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The Hazards of Credit Repair Companies

Credit repair companies falsely promise fast improvements, but charge high fees for services that provide little or no lasting benefit.
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What credit repair companies claim

These companies claim they can “fix” your credit by removing negative items from your credit reports – even accurate items. However, there’s no legal way credit repair companies can accomplish a permanent removal of accurate negative information. Accurate items may come off temporarily, but they will always get added back.

Common credit repair company tactics

  • Charging customers large upfront or monthly fees for disputing services.
  • Flooding the credit bureaus with disputes to force temporary removals (credit bureaus have to remove disputed items if they fail to respond to consumers within 30 days).
  • Celebrating all removals with their customers and then failing to tell customers when accurate items are added back to their credit reports.

Credit repair warning signs

  • Requests for an upfront payment or ongoing monthly payments.
  • Promises to fix your credit by getting negative items off your report.
  • Claims of permanently removing accurate information.
  • Requests to sign contracts with no end date.

Better ways to dispute real errors with the credit bureaus

What to do if you’re in credit repair and want to get out?

Consumers have the right to call a credit repair company and cancel a contract anytime. They don’t make it easy. Credit repair companies do everything they can to keep you paying, so be persistent and insist that they listen to you.

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