DebtSmart.com Thursday, November 21, 2024

The TRUTH About Credit Repair

by Scott Bilker
Scott Bilker Scott Bilker is the founder of DebtSmart.com and author of the best-selling books, Talk Your Way Out of Credit Card DebtCredit Card and Debt Management, and How to be more Credit Card and Debt Smart. Receive the 5-Year Loan Spreadsheet when you subscribe to his email newsletter.

Have you ever wondered what companies send you when they claim you can erase your bad credit overnight? How about those ads that say you can get any major credit card 100% Guaranteed regardless of your credit?

Ads abound almost everywhere (online and off) selling books, systems and secrets to help you fix your credit in a hurry. Many of these programs have claims, which read like the covers of supermarket tabloids, “In 3 hours my credit score jumped from 580 to 676!”…”Erase bad credit and smash your debts with just 2 Magic Letters!”…”Create a completely new credit file in 24 hours!” Are these types of claims ALWAYS too good to be true? The answer is “Yes and…no.”

It means any negative item on your credit report can only remain there if it is accurate and CAN BE PROVED AS ACCURATE under the guidelines of the FCRA. This indisputable fact presents consumers with both good news and bad news. The good news is that through the FCRA, your credit score can most likely be improved dramatically in a very short period of time with only a modest amount of effort on your part.

The bad news is that while the actual “work” will take very little of your time, it is vital that you have good information on “how” to go about it. This is the bad news; 9 out of 10 courses on restoring your credit will do nothing more than lead you into a snake pit. This is because they provide you with outdated “Boiler Plate” dispute letters which are rarely effective. These are nothing more than form letters and… quite frankly (more bad news) the Credit Bureaus and Creditors will laugh at you if you try to use them.

While I agree with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that “Anything a Credit Repair Clinic can do for you legally, you can do for yourself at little or not cost”… the key element you need for success is the latest inside techniques and procedures to get the results you want. These involve strategies known as “Proof of Contract”, “Constructive Notice”, “Challenge of Procedure” or “Restrictive Endorsement” and many others.

All these terms may “sound” impressive, but they are really quite simple. In the end, it is nothing more than a method of communication which exercises your consumer protection rights, gets the results you want, and raises your credit score. Even more impressive, once you learn how simple it can be by doing it for yourself, you will find there is a fortune to be made doing it for others! Either way, it all starts by requesting a free copy of your credit report by visiting: www.AnnualCreditReport.com.