Credit Repair

How do these credit repair scams work?

Public Comments

1. Some are legit. You just need to find out exactly the details and ask tons of questions. Once you have enough information you can make an informed decision about how to successfully rebuild your credit. Download my free e-book at http://www.learn2budget.com for more info on credit repair.
2. Credit repair scams (which are run by any credit repair company that says they can instantly repair your credit) work like this: They contact the credit reporting bureaus and dispute all the negative items on your credit reports (even if they are legitimate). When the items are in dispute, they cannot be shown on your credit report. This means your report looks great *temporarily*. Once the negative items are shown to be legitimate, they go back on your credit report, and you're right back where you started. The only way to truly improve your credit is to pay your bills on time and not charge your credit cards up to their limits.
3. Easy - they take a lot of money for something you can do for less than £10.... all you do is write to experion or equifax (or log on their site) pay a small fee and you have access to your credit record. if things are wrong (and you can prove it) they will change the record or at the least add a comment from you explaining the entry. don't pay others to do this ... its easy!
4. They either promise you things that can not legally be done, or they charge you for items that you can do yourself for free or minimal cost. One of the rights you have is to dispute information that is incorrect in your report. These companies take it to a level where they try and flood the Creditors and Credit Reporting Agencies with tons of disputes. Now, this sometimes will get some items removed because the did not respond in time. However, once they do verify the information the items can be placed right back on your report. Another one that is starting to become more prevalent is the "credit negotiators". What they do is tell you to pay them instead of your creditors. Then when you have enough deposited with them they will negotiate with the creditor to pay off your account. What they don't tell you is that in the mean time your credit is trashed, and the creditor will not wait to get paid and most likely will file a suit against you.
5. There is nothing you can do to repair your credit unless you pay it all off and the details will still be there for 5 years - don't waste money trying.