Credit Repair Companies – Don’t Do it! – Episode #76

Credit Repair

Many…scratch that… most of the credit repair websites you will visit are scam artists promising all kinds of falsehoods. So, the FTC is cracking down, and starting by taking on 33 companies for their nefarious practices.

“Companies that promise they are able to scrub your credit reports of accurate, negative information for a fee are lying – plain and simple,” said Lydia Parnes, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

According to the FTC, if you see a credit repair offer, here’s how to tell if the company behind it is up to no good:

• The company wants you to pay for credit repair services before they provide any services.  Under the Credit Repair Organizations Act, credit repair companies cannot require you to pay until they have completed the services they have promised.
• The company doesn’t tell you your rights and what you can do for yourself for free.
• The company recommends that you do not contact any of the three major national credit reporting companies directly.
• The company tells you they can get rid of most or all the negative credit information in your credit report, even if that information is accurate and current.

Here’s my list of other signs you are looking at a bad guy credit repair shop

• The website looks cheap, like it was made in 1 day
• Website appears to be less than 10 pages in content
• Website offer a free ebook and than say, give me your personal info including your email

“you pay a fee and in a couple of months, that bankruptcy, that late payment, the charge-offs, the judgments, the liens, even a foreclosure will be gone….Well, no way” said Lydia Parnes, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Here is a list of many of the companies listed in the FTC press release… i.e. avoid these companies and check the FTC website for their status!

• Clean Credit Report Services, Inc.; Ricardo A. Miranda; Daniel R. Miranda; and Ruthy Villabona
• Successful Credit Service Corporation, dba Success Credit Services; and Tracy Ballard, aka Tracy
  Ballard-Straughn
• Nationwide Credit Services, Inc.; and James R. Dooley
• Advantage Credit Repair, LLC; and Mark D. Solomon
• Successful Credit Service Organization
• ACE Group, Inc., also dba American Credit Experts, Inc., The ACE Group, Inc., The ACE Group, and ACE; Legal Credit Repair Center, Inc., also dba LCRC; Michael Singer; Melvin Kessler; and Gerald Roth
• Latrese & Kevin Enterprises Inc., also dba Hargrave & Associates Financial Solutions; Latrese Hargrave, aka Latrese V. Williams; and Kevin Hargrave, Sr.
• Home Buyers Consulting Network, also dba Home Buyers Network, Good Credit Company, Goodcredit.com, and 0downhomebuyers.com; and Douglas Andersen Moore, aka Douglas A. Moore
• Payneless Credit Repair, LLC, and Lesley L. Payne
• Rudolph Joseph Strobel, aka Lee Harrison, dba Lee Harrison Credit Restoration, Credit Restoration, and Lee Harrison Associates Credit Restoration; and Leanna Ruth Harrison
• RCA Credit Services, LLC; Rick Lee Crosby, Jr.; and Brady Wellington

Is “Credit Repair” a Dirty Phrase? – Episode #31

Is “Credit Repair” a dirty word or rather, a dirty phrase. Sort of, thanks to CROA legislation. CROA or the Credit Reporting Organizations Act was enacted in 1996 and it states that you if you are a credit repair organization you cannot charge a fee in advance for a credit repair service. If you do, and call company a credit repair organization, you are in violation of the statute. This was done to protect consumers from businesses that would charge a large upfront fee and then weeks or months later, say “sorry, we couldn’t raise your credit score”.

Sadly, the internet had barely been invented so all the companies that offer online credit products or services cannot call themselves credit repair organizations. The fallout from this, is that the more reputable companies don’t call themselves credit repair organizations. Instead, many good companies don’t call themselves repair organizations and choose the moniker of “credit counseling firm” or “credit product” company. Meanwhile, many smaller companies ignore the statute and call themselves a credit repair company.

Here’s my acid test to prove this point. Do a google search on “credit repair”. Notice anything interesting? None of the credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, Trans Union, many of which have good credit education offerings are listed. myFICO, with its great credit education area, not listed. Credit.com, with it’s editorial staff giving tips, not listed. The largest credit counseling company, Money Management International, not listed. Any of the major CCCS chapters for San Francisco, Atlanta, New York, etc. …not listed.

Why are these not listed? They follow the statute and avoid using the term “credit repair” and thus, when the gogglebot scours their sites, they don’t match to the term “credit repair”.

Let’s take a look at the top 10 results on Google. Well, Google leads off with a winner — The FTC’s site which recommends self-repair as the strategy. Fraud.org is the #6 organic result and this is a nice non-profit selection. Nolo.com is a large company and appears legit because it doesn’t have a service, it sells a product and that appears to be compliant. Lexington Law has been around awhile. A few of these other sites really look like affiliate sites — i.e. they don’t have a product, they market someone else’s.

Videocreditscore agrees with the FTC approach of self credit repair but in some cases, credit counseling is needed and you want to find a non-profit, NFCC or AICCIA approved credit counseling firm.