Credit Recovery Help » Credit Bureaus

To Hire or Not to Hire a Credit Repair Company: That’s the Question

Admin — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:00:34 +0000

Let’s say you’re the type of person who’s constantly in debt, and what’s worse, you find it difficult to repay those debts. Or perhaps you’ve declared personal bankruptcy once too often. Or maybe you’ve been a victim of credit card fraud and found that your credit report has been adversely affected because of this. You’re at your wit’s end and are uncertain about what you should do. Can a credit repair company fix all these problems?

Sadly, the answer seems to be a big and resounding no. The majority of financial experts all seem to agree that one would be better off doing the legwork in attempting to repair his or her credit rather than paying a third party to do the fixing for him or her. Despite what most of them claim, a credit repair company can’t just wave a wand and make all your credit problems disappear like magic. If, however, there are inaccurate statements in your credit report, a credit repair company can help you. For a fee, representatives of the company will contact your creditors on your behalf to get errors in your credit report fixed. But then, this is something you can always do by easily yourself, so it isn’t advisable to spend money that you could use to repay part of the debts you have.

What you should be wary of are credit repair companies that promise to remove any and all blemishes in your credit report; even if these blemishes are verifiable, accurate, and not obsolete. If you really do have bad credit, not even the most popular credit repair companies can do anything about it. If any such company promises to fix your credit no matter how bad it may be and especially if the information in your credit report is correct, stay away from them. Most likely, they will use unsavory or downright illegal methods to accomplish this and your personal credit will be ruined.

One tactic they use is this: they will contact your creditors or credit bureaus and claim that the data in your credit report is inaccurate. Your creditors will naturally investigate these claims and while they are doing so, they will remove the “bad” information from your credit report. Meanwhile, you mistakenly believe that all bad credit information is removed from your report and are happy with the way things are going. True, if credit reporting agencies cannot verify the truth of an entry within 60 days, the offending data may be deleted from your report. But after your creditors finish their investigation and find the information to be accurate after all, the unfavorable data will be returned to your credit report – leaving you in the same boat you were in before, or even worse.

Take for instance two such companies: ICR Services Inc. and National Credit Education and Review. They were charged with fraud by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2003 for promising the impossible to consumers; they falsely claimed that they had a computer disk that could free a person’s credit report from notations of late payments, foreclosures, bankruptcies, and the like. Of course, such a disk did not even exist. These two companies did not admit to any guilt, but settled their case for $1.15 million.

So if a person needs to fix his or her credit status and wants to avail of the services of credit repair companies, what should he or she do? Well, you surely wouldn’t be helping the state of your personal credit any if you just go by the seat of your pants and hire the first credit repair firm you find on the Internet. First, you should make sure of your rights as a consumer under the Credit Repair Organizations Act by reading the booklet “Consumer Credit File Rights under State and Federal Law.” Find a reputable credit repair organization by contacting the Better Business Bureau and make sure that the organization you’re planning to hire clearly sets out in print the services they will be providing, the length of time it will take to accomplish what you’re hiring them to do, and a justification of the fees they’ll be charging.

Using a credit repair company to improve your credit rating is not your best bet; it’s not even a good bet at all, according to the experts. Remember that erase information in your credit report if that information is true and not out-of-date. Hiring one for that purpose would just be a waste of money.

About the Author
Credit-reparation.com provides you with information on credit related issues like credit repair company, annual credit report, credit scores and free credit report info. Take a look at http://www.credit-reparation.com/

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To Hire or Not to Hire a Credit Repair Company: That’s the Question

Free Credit Reports May be Hazardous to Your Credit Score

Admin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:26:57 +0000

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) of 2003 made sweeping changes to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). On the surface some of these changes seemed like a win for consumers. Take the ANNUAL FREE CREDIT REPORT clause for example. Wow! The Credit Bureaus are actually giving away free credit reports! What a deal! Big win for us consumers, right? Wrong.

If something looks to good to be true it usually is. Your free credit report is anything but free. The fee in this case is time. In exchange for consumers receiving a free credit report the credit bureaus receive an additional fifteen days (for a total of forty-five days) in which to investigate disputes derived from these reports. In contrast, if you obtain a credit report from your loan agent or for a fee online or even for free through a promotion and you dispute an item the bureaus are bound by the thirty day deadline to verify or delete the item in question.

You must remember what drives the credit reporting agencies…profits. And where are these profits derived from? They are derived from the credit industry. And how does the credit industry make money? By charging you interest. And what leads to them receiving higher rates of interest and therefore bigger profits? I think you may get the picture by now. This new legislation is a trade-off and the bureaus and credit industry are getting the Lion’s share of the benefit.

Think about it for a second. The thirty day deadline to investigate disputes puts a great deal of pressure on the system. The second the consumer dispute hits their desk the clock starts ticking. They must contact the creditor or creditors, inform them of the disputed information and receive a response within the thirty day period or by law the item must be deleted. By increasing the deadline by 33% would it be safe to assume that a comparable percentage of disputed items that would otherwise have been deleted will remain on the consumer credit report? Yes.

When you consider that millions of derogatory items are disputed on a monthly basis it is probably safe to assume that with this new legislation millions of items that would otherwise be removed from the bureaus will now remain. One late payment on your credit report could mean the difference between an A paper loan and a Sub-Prime loan. Depending on the situation this could equate to hundreds and sometimes over a thousand dollars per month in the form of an increased mortgage payment. If you move and happen to overlook a utility bill from your previous residence, cancel Christmas. Your credit score could plummet fifty to one hundred points from this simple mistake. And guess what, according to the bureaus you are stuck with the wreckage for seven years.

I am not some anti-government, anti-credit industry nut out to overhaul the system. So if you are a banking industry executive or FTC official please take note. In the grand scheme the system provides stability and security for our economy. There is no denying this. However, and this is a big however, the system is oppressive to consumers in its current state. Should someone be penalized thousands of dollars in increased interest for seven years because of an inadvertent mistake? I think not. Should the loss of a job, identity theft, an injury or the death of someone dear result in seven to ten years of oppressive discrimination? In my opinion it should not. Life happens and good people should not be made to suffer for a decade because of it. If you see legislation promoting the reduction of the time derogatory credit may be reported, support it.

Your right to dispute derogatory credit is the only edge you have in this big game. If you are serious about your credit rating you must adopt a proactive approach to maintaining it or improving it. Credit monitoring is a step in the right direction and usually comes with a free all bureau credit report and score. Remember, requesting your annual free credit report from the bureaus may put you at a disadvantage when it comes time to clean up your report.

About the Author
Tad MacPherson is a credit specialist with years of experience assisting consumers with repairing, restoring and reestablishing their credit. Get free advice and valuable credit tools at www.yourcreditcures.com .

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Free Credit Reports May be Hazardous to Your Credit Score

The Fundamentals of Credit Repair Success

Admin — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:59:37 +0000

You Can Achieve Real Credit Repair Success

There are several important issues to consider before starting your credit repair effort. The time you invest in preparation will save you time and effort, and more importantly, insure that you get the results you deserve from your credit repair project. Take a moment, plan your approach, and proceed thoughtfully. You will succeed!

Make Your Payments on Time

If you are currently not able to keep up with your existing obligations, credit repair is not the right option for you. Before starting a credit repair effort your finances should be stabilized and you should be able to pay your bills on time. There is no point in cleaning up your credit report while derogatory events continue to occur. If you are having trouble paying your bills you should investigate other options, including consumer credit counseling and debt negotiation. You should also consider consulting a bankruptcy attorney.

Get Your Credit Reports

You will need all three reports from the major CRAs (credit reporting agencies) for your credit repair project; they are Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. You can get them for free at AnnualCreditReport.com, but I am sorry to say that I advise against this option, as it is difficult and frustrating. And in the end, should you succeed, you will have three credit reports in different formats, and all about as clear to the layman as reading Chinese. I suggest purchasing a nice tri-merged report. They are easily available on the Internet and should cost less than $20. A good investment in your credit repair success.

Get Your Credit Scores, Maybe

It seems like a nice idea to obtain your credit scores at the outset of your credit repair project so you can track the progress of this important number. Should you choose to do this, you need to be aware of a controversial battle between the credit bureaus and Fair Isaac Corp, the developer of the FICO scoring model. Lenders purchase FICO scores from the credit bureaus to make loan decisions. The credit bureaus, however, will not sell these genuine FICO scores to consumers. Instead they have created their own scores which are meant to mimic the behavior of FICO scores. Unfortunately, they often differ by as much as 100 points. At the moment consumers can purchase genuine FICO scores for their Equifax and TransUnion reports directly from Fair Isaac at MyFICO.com. A single Equifax FICO score is available at Equifax.com. Experian FICO scores are not available to the public.

Read the Fair Credit Reporting Act

You cannot hope to succeed at credit repair without knowing the compliance requirements imposed on the credit bureaus. These requirements are codified in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Many people starting a credit repair program assume that it is only necessary to spot and dispute the obvious derogatory errors. If you make this mistake you are likely to leave half of your potential improvement untapped. If you take the time to grasp the essential reporting guidelines of the FCRA you will gain the legal leverage you need to get the credit repair results you deserve.

Read the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

If you have any collection issues at all you will need a working knowledge of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). This is not a difficult read and will give you a significant advantage in dealing with both active collections as well as dormant collection accounts on your credit report. Armed with your legal rights you will be able to stop collectors from bothering you, force them to validate their legitimacy, provide you with an accounting of the debt, and force them to remove erroneous and outdated entries from your credit report.

Learn Your Statutes of Limitation

Statutes of limitation define the time limit for collectors to enforce collection of a debt through the court system and are an essential tool in your credit repair arsenal. A statute of limitation (SOL) has no bearing on the reporting period limits that the CRAs are required to enforce. Reporting period limits are generally seven years for derogatory events, whereas SOLs are often as short as three years. When an SOL has expired, a collector has no way to enforce the collection of a debt. This gives you a powerful credit repair advantage; you may opt to ignore the debt with no fear of being sued, or you may choose to negotiate a very favorable payoff.

Consider Professional Help

If you are going to manage your own credit repair effort you must invest the time in understanding your rights and the compliance requirements of all parties involved in the reporting process. But if you decide that you cannot manage the effort it takes to manage the credit repair task properly you should hire a professional. Should you decide on this path I suggest that you write down a list of questions relevant to your case and call several reputable credit repair services and interview them. Choose the company that you are comfortable with and put them to work. Good luck!

By: Jim Kemish

About the Author:

Jim Kemish, a nationally recognized consumer advocate, is the president and founder of Sky Blue Credit Repair, a leading credit repair service since 1989. Jim is also a regular contributor to The Credit Repair Blog, a prominent consumer resource.

Everything you Wanted to Know About Credit Repair Software

Admin — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:32:32 +0000

Some companies advertise that they have a credit report repair Software and also they will teach you credit repair secrets, for a fee of course. There is a lot of free information here, if you know where to look. Before you take a credit repair course or sign up for credit report repair, read the facts and the laws relating to credit repair. In this way you may avoid some disappointment and save some money.

What is credit report repair or software? The best kept “secret” is that creditors and credit reporting agencies (commonly referred to as the credit bureaus) make mistakes. What can you learn in a credit repair course? You can learn the basics of bad credit repair, without paying a penny. If you cannot achieve results on your own, then you may need to hire a credit repair lawyer to help you. If you feel that you have exhausted all of the free options, identify what information that you still need and make sure that the credit repair course or software program that you are considering includes that information.

A secret may be defined as “beyond simple understanding”. Using this definition, credit report program is credit report repair that is beyond ordinary understanding. The average person does not understand how credit scores are calculated. Most people do not know what information is on their credit reports. Many people do not know their rights under the law.

Credit repair is a popular subject. It seems that almost everyone wants learn about credit repair. Books and software programs that claim to contain everything you wanted to know about credit repair are being sold on the internet and in retail locations all over the country. There are some questionable credit repair schemes and some companies suggest action which is illegal. Consumers can learn to repair their own credit, but it takes time and patience. The safest bet when hiring someone to do the work for you is to hire a credit repair attorney. In this way, you can be sure that you will achieve results; they know everything there is to know about credit repair. You can also be sure that a credit repair attorney will not advise you to do anything that is illegal. Most of the popular credit repair lawyers do not charge more than the other credit repair companies and some offer money back guarantees.

The Federal Trade Commission regulates credit repair organizations and states that “certain advertising and business practices of some companies engaged in the business of credit repair services have worked a financial hardship upon consumers, particularly those of limited economic means and who are inexperienced in credit matters.” Under the laws regulating credit repair organizations, any company that advertises secret credit report repair or credit repair in general must provide the consumer with certain information. These regulations do not apply to companies that offer a credit repair course or seminar. Most of these are simply rehashing information that has been available for years. If you look in the public library, you will see that individuals have been writing books about credit report repair for years.

There was an individual who advertised his informational packages on TV. One of his reports was “how to get AAA credit” or something like that. This was not any spectacular secret credit report repair. It was not a credit repair course. He advised consumers to make a $500 deposit into a savings account at any bank. Then, using the deposit as security, apply for a loan. Repay the loan and according to him, you would have great credit. This may be information that the average person does not know. It is similar to the secured credit card programs that so many companies offer. The thing about credit is that, it is harder to get, if you really need it. If you have $500 to deposit into a savings account or a secured credit card program, if you have the money to pay off the debts that you owe, you can improve your credit score over time.

Companies that advertise quick free credit report repair are banking on the theory that you do not know how to review your credit reports for inaccurate information. If you have inaccurate, obsolete, misleading or unverifiable information on your credit reports, then the credit bureaus must delete the information. You must “dispute” the information. In other words, you must notify the credit bureaus about the negative information that needs to be deleted. This is the credit report repair that is often the subject of a credit repair course.

By: John Cena

About the Author:

About Author:
John Cena is the author related to creditrepairsoft.com – Credit Repair Software | Credit Repair Kit | Bad Credit Repair creditrepairsoft.com. Credit Repair Software Kit only at creditrepairsoft.com. Buy Credit Repair Software to repair your credit rating, to raise your credit score and to maintain an excellent credit score.

Does anyone know how to repair credit without paying for a service?

Admin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:54:25 +0000

I really would like to repair my own credit without having to pay someone.I recently enrolled into a service online that lets me see my credit scores from all three credit bureaus but what can I do from there.Do I need to remove all or just certain ones?Any advice would be very apreciated.

By: Ready Realtor

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John Heath on Credit Repair Methods at Lexington Law

Admin — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:30:27 +0000

John Heath, Directing Attorney at Lexington Law, explains why the law firm provides affordable consumer advocate services, in the form of credit repair. The credit bureaus hold a lot of power over your life, so keeping them in check is essential by verifying the items on your credit report.

By: lexcredit

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