Don't Fall For Those Credit Repair Scams

According to the FTC who enforces the Fair Credit Reporting Act, it is illegal to remove accurate data from your credit report. Collections, charge-offs and late pays will remain on your report for seven years, bankruptcies 10 to 12 years.

Boy, are you screwed! Just dig a hole and climb in and bury yourself!

The truth is that although the statement above is true, what about the laws that protect the consumer that requires the credit reporting agencies to verify the information they report? What is there process for verification? Is it verified just because the collection company say's you owe the money? What if you really owe the debt and the third collection company that bought your debt for pennies on the dollar can't verify that you owe the debt? Is it OK for them to continue to report it?

There seems to be a lot of information available that say's you can't clean-up (Opp s, I forgot, clean your credit is a bad word) let s re-phrase that, Credit Repair and Credit Restoration. That s better; let's talk about Credit Repair and Credit Restoration . Credit Repair and Credit Restoration is a process that involves the following;

Becoming aware of the issue
Recognizing the benefit
Making a commitment to change the way you handle your finances
Creating a plan
And finally following thru on that plan

Now if you have had bad credit for a while then you probably want to consult with a professional to help you start down the path of Credit Repair and Credit Restoration You may want to hire a Certified Credit Consultant to review your financial picture and see what changes can be made to help manage your finances. They can also help point out for you the long term financial benefit of correcting your credit so you can benefit from reduced interest rates on your mortgage, car, credit cards and any other items that might be affected by your credit rating.

What about the information on my credit report? What about that collection account or charge off that has been on my credit report for the last 5 years you have no record of but the collection company says it's yours? According to the FTC it can't be legally removed. And since they said it yours, I guess it must be. Not true! If the collection company can't verify that it is yours, the credit reporting agency MUST remove it; even if it is yours!

The credit reporting business, a billion dollar a year business, has done such a poor job of accurately reporting customers information or informing customers of ongoing changes that may help the consumer, that the laws allows for unverifiable information to be deleted. If a customer has information on there credit reports and it can t be verified then the credit reporting agencies must remove it, whether it belongs to you or not, PERIOD!

This is the premise that most credit repair companies work under. They know that the credit reporting agencies and the collection agencies have not done what they are being paid (billions of dollars a year) to do. They know if the Fair Credit Reporting Act law are applied correctly in the dispute process that the chances are that information will be deleted whether it is accurate or not. Is this wrong or immoral? The question needs to be is OK for the credit reporting agencies to report unverifiable information. With the profits the credit reporting agencies make each year you would think they could implement a process that provides accurate reporting.