Top 8 Signs a Credit Report Company is Scamming You

If you’re one of the many people suffering from a tremendous amount of debt you may have looked for a way to repair your credit report. Unfortunately, there are many scams out there setup to take your money and never deliver the results you were promised. There are many credit restoration companies who will charge you up to $1000 up front to repair your credit only to never be heard from again.

The FTC actually states that no credit report repair company should ever be collecting money upfront for their services. This makes finding a legitimate company fairly difficult in a sea of scammers. Below we’ll take a look at the top 10 ways to identify a credit report repair scammer.

1. 150 Points in 30 Days - No one should ever be making this claim. It’s nearly impossible to do outside of some major mistake on your credit report that can be disputed (which you can do yourself!)
2. Remove Late Payments - Some people may claim they can remove your late payments even if they were actually late. Sorry, but this just isn’t going to happen.
3. Don’t Pay Collections - They may even recommend that you stop paying collections. This won’t help you one bit and is misleading advice.
4. Remove Collections - Claims to be able to remove collections while you still owe money are false. If this was possible, why wouldn’t everyone be doing it? It’d be too easy to write off old accounts.
5. Remove Bankruptcies - Bankruptcies will fall off of your credit report after 7 years, and only after 7 years. Scammers claim they can remove them even though they know they can’t.
6. Remove Foreclosures - Just like bankruptcies, foreclosures will be on your credit report for 7 years, like it or not.
7. Remove Judgments - This also isn’t possible. Why would judgments even be made against you if they could be easily wiped clean?
8. Remove Tax Liens - The only way to remove a tax lien is to pay the balance. The Government isn’t in the business of erasing old debt, trust me.

Sad truth is no one will be able to remove a debt you owe. All debt will remain on your credit report for 7 years after the date of last activity. There’s no way around it. Even the best credit repair services don’t have any special tricks up their sleeves. They just make it a little easier to manage your debt and pay it off.

Overall, if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. In a tough economy you’ve got to be more vigilant then ever in researching what company you decide to work with. Many so called credit report repair companies will actually do more harm to your credit report than good. They’re only interested in getting their money upfront and won’t return your calls once you’ve paid. Be sure to check the BBB rating of any company you are interested in working with and always check user reviews online with a quick Google search.