Credit Repair Do it yourself or hire a credit restoration company? By Brian C. Aber
AUGUST 2009 O
NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE
O www.NationalMortgageProfessional.com
When looking to challenge derogatory items with requirements outlined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a consumer typically has two options:
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clear and legible proof of address and social with your disputes. Please make note that loan originators should still be careful with what advice they hand out and its level of O Do it themselves; or accuracy. While you may not be a credO Hire a professional credit repair it repair company, you can still be held agency. liable under the Credit Repair Organizations Act if you are financially Which is better? It depends on the tied to your client. situation. There are many factors that If you consider utilizing the servicone has to take into consideration es of a professional credit restoration when planning the credit repair company, then you still have your process. It’s bad enough with the level homework to do … just not as much. of criteria involved within the FCRA to The number one qualification you handle a proper dispute without hav- want to use when researching credit ing to deal with the mistruths and repair companies is results. They can anti-credit repair propaganda pro- have all the bells and whistles, duced by the credit bureaus and their preach about how many attorneys affiliates. they have working for you or that The credit bureaus will they have “Attorney promote the online disFacilitated” services, or putes system as a repeven be a little less utable way to clean up expensive than the next your credit report; howguy, but none of this ever, what they fail to matters unless they are mention is by using this producing effective results method, they are not and attaining deletions of required to comply with all your unverifiable and specific areas of the law inaccurate negative items. that protect consumers, You might have seen like forwarding your dissome agencies claim they pute to the creditor or have removed 11,237 “With entities that supply you with the late payments. That make more money process of verification. sounds impressive until These methods typically when consumers have you find out they’ve only cause “soft deletes” and derogatory items and serviced 12,000 clients. A the item reappears after a more important statistic good credit data couple of months. This is is the agency’s fix/delebeing considered typical of their defense tion ratio, which is the ‘unsellable,’ how can strategy of “Attrition and total number of deleted you assure you are Delay.” With entities that items divided by the being dealt a fair make more money when total number of derogahand?” consumers have derogatory accounts. Also, find tory items and good credout what that fix/deleit data being considered “unsellable,” tion ratio is for the first round of corhow can you assure you are being dealt respondence. a fair hand? Take the statement “you can do it Is the agency posting recent results yourself” and apply it to businesses that on their Web site or do they just haparen’t involved in credit repair. How pen to be a couple examples of their many other valuable services can be above average clients from years done by the client themselves? While past? one can do their own taxes, they can Providing results from each month they mow their own lawn or represent them- are in service shows that they continuselves in court, but we hire professional ally have the ability to achieve the accountants, landscapers and attorneys results they set out to attain. for matter of lack of expertise and convenience. Does the company charge per deleted Consumers can do it themselves or item? you can try to help your clients your- This can get very expensive for conself. If you are prepared and commit- sumers of agencies that are very sucted to the entire process, then it is cessful at what they do. recommended to visit www.brokencredit.com, research the FCRA and the Does the company charge their fees other laws designed to protest con- upfront? sumer rights and stick to a game plan. Charging upfront for credit repair is illeMake sure correspondence to the bureaus are effective and provide a continued on page 23