Credit Repair

We all know the importance of having a good credit history. A clean record gives us the privilege of landing a higher amount of home mortgage loan, car loan, or insurance at friendly, affordable interest rates. But since most people couldn’t control their credit, they become delinquents – and soon they become prey to companies who offer consumer credit repair.

A lot of advertisements from such consumer credit repair companies entice the people with promises of a totally renewed credit record. The aggressive campaigns on TV, radio, billboards, newspapers, and over the Internet are very catchy and indeed, tempting.

You might be one of those who fell victims of undisciplined use of credit and you’re now thinking of getting the services of a consumer credit repair agency. Before you do, think about it a hundred fold. There are a lot of bogus people out there who could take advantage of your vulnerability and ignorance, read on and find out how you can pinpoint a scam from the not.

Pay First Schemes:

If the consumer credit repair agency you approached has given you a lot of crappy talks about what they can do for you but will ask you to pay them hundreds or thousands first before they could make their moves, that is one sign that they could just be scamming you.

You should assert yourself and be strong about turning down such a scheme. You shouldn’t be paying for something that hasn’t been done for you yet. If you’re too trusting, you might end with your bad credit score still as bad as ever and a thousand dollars poorer.

You have legal rights you should know about:

Fake consumer credit repair companies will not tell you about steps you can do on your own to repair your credit. They will go about blabbering about their services for a fee. You should ask a lot of questions so you can evaluate their authenticity.

One way to check is if they will discuss about your legal rights. Federal law dictates them to explain this to consumers. There should also be a written agreement or contract that can be cancelled within three days should you decide to.

Questionable policies:

Be alert about any policy that seems a bit hazy or questionable. For instance, if the consumer credit repair company is requiring you to solely do all transactions through them and that you should not be initiating any communication with the credit reporting companies yourself. This will tell you outright that they must be into something illegal.

Another major move they want you to decide on is to create a new credit identity. They will ask you to apply for an employer identification number, which you are going to use instead of your Social Security number. Other fraudulent companies will offer to give you new tax identification or Social Security number so you can have a new credit file. These are illegal so if you cooperate and participate you might get prosecuted.

Accurate information cannot be erased:

Offenses like late payments, tax liens, and bankruptcy remain in your records for a certain period of time and they cannot be erased until after the required period or until after they get cleaned up.

If the negative information on your record is accurate, nobody can get his or her hands on it to delete it. Any promises from your agency to totally wipe this out is definitely a lie so watch out.

The key is to investigate and to ask around. There are many resources from which you can gather the right information. Open your eyes and turn on your cynic side to consumer credit repair schemes. Don’t allow yourself to get scammed