As if being in a huge debt of thousands of dollars wasn't bad enough, scam artists touting quick credit history repair, magical deletion of negative entries on your credit report and overnight dissolution of your $10,000 overdue credit card balance, are a dime a dozen. What's worse is that there are more of these scams today than the number of Americans in debt!
This year alone, the FTC has been hard at work capturing scammers who promise the world when it comes to credit history repair and begin the lengthy process by first pushing you deeper in debt and then making sure you never come out of it! One of these companies is Ace Group, which was charged by the FTC and was fined over $20 million for defrauded several Americans under the guise of credit history repair.
Know your rights! The FTC has been especially proactive in protecting consumer interests in the United States, with the Credit Repair Organizations Act, which is designed to regulate the activities of credit repair organizations and how they operate. In addition, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act governs the actions undertaken by debt collectors and creditors, which can be less than scrupulous or even legal, as many honest and unfortunate Americans would know.
It is important to know your rights and understand how the credit history repair process works, before you take the plunge and dive into the seemingly complex world of credit history repair. In addition to reading through the consumer information on the FTC's consumer protection website, careful research is essential and careful thinking about how one can get out of the gigantic mess that is indebtedness.
Clean Credit Report: pipedream or reality? Many Americans today are living under a heavy debt and can only dream of a clean credit report free from late payment, bankruptcy or other negative remarks. However, this doesn't have to be just a dream; believe it or not, credit history repair can be a lot simpler than working 2 shifts. All one has to do is to follow a disciplined program of credit repayment and set limits on spending.
However, the more difficult aspect of credit history repair is often doing the hard work of crunching numbers and dealing with difficult credit card companies and other creditors to whom substantial amounts of money is owed. More often than not, the average American does not understand the basic method of dealing with credit, much less figure out how much to pay off each month.
This is where a large number of credit repair agencies, law firms and DIY credit repair programs come into play. Like was said before, there are more of these in the United States today than the number of Americans under debt. Choosing amongst them can be intimidating, especially for a single mother who has to work nights to support her 3 kids and deal with the incessant phone calls from rude and indifferent debt collectors.
Evaluate Your Options There are usually 2 main methods of obtaining credit history repair help:
1. Credit repair agencies: these are very often specialized organizations, seemingly way too often law firms who charge extensive up front fees. That's actually first red flag that the FTC advises against. To be fair, they are very often legitimate but more often than not, tend to make it worse than better.
The problem with such organizations is not that they necessarily con people, but they tend to require a tremendous amount of paperwork, submissions, and a lot of effort which normally one would expect them to help with. However, the advantage they do offer is the ability to communicate with creditors; having had experience, one hopes that such an expert can help out.
2. DIY instructional manuals: there are numerous books, self help guides and instruction manuals available to help you through the credit revamp process. Google credit help instructions and you're likely to find both free and paid ones. The question you have to ask yourself is, can you learn to drive from a book
An important question you have to ask yourself when choosing a credit repair option is do you really need more debt to get rid of it? The FTC itself advises that the best way to obtain your credit history repair is to do it yourself. The consumer protection website provides valuable tools and information to help you through the process.
Everything said and done, a little help and guidance can probably help, but it has to come at a good price. This is where the incorporation of technology and good old fashioned step by step guidance can help. There are several software programs that can take a lot of the dirty work such as writing repeat letters for follow up and learning all the rules of the game. One of them even tracks the work online and meets the checklist of the FTC, in that it does not require a huge upfront payment (comes for under $100) and is completely self managed- it does not require speaking to a professional expert having waited for an hour. Here you can learn more about the one I consider the best alternative.
In summary, the credit history repair process can be intimidating but to make the best of it, you need to know the way it works. Follow FTC advice; watch out for scams, don't bother doing more work than you have to and follow a structured approach. Learning here increasecreditscoresite.com/ib/ics/1 about the right help, you can do it in no time!
Dan Spark has a Master degree in business with extensive experience in financial analysis. He pays special attention and focus on improving financial literacy among adults and youth around the U.S. To learn more about your alternatives to increase your credit score visit increasecreditscoresite.com/ib/ics/3 increasecreditscoresite.com.
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