CONTRACT: Unlike Painting A House Or Putting In A Driveway, Credit Restoration Work( And Results) Are Extremely Broad

Category: Finance, Credit.

People with credit problems often ask me when it comes to improving their credit score whether they should hire a credit repair company or do it themselves? However, I will shed some light on the subject if you re in need of a little enlightenment.

Unfortunately, there is no simple or universal answer to this question. According to the Federal Trade Commission( FTC) "Everything a credit repair clinic can do for you legally you can do for yourself at little or no cost" . After all, everything a mobile oil change service can do for me I can also do myself at little or no cost( but you won t find me changing the oil in my car this weekend! ). While I agree with the FTC I also understand some consumers do not have the time, patience( or knowledge) to do the work themselves and the thought of" drive- thru- we- do- it- all- for- you- credit- repair" becomes very appealing. Although some things are better done yourself, only you can determine if doing your own credit restoration work will be one of them. REFERENCES: Any legitimate company or individual doing credit restoration work for consumers will be able to provide you with at least half a dozen references.

This is why understanding both the advantages and limitations of a credit repair company and the structure from which it operates are VERY important. If the company or person is local you should be able to call these references. If possible, I suggest you ask friends, relatives and professional, family contacts if they know of someone who does credit restoration work as a side business. This is without question the most important point of consideration when hiring a professional to do the work for you. By far the highest percentage of successful stories I hear from consumers are those which come from those who found a credit consultant via personal referral. It s the difference between going on a vacation with a close friend instead of a stranger. I cannot stress this enough.

CONTRACT: Unlike painting a house or putting in a driveway, credit restoration work( and results) are extremely broad. Most likely your credit challenges didn t occur overnight and they won t be improved overnight either. Therefore, the use of a contract is imperative. A good contract protects you as well as the service provider. MONTHLY FEE: One of the most critical elements which affects" how" a credit restoration company operates is determined by its payment structure. The contract should be easy to understand without an Attorney and spell out the actual services which will be rendered as well as the service providers limitations( i. e. they cannot guarantee the removal of any one particular item but can guarantee an overall increase in score overtime) . One of the most common payment structures of large companies or law firms doing credit restoration is that of the monthly" auto- debit" fee.

While there is an advantage to this method( affordability) with it comes many disadvantages. ) The first disadvantage this structure creates is that it gives the company absolutely no incentive to work quickly or aggressively on behalf of the consumer. In this structure the consumer usually pays$ 49 to$ 99 up front and then a monthly fee of$ 39 to$ 49 per month. In fact, the opposite is true. In most cases this structure leads to slow results over a very long period of time. The longer they take the longer they will continue to collect their monthly fee! Looking at it logically, this shouldn t come as a surprise. ) The other challenge within this structure is the actual amount of time, effort and resources which a company or law firm can reasonably allocate on a consumer s behalf. Out of that$ 39 to$ 49 there are monthly expenses including but not limited to: Advertising, Office Rent and Utilities, Employee Payroll and Taxes, Phone Service, Health Insurance, Office Supplies, Computer Maintenance and, Refunds Programming, Office Supplies and, Website Administration let s not forget postage for mailing letters to creditors, collection agencies and credit bureaus.

Remember, any large business has a tremendous amount of overhead which quickly chews up most of that monthly fee. A much simpler way to think of this is by imagining if you had a client paying you$ 39 a month. Boiler Plate Letters are simple form letters which are used for ALL consumers( one format fits all) . How much work would you be willing to do? ) One of the biggest challenges credit repair companies charging low monthly fees run into is being forced to rely on the use of Automated" Boiler Plate" Dispute and Correspondence Letters. Once set up in a computer program with the consumers information they are" shot out" automatically on behalf of the consumers needs( i. e. disputing a late pay, charge- off or judgment etc) . I spoke with a man recently who was on the inside of a large credit repair company who informed me they had an archive of over 10, 000 boiler plate letters on file to avoid this problem. The problem here is that when a credit repair company has thousands of clients they are shooting these form letters out for, collection agencies and, the creditors credit bureaus can take notice of these letters being used over and over and discover your correspondence is coming from a third party( i. e. credit repair company or law firm) and in some cases ignore it or( worse yet) mark the dispute frivolous and flag your credit report.

Of course, they charged customers by the month. As a consumer it is vital that you are made aware of the methods they are using in dealing with your creditors, collections and the credit bureaus. NON- DISCLOSURE OF METHODS: One of the most troubling issues with 95% of large credit repair firms( especially law firms) is their non- disclosure of dispute tactics and methods. If the organization or law firm violates laws or makes errors( I have witnessed both) you could be held liable for their negligence. Anyone doing credit restoration for you should disclose" what" they are doing since you are paying for a service. In addition, this can actually make your credit worse and create problems which are very difficult to clean up.

If they won t, you better run the other way as they could be pouring gas on a blazing camp fire. It is absolutely vital when having someone else do your credit restoration work for you that they operate within your home state. LOCATED IN HOME STATE: This is one of the most overlooked keys to successful third party credit restoration which consumers miss. Here s why: if a credit repair company or law firm mails dispute letters or correspondence on your behalf from another state, that mail will be postmarked from that state. It is known that many Credit Repair Companies and Law Firms will resort to or create some kind of method to get around this in order to get disputes postmarked from the consumers home state( potentially more non- disclosure) . If the credit bureau catches this they can( and in many cases will) mark the dispute as frivolous and flag your credit file.

For example. Once in CA someone opens the envelope and then mails your dispute letters from CA so they postmarked from your home state. If they are in NY and you are in CA they will first have to mail your dispute letters inside an envelope from NY to CA. I am not an expert on postal regulations but had a postal employee tell me the concept sounded extremely shady at best. The best credit restoration companies I ve seen are usually run by one person or a small number of people and are extremely customized for each client. CUSTOMIZATION: It s for this reason that some of the most advanced forms of credit restoration are done completely customized for the client and even( in many cases) by hand.

The is the most effective but with effectiveness comes cost. This type of service is simply impossible to perform for$ 39 or even$ 49 a month. Every one of these services I have seen charges a very large upfront fee and works entirely off of referrals. Unfortunately, if you are unable to find someone in your area( preferably an individual) by way of referral through a friend, relative or professional contact, then I recommend you take matters into your own hands and do it yourself. How high? I realize most consumers do not want to hear this but the good news is that it will almost always turn out to be the highest paid work you will ever do in your life. How does$ 500 to$ 2500 an hour sound?

If you re ever going to finance a first or second home( which everyone eventually should for the tax breaks) the difference between good credit and poor credit will affect your interest rate. I understand it s a bold claim but not one I am unable to back up. If you secure a$ 200, 000 mortgage on a 30 year term and your interest rate is only 2% lower because of a high credit score, that 2% will save you$ 96, 9311 over the course of the loan( just because you had better credit) . Take that$ 96, 9311 and divide it by the 30 to 50 hours you may spend working on your credit situation and you ll quickly realize credit restoration when done properly does not cost- it pays!

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