In recent years, the number of national credit repair companies has skyrocketed. While this might sound positive, the truth is that the majority of these companies are out for nothing but your hard-earned money. In fact, one of these national credit repair companies was recently ordered by pay out more than $1.15 millions in consumer redress, being charged by the Federal Trade Commission for being involved with fraudulent credit repair activities. If you are in debt and want desperately to make a change, armed with this and other legal information is what will help you succeed.
Unfortunately, millions of people find themselves in debt, working hard to do whatever it takes to clean up credit reports. However, many people hear advertisements or read ads that make huge promises. Believing this is the answer they have been looking for they pay $300, $400, $500, or more to have the company assist them in cleaning up bad credit. The problem is that the information being provided to them and the direction being given by the national credit repair company is not only misleading but sometimes, illegal, thus huge lawsuits just like this. Chances are, we will begin to see more and more of the as consumers are fed up with being robbed.
The charges against this particular national credit repair service was directed toward six Michigan-based defendants who were required to face complains in federal court. The allegations were that the defendants that sold credit repair services to people just like you were actually a multilevel marketing organization. They made false claims that they could remove derogatory information from a person’s credit history, even if the information were accurate and not obsolete. This is nothing but a flat-out lie.
You see, if you have negative information being reported on your credit report, but that information is false, inaccurate, or misleading, there is a possibility of it being removed. However, if the information were true, nothing can be done. Making matters worse, this particular, national credit repair company said they used a one-of-a-king computer disk to search and identify such errors. Again, no such “computer disk” even exists. Therefore, this national credit repair company was robbing people blind, honest people who simply wanted a better chance at life.
Today, we see so many national credit repair agencies doing this and more. Because of that, the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection is working to snuff out these crooks. If you want to fix a problem or problems on your credit report, you have honest options but what you want to avoid is national credit repair companies. Even if they say they are honest and can provide you with “proof”, we strongly recommend you avoid them at all costs. Remind yourself that anything they promise to do is what you can do on your own and for less than $50!
In this particular story, more than 183,000 people were scammed. From those people, over $53 million was taken in on sales. These deceptive practices are so damaging. They hurt innocent consumers trying to do things the right way but they also violate the Federal Trade Commission’s Act, as well as the Credit Repair Organizations Act. This company had a massive network of 50,000 sales representatives who would regularly and consistently tell consumers they could permanently, remove bankruptcies, tax liens, judgments, charge-offs, and even foreclosures from a person’s credit report. As a means of convincing people, they started in with the computer disk story. In fact, they told consumers this computer disk was so rare and so valuable that it had a worth of $200 million dollars. People desperate or uneducated bought into it.
When you get ready to clean up your credit report, we urge you to avoid all national credit repair companies and do the work yourself. It is not hard and not necessarily time-consuming. However, it does take some effort and patience. You have the right to enjoy financial freedom without being ripped off by criminals such as this. The best weapon you can add to your arsenal is that of knowledge. Take time to educate yourself about the credit reports, your FICO score, and legitimate options for assistance, if needed.
