Warning Signs of a Bad Credit Repair Company |
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Many people, for many reasons, employ bad credit repair companies to help them with their bad credit repair. But, like everything in this world, bad credit repair companies come in two types: the good ones and the ones that fleece you out of any money you had left. But there are certain dead-giveaway signs that a bad credit repair company is not trustworthy. With a little research and knowledge of your legal rights, you can protect yourself from the unpleasant side of bad credit repair.
The first rule to remember is to never hire bad credit repair services companies because you don't have time to repair bad credit on your own. These companies can't do anything for you that you can't do yourself. What bad credit repair services companies will do, however, is charge you between $250 and $5,000 for their unnecessary services. But if you need help working out a payment plan and a budget, you can contact your local credit counseling service for help instead of a bad credit repair company. There are also non-profit groups in every state, including credit unions or housing authorities, that offer credit guidance to consumers. These services are available at little or no cost. But, if you don't want to do bad credit repair by yourself, it would do you good to remember certain things when selecting a bad credit repair company. Remember to not use any bad credit repair company that doesn't follow industry standards or regulations. Also, don't use a bad credit repair company that offers to "wipe out bankruptcies", to remove accurate negative information from your credit history, or to obtain credit for you regardless of your credit history. If a negative mark on your credit history is correct, no person alive can remove it. But there are a few tricks that most bad credit repair services use to get around this rule. So, bad credit repair services inundate the credit bureau, disputing all the bad marks in your credit report, in the hope of bogging down the system. Bad credit repair services bank on the bureau being so busy answering all their frivolous disputes within 30 days that they'll not finish reviewing all of them and so default on the 30-day limit. By law, if a credit bureau does not respond to requests within 30 days they must remove the disputed items from your credit report. But this is only temporary and there is no guarantee that the plan will succeed. The credit bureaus can quickly determine if the bad marks on your credit report are valid. Also, credit bureaus have gotten wise to the scheming of credit doctors and are allowed to refuse or ignore "frivolous requests" from bad credit repair services. Because of this, bad credit repair services have become much less effective than they used to be. So, if this is the strategy of the bad credit repair service that you employ, then you can do a better bad credit repair job yourself, for less money. Also, a bad credit repair company that promises to exploit secret or little known loopholes in the system to remove information from your credit history is definitely not to be trusted. You should also be wary of a bad credit repair company unless it provides a written disclosure of your rights in relation to your credit history before asking you to sign a contract. The contract that they ask you to sign should include all the terms and conditions of payment, a detailed description of the services to be provided, including any guarantees of performance, as well as an estimate of how long it will take. The agreement should also include a right to cancel the contract within 3 days, in case you have second thoughts. A bad credit repair company that attempts to charge money before performing the bad credit repair services is also out to cheat you. And. don't use a bad credit repair company that discourages you from directly contacting the major credit bureaus. As long as you keep the above factors in mind, bad credit repair companies will find it difficult to take you for a ride. |
