Credit Score Repair

Credit Score Repair

You have probably encountered ads about credit score repair and guarantees of erasing bad credit from your record. Well, it sounds enticing all right, but is it true?

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released a Consumer Alert on this, stating in their website that:

-If you are looking for a way out of your credit problems, do not believe promises like these! There is a brisk business among so-called -credit score repair- companies that charge from $50 to more than $1,000 to -fix- your credit report. In many cases, these outfits take your money and do little or nothing to improve your credit report. Often, they just vanish.-

The FTC further adds that there is no quick and easy way for credit score repair. If some credit score repair company offers to -cure- your credit history, then exercise caution. Remember that you can probably do what this credit score repair company offers to do for you, or someone else may do it but for only a few dollars.

Protect Yourself

If you are tempted to contact a credit score repair company for help with your credit history, then be sure to take the following steps to protect yourself from credit repair scams:

* Check out the credit score repair company by contacting your state attorney general, local Better Business Bureau, and state or local consumer affairs agency. If you find that there are complaints or legal actions taken against the company, then it's not a good idea to stay involved with such company.
* Be wary of false claims. Some credit score repair companies will tell you that they can change or erase accurate information in your credit report. This is not true, of course. And if they deliver on this promise, they do so through illegal means.
* It should only cost you a few dollars to repair any errors in your credit report. So if the credit score repair company asks you for a large sum of money in advance, be wary. Money-back guarantees are useless if the company is dishonest.

There are legitimate credit repair clinics that offer their services for those who are having trouble with their credit. But due to many reports and complaints from consumers who have been misled or deserved by fraudulent credit score repair clinics, more than 30 US states have enacted laws to regulate and limit the practices of credit repair clinics. Agencies whose sole goal was to investigate the credit repair clinics in existence, were established with the aim of protecting your interests from misleading, dishonest, and fraudulent practices. Some illegal activities of credit score repair companies that these agencies particularly watch out for include fraudulent documents such as phony social security cards and bogus court documents, identity scams, and charging for services up front.