WHAT OUR COMPETITORS DO
What You Don’t Know CAN Hurt You
We all want good credit. Without it, life becomes very difficult. Unfortunately, occasions arise, quite often through no fault of our own, that causes our credit standing to take a downward spin (sickness, loss of job, etc). Many of us have been through such an ordeal and during this period, discouragement sets in. But all of us have the opportunity to rehabilitate this negative credit and we should take advantage of such an opportunity. We hope this section will offer some practical advice in the restoration of your good credit as well as point out some of the pitfalls to be aware of in this attainable pursuit of a healthy credit life.
A parallel exists in the credit repair industry. Some companies promise to erase your bad credit (for a fee, of course), and nothing happens. Your credit score remains unchanged and in many cases further disarray occurs in your credit file. You might also risk a potential misreading or deliberate misrepresentation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, by inexperienced or perhaps unscrupulous personnel who are involved in this business, thus adding to your credit woes.
The purpose of this section is to inform you as to what is considered illegal or at least un-ethical conduct on the part of credit repair companies.
First on The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) list of “tell-tale signs of a scam” is a warning to beware of “companies that want you to pay for credit repair services before they provide any services”. Receiving payment in advance is a violation of the Credit Repair Organizations Act. Unfortunately, it seems to be a common practice among many credit repair companies who regularly collect these advance payments.
Another unsavory activity among some credit repair companies is for them to instruct you to dispute all derogatory information in your credit report regardless of its timeliness or accuracy. Their strategy is to bombard the credit bureau with these dispute letters in the hopes that these items will be removed because they are not verified in the thirty-day time frame. Not only is this strategy un ethical, it’s also ineffective. The Credit Reporting Agencies (CRA’s) have created an Automated Consumer Dispute Verification (ACDV) System that is designed to speedily handle a tremendous volume of disputes. Once verified, all future disputes can be labeled “frivolous” under a provision of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). This labeling effectively ends the investigation process by the CRA’s on your behalf.
The final topic to discuss is what the FTC refers to as “File Segregation”. This involves applying for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the Internal Revenue Service and then using it in place of your Social Security number to apply for credit. Misrepresenting your Social Security number is a federal crime. If a credit repair company instructs you to do this, then you could face fines or even a prison sentence.
We conduct conference calls monday thru friday to anwser any questions you may have.