If you're looking for a way out of your credit problems,
don't believe promises like these!
"Credit Problems? No Problem!"
"Erase Bad Credit! 100% Guaranteed!"
"Remove Bankruptcy and Liens From Your Credit File!"
So-called
"credit repair" companies charge from $50 to more than
$1,000 to "fix" your credit report. In many cases, these
outfits take your money and do little or nothing to improve your
credit report. Often, they just vanish.
There are no quick or easy cures
for a poor credit history. If a credit repair company promises you
it can clean up your credit report, remember the following:
your credit history is
maintained by private companies called credit bureaus that
collect information reported to them by banks, mortgage
companies, department stores, and other creditors;
these credit bureaus can legally
report accurate negative credit information for seven years
and bankruptcy information for ten years;
accurate items that are within
the seven (or ten) year reporting period cannot be erased from
your credit record by companies advertising "credit
repair" services;
if you have a poor credit
history - even if your past problems were due to illness or
unemployment - time is the only thing that will heal your
credit report;
the only information in your
credit report that can be changed are items that are actually
wrong or beyond the seven (or ten) year reporting period;
if there are genuine
mistakes or outdated items in your report, you can fix them
yourself.
In fact, you can do
anything a credit repair company can do
for free or for only a few dollars.
Spotting Credit Repair Scams
If
you are tempted to contact a credit repair company for help, use
considerable caution. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and a
number of state Attorneys General have sued credit repair
companies for falsely promising to remove bad information from
credit reports. Consider the following:
Contact your state Attorney
General, local Better Business Bureau, and your state or local
consumer affairs agency to check out the credit repair
company. See if any complaints have been lodged against the
company.
Be alert if you are told that
accurate information will be changed or erased or that only
the credit repair company can remove old or inaccurate
information. Such claims are false.
Be especially wary if you are
asked for a large sum of money in advance, before the credit
repair company completes the job it promises to do. Even a
money-back guarantee won't protect you if the company is
dishonest.
