Scams, Fraud and Improper Credit Repair

One does not have to look far to discover companies claiming they can repair your credit for you.  Some of these companies will legitimately help to repair erroneous items on your report others fall into the category of con artists and crooks. This evil group starts off with the out right thieves – companies, which offer the world, take your money and do nothing. Avoid these by checking references including organizations such as the Better Business Bureau when applicable, question how long they have been in business and pay attention to what they’re telling you. If their claims sound to good to be true you may wish to be on the defensive. When possible attempt to verify answers they have given you with independent sources. Ask how much time credit repair takes. No one telling you credit repair happens instantly should be trusted.

Some organizations claim they will issue you a new social security number or create a completely new credit profile for you. Organizations of this type fall into one or two categories, those who are scam artists and liars and those who are operating illegally. Even if an entity some how could create a new credit profile for you such an action would be completely improper under the law. I personally recommend that any organizations making claims of new social security numbers or new credit profiles be avoided. Some credit repairs organizations do follow the rules and understand the system. Even with those who are attacking items on a credit report using the proper procedures can sometimes go too far. Either at the request of the debtor or the suggestion of the credit repair agency some companies will wage a war with the credit bureaus concerning legitimate items in the hopes that the creditor either ignores the correspondence or gives up on the paperwork required with the result that legitimate bad credit items end up removed. I personally would advise anyone considering such an endeavor that attempting to remove proper items can constitute fraud and avoid any such actions.

Credit Repair 101

At DollarFlash our number one goal is to help people our customers. We have decided to provide our customers with some helpful information that will help them to handle credit issues. If one discovers inaccuracies on their credit report responsibility lies with the individual to begin the corrections process. Letters must be written explaining exactly what the problem is and the remedy they feel warranted. Especially when dealing with inaccuracies individuals must remember that each credit reporting agency maintains its own database of information. Therefore one agency might report an item properly while others report it improperly and vise versa. Furthermore, if a common inaccuracy exists with multiple reporting agencies the repair process must take place with each agency reporting the item inaccurately individually. In many cases this means to remove an item that has made its way onto each bureaus agency report, an individual must write three sets of letters and follow the process through with all three different agencies in order to be sure an item comes off from the reports. Once notified of a problem an agency will contact the creditor or reporter of the item in question and seek a response regarding the accuracy of the item. Under the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act if the agencies do not receive a reasonable proper response within 30 days they are obligated to follow your directives on proper treatment of the item. Should a proper response be received the bureau may well request more information on why you believe your position be the correct one. Many people advocate dealing with only one item per correspondence. To extend this out given earlier facts that each item must be dealt with individually with each agency, a hypothetical result for someone with ten erroneous items could mean initiating 30 sets of correspondence to correct the problem. Once you find you have completed this task follow up once again or check the report again. Just because a letter has been written and a creditor has not responded within a given time frame does not mean that the agency will remove the report without further follow up and an additional correspondence. On the other hand keep in mind changes may take a month or more to appear on a report. While the process for proper credit reporting is in place, assuring accuracy of your own credit report rests with you. Improving ones credit score is one of the few areas of life where doing nothing can be tremendously productive. Once the items causing negative impact on the credit report have ended, the simple passing of time does wonders for one’s credit score. While the advantage of improving your score with the passing of time comes in the form of non-existent effort, the disadvantage comes in that time must take its own course. Even those with the best of credit cannot buy more time or speed the passing of time. Generally the date used to trigger the passing of time in this context starts with the date of the last activity of the account. Interpretation and misuse of this rule accounts for many reporting errors. For example if a person last made a payment on a charge card in 1995 and in 1999 a new entity buys the account and begins to report it the new entity the credit reporting bureaus may treat the initial reporting as the date of the new entity. But in reality the date of the last activity of the debtor’s point of view came in 1995 with the last payment. “Last activity” for purposes of credit reporting means the debtor’s last activity, otherwise by re-selling accounts or re-generating some new phantom activity the creditors reporting can be extended in perpetuity. To maintain the accuracy of records that should be dropped from account through passage of time, usually seven years as I referred to earlier, individuals should know the exact date of the last activity and have records for proof.