Who Can You Trust With Credit Repair

If you have found this blog, I applaude you! If you have read all the posts, in order, you really deserve a round of applause.

The idea that I had to create a blog talking a little about what a good credit score is has developed a life of it's own. Well, actually I have just put a lot more of my life into it than I originally anticipated.

OK, getting back on track, hopefully you have read my last post about who not to trust with your credit. I am pretty secure in saying that there are many companies and individuals in the credit repair industry that should not be there. I have seen and spoken with them. I have seem some of their "helpful" posts on message boards and I have had bad dreams because of them. Alright, maybe not that bad, but...

As I said before, the Federal Trade Commission says that you do not need a company to do credit repair for you, that you can do everything yourself. Personally, I find that it is best to leave the serious issues for the professionals, but many small problems can probably be handled by yourself or with the assistance of your loan officer.

What do I mean by "small"? Items such as misspellings of your name, incorrect addresses, wrong social security number or date of birth, duplicate entries, or even inaccurate entries that you have proof of the inaccuracy.

When it comes to the potential removal of collections, foreclosures, repossessions, judgments, charge-offs, and even bankruptcies, I would always pick the professional. Not only would I want things done correctly, but the money that is "lost" to higher interest rates while you are using the "home credit dispute kit" can often make the cost more than reasonable.

The company that we use, after a long time of searching, is called US Consumer Credit Restoration Association (USCCRA). Note: before we go on, in the spirit of full disclosure, I have become an Executive Consultant for USCCRA. My personal opinion was that when I finally found a company that I trusted, I wanted to affiliate myself with it.

Here are a few reasons why I trust and recommend them.

• The company and member services have been in business for 17 years. During that time, they have had ZERO complaints. This is very unusual for credit repair services that often have a number of complaints due to unsatisfied customers.
• They use attorneys who are willing to litigate as necessary. The credit reporting agencies understand that and investigate their disputes differently than someone who writes multiple disputes with thinly veiled threats on their own.
• When you sign up with their association, you are entitled to a number of membership benefits. These include financial counseling, tax advice, an attorney to assist with wills and small legal issues with reduced rates for larger issues, discount health benefits, and much more.
• They do not just focus on removing bad tradelines, but help you add positive tradelines also. Most credit repair organizations do not concern themselves with the rebuilding process, but rather leave the clients to figure it out for themselves.

There is much more, but for sake of brevity, I will leave it out. If you are interested, I'd be more than happy to send you a complete list of benefits. Just drop me an email.

With the tightening of the credit markets, this could not have at a better time. We are seeing more and more clients with credit issues hurting their credit scores, which complicates things because good scores are more important than ever.

To wrap up, I hope you have enjoyed the previous posts. If you have learned something, that's even better.

Future issues are going to focus on some of the more common credit repair myths.

Stay tuned!

Scott

Scott Swinford is an Executive Consultant for the US Consumer Credit Restoration Association and a Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist in Northwest Indiana. If you have any questions, you can send email to scott@USCCRAonline.com.