward you accordingly. This is solid credit repair gold.

The Age of Accounts

This category makes up 15 percent of your score. There are a few credit repair angles here. There is nothing you can do about the age of installment debt; when it’s paid, it’s done. But revolving accounts are a different story. FICO loves old accounts as much as it worries about new ones. Many people start a credit repair effort and cut up their credit cards; a strategic error. Generally you would be advised to keep your accounts open. There are exceptions. If you have lots of established credit cards you should close the inactive ones. There is a bit of a balancing act; too many cards work against your score.

New Credit and Inquiries

This category weighs in at 10 percent of your score. If you are planning to apply for a mortgage or a car loan soon, or are in a credit repair program and watching your scores, you should minimize your credit activity. New accounts will reduce your score, and an inquiry is interpreted as the intent to open a new account, so FICO will downgrade you to warn prospective lenders that there may be trouble ahead.

Type and Mix of Credit

This is the final 10 percent of the calculation, and not much of a credit repair concern. FICO does not publish their idea of the optimal mix of credit, but if you really want to know what the perfect 850 credit score looks like, here you go! One mortgage over 5 years old, two car loans more than halfway through their life span, and five credit cards over five years old with balances under 20 percent of the high credit limit will take you to the summit!

Copyright 2007 James W. Kemish. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/credit-articles/credit-repair-credit-score-secrets-425150.html

About the Author
Jim Kemish, a nationally recognized credit repair and restoration expert, is the president and founder of Sky Blue Credit, a leading credit repair service since 1989. Jim is also the president of Power Mortgage, a Florida mortgage company based in Delray Beach, Florida.

As is the case with everyone, you have 3 options when confronted with a low credit score: you can take the time to learn how to fix your own credit, you can pay someone to do it for you, or you can do nothing and wait years for your credit to get better on its own.

Since you are reading this let’s assume you’ve decided you want to do something about your credit so option three really isn’t an option. Good for you, most people don’t get that far. Most people with a bad credit score think their situation is hopeless.

So now your two choices are to try to fix your credit reports on your own or to get help. There are pros and cons to each.

Repairing your credit by yourself is probably the best way to learn the credit system, how the credit bureaus work, and how your credit score is derived. This is knowledge that, once acquired, will be useful for the rest of your life. And in addition, fixing your credit on your own is something you can do at very little cost. But repairing your credit on your own does have drawbacks. Credit repair is not always simple, especially when you have a long way to go. The credit bureaus make it seem like addressing negative listings on your credit reports is as simple as submitting a form online, but make no mistake, those forms are for their benefit, not yours. For someone new to credit repair, effectively repairing a poor credit rating is going to take a lot of learning and a lot of time communicating with credit bureaus, creditors, collections agencies, etc. There is a reason why so many people who try repairing their own credit eventually turn to a credit repair company to finish the job.

Good credit repair organizations have put forth the time and energy involved in learning the credit repair process and will be able to get started right away. will also be able to give you advice about other steps you can take to improve your credit score such as managing your credit accounts.

Ultimately, many people see better and faster results when using a credit repair company.This is not to say that there are no cons to using a credit repair company. Aside from the fact that a credit repair service is going to require a fee that will likely total many hundreds of dollars and you will not be getting the first-hand knowledge of how your credit works, there are unfortunately certain risks when dealing with credit repair companies. All too many credit repair companies are fly-by-night shops in the business of taking people’s money and not doing much in return. That’s why on creditrepaircompare.com we have provided the article that talks about things to watch out for when shopping for a credit repair service.

At the end of the day, what to do about bad credit is a choice you will have to make yourself. A good suggestion would be to start by calling a few credit repair services and get a better feel of your options. CreditRepairCompare.com provides links to some credit repair companies we recommend and you can find many others with a quick Google search. Then, if you think you would rather work to repair your credit on your own, spend some time on the various credit repair forums. There you will be able to find many do-it-yourselfers who have fashioned themselves into experts in self credit repair.