Duped By Misleading Credit Repair Claims |
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The market is teeming with credit repair
companies that are not really sincere about helping the consumer repair his
credit. They are more concerned with making profits by taking advantage of your situations. To trap the consumers they make misleading claims regarding removing all the negative information from your credit report and making it perfect. But there is only so much that a credit repair company can do, notwithstanding their tall claims. Sometimes they resort to illegal practices to achieve the ends. In this article we will canvas the range of changes that they can legally effect and also mention some common illegal practices. The credit repair companies can supposedly wipe all negative information off your credit report. But this is definitely an exaggerated claim. Called various names, like credit advisors, credit consultants, or credit rating correction services, they run variations on a tagline like, Turned down because of bad credit? We can help! But you cannot implicitly believe in them. Besides, they charge obscene amounts for the little service that they render. The fees can easily run up to thousands of dollars. And there's precious little they do that you cannot do on your own for free. If credit repair companies claim to be able to remove all negative information from your credit report, they are lying. No one, credit repair companies included, has the power to remove any negative but accurate information from your credit report. But that does not really stop them from making bombastic claims like charged-off accounts, collection accounts, judgments, tax liens, repossessions, and even bankruptcies can be removed from your credit records in less than one year (five to seven month average). It is a stock technique of the credit repair companies to inundate the credit bureaus with disputes of information, both accurate and inaccurate. Unable to investigate all the disputes within 60 days the credit bureaus are obliged to remove the disputed information from the credit report. The investigation carries on during the period the disputed information is not displayed. And if it is found upon the completion of the investigation that the disputed information is after all accurate, back they pop up again on your credit report. It is advisable to know a few facts before you sign up with a credit repair company: you are entitled to access a copy of your credit report in the case of a credit denial. You are also allowed to challenge/dispute any information that you deem to be inaccurate or obsolete. And the credit repair companies charge you hundreds of dollars for the same thing that you can do on your own. It is also not unheard of for the credit repair companies to promise their customers to get them a credit card, notwithstanding their credit history. But more often than not these promises turn out to be mere empty words and the company simply makes away with your money. And you will be left high and dry without any credit. Therefore, you need to go about your company selection very cautiously. If you manage to get a credit card with the help of credit repair companies, it would in all likelihood be a secured bank credit card. You might be obliged to pay huge upfront application fees and the card you get with such a deal is usually not be worth it. It either requires you to deposit and maintain hundreds of dollars in a savings account, or you are limited to purchases from certain catalogs. It's definitely not worth paying a credit repair company hundreds of dollars for this, as you can get a secured credit card on your own. You would find information on the banks that provide them on the Consumer Action website. But there are a few genuine companies around that can really help you in your credit repair. You need to do a good bit of research before you can spot such a company. That would also call for a great deal of elimination, as you may be required to reject any company that looks suspicious. |
