Credit Repair Scams – Do Your Homework
You’ve probably heard stories about people who go to credit repair agencies for help to improve their credit report, only to be taken in by credit repair scams. In order to understand what you need to do to avoid being ripped off by such unscrupulous people|these scammers|these crooks}, you must learn how they function.
They know that those who are over their heads in debt are in such desperate straits as to swallow whatever is told them, in the hope that these fake agencies will really be able to improve their credit score, so they can get their lives back. They are often so disheartened by the system, which is downright cruel to people who have problem credit, that they’ll do anything whatsoever to resolve their problems.
Most people who seek out help on the verge of declaring bankruptcy. It is these who are most likely to fall prey to credit repair scams.
Why is this? Because they want fast results, and are unable to internalize the fact that the credit repair process takes at least 6 – 12 months. Very often, they feel that they don’t have much time, and unless they take fast action, it will be too late. Ironically, when they hire these scam artists instead of getting themselves rid of debt, they will find themselves worse off than ever, since they’ve made the mistake of chasing a mirage.
Heed these warning signs that alerts you to credit repair scams:
1. They promise too good to be true results – many of these agencies promise they will get all adverse accounts deleted from your credit report. They will also guarantee that your score will increase within the next 2-3 months.
They try to make this happen by disputing every negative trade line in your report. The credit reporting agencies may initially remove some or most of the disputed items that can’t be verified within 30 days. In the meantime, it will seem that this fraudulent agency has delivered on its promise.
But if the credit reporting agencies is later able to verify the negative items, they’ll end up back on the report – plus you will have earned the reputation of being a hustler!
2. They urge you to violate the rules – they will employ illegal tactics, such as using other people’s identity to improve credit, by offering to give you a new SSN, so that you can “start your financial life over.”
Warning! Such tactics will only land you into more trouble. Besides the fact that it’s against the law to take up a “new” SSN, the number could have a police record attached to it, or any such things that will be far worse that having bad debt.
3. They require all their fees be paid up front – a good many credit repair scams ask you for payment in full before any services have been rendered. This makes sense, because they know that sooner or later you will discover that they cannot really remove bad credit or improve your credit score as they had promised. And at that point, they won’t get paid.
Know that you can avoid credit repair scams. Just don’t forget that no matter how desperate you become, don’t ignore the warning signs!
This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 3:04 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.