Almost everyday we get to hear about companies offering to help consumers clean up their credit reports for a fee. They promise that by accepting their service, they would be able to repair their credit and easily qualify for loans & jobs.
But the truth is that they don’t do anything after taking hundreds and even thousand of dollars from the customer and simply vanish with the money. So how a person can save himself from falling prey to any such credit repair scam offer?
We have summarized some of the most common signs where it is likely that the offer is nothing but a scam:
- A credit repair company does not tell you about your legal rights & what the customer can do by himself for free without taking their help.
- Customer is asked to pay for the services upfront before they provide the service.
- Any company which recommends customer not to directly contact any credit reporting company.
- Customer is advised to create a new credit identity and then a new credit report by applying for EIN (Employer Identification Number).
- Credit repair company which advises customer to dispute all information listed on his credit report even if the customer is aware that it is accurate.
As per laws, obtaining EIN from IRS under false pretense is a federal crime. Additionally, according to CROA (Credit Repair Organizations Act) companies cannot ask for payment which they haven’t yet provided.
What we would suggest is that don’t fall prey do any such scams and try to repair your credit on your own and save some money also. You can improve your credit only by putting in conscious effort, time, and a self managed personal debt repayment plan.
This entry was posted on Monday, September 3rd, 2007 at 8:45 am and is filed under Credit Repair. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
These are great tips!
A good and very valuable article scams are all too often carried out on the unwary or people who are looking to simply sort out their problems.
[…] crash again Credit Report Identity Theft Helpful-financial advice online Mortgage Fraud How-to-recognize credit-repair-scams Brief idea on loan and its […]
Also avoid those credit repair companies that won’t provide a written disclosure of your rights in relation to your credit history before asking you to sign a contract.
right on the money with this article
Whith the current credit crunch, it is more important than ever to improve your credit score. If you look for a company to help with this, please be careful. Check up on the firm.
I would be worried about doing this myself. I think anyone that will take someone in a bad situation and scam them is… sad
I took it upon myself to fix my credit, I liked having the control myself and the results give you satisfaction! takes time I must admit but…
I must commend you for providing what I believe to be a very valuable and badly needed public service.
Unfortunately, there are (as I’m sure you’re aware) a great many unscrupulous “companies” who purport to do credit repair, but do little more than relieve their “clients” of their hard earned money. Such scammers take advantage of those already in desperate need, leaving them in an even more hopeless situation than they were already.