Hi Andy. Welcome
For #1......they are talking about goodwill letters. This is basically a letter explaining your situation as to why you were late on your acct and begging for the notation on your CR to be removed. It has worked with many people.
Here is a thread that may help......plus it has a sample letter.
GWing lates?
For #2....It sounds like they are just talking about negotiating the status of your acct.....which is more than likely a charge off or near charge off acct (or other form of negative reporting). Not sure what
their methods for this are but anyone can try and talk to a creditor, arrange payment plan and possibly have the negative info removed. It really depends on the creditor.
You always want to try and talk to a creditor before an acct reaches charge off status.....and there are some creditors that have rehab programs that can bring your acct to a positive status. You would just need to either call and talk to them or write them.
A lot of the things that credit repair companies do.......you
can do yourself. It just takes a little time educating yourself and reading up on the laws so that you understand what you are doing. It's not hard at all........but it can be time consuming and I believe that's why most people will turn to CROs.
Hope that helped answer some of your questions.