Choosing Someone to Help
So you feel you need to find someone to help you repair your credit. Yet, doing a quick Web search presents you with a dizzying array of choices that leave you wondering how you can possibly choose one entity (company or organization) from the hundreds available to assist you.
Making that decision begins with the process of eliminating entities that exhibit any of the following characteristics.
Warning signs the credit repair company you’re looking at is not legitimate
1. The entity’s Web site does not list a physical address.
If a credit repair entity hides its address or location, this is a dead give away that the entity is bogus. Check their “Contact Us” or similar page for a phone number and address. The lack of a physical address indicates the credit repair entity is either totally illegitimate or is a start-up working out of someone’s house. Either way, you should ask yourself if you want to give your financial and personal information to someone who won’t even tell you where they are located. The answer should be ‘no’.
2. You are asked to pay for services before they are performed.
Asking for pay for credit repair services before they are performed is a violation of federal law. You should pay only after the work has been completed.
3. The organization claims to be able to remove negative information from your credit report.
No one can remove negative information that is true from your credit report. If you can legitimately dispute an item on your credit report, you should attempt to have it removed. Sometimes items will be removed simply because the reporting company (your creditor) fails to provide supporting information to the credit bureau following your challenge.
4. There is nothing on the site telling you what your rights are and nothing informing you that you can repair your credit yourself.
A legitimate credit repair organization will want you to know your rights. Their communications with you should illustrate that they are simply trying to make an honest living by helping people who want to pay someone else to write the letters and keep up with the paperwork.
5. You see phrases like ‘Credit Repair Secrets!’ or ‘Revolutionary New System!’
Only a few ways exist to improve your credit report and raise your credit score. We explain the ways on this site. The credit bureaus that control this information have strict procedures in place to protect their interest in the credit reporting system. The federal government watches this system as well. Thus anyone claiming to have a new system is guaranteed to be bogus.