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Posts Tagged ‘credit repair scams’

The Decline of the Credit Repair industry

November 25th, 2008

Over the past couple of years there has been a huge boom of new credit repair companies as well as individuals claiming to do credit repair services. With this boom, there has been a huge increase in consumer complaints about the industry. The most common complaint being, “I paid my money and they never did anything for me, and I cannot get a hold of anyone.” The largest reason for this is that most of these credit repair professionals are nothing more than people who have purchased a do it yourself ebook on credit repair, and then begin soliciting money from others.

The problem with his is that even if these ebooks contained valuable information (most of them don’t), there is a big difference between cleaning up your own credit and performing credit repair for many others. Running a business is not something that most can do successfully, and those who do their research will find that most of the credit repair companies that are started, are not even around 6 months later.

The huge influx of credit repair companies all trying to compete has driven down the prices and forced most companies into a “monthly service fee” program model. Although I understand why most companies has moved to this model, it does not serve the consumer well at all. By only charging a low monthly service fee of $79-99/mo to perform full-service credit repair, the only way a company can be profitable is to only work on 1 to 2 items at a time. What this does is drag out the credit repair process over 9-18 months so that the company can still collect enough monthly fees to make it profitable.

Now, with all that being said, would you rather spend $1,000 to clean up your credit quickly in 3-6 months with a money-back guarantee, or would you rather spend $79 per month for 12-18 months with no guarantee and only a few items getting worked on at a time? If you think that you can spend $79/mo for only a couple months and a credit repair company is going to get you good results, think again. They are not going to lose money on you. $79 per month for 18 months comes out to $1422 and you may have only a few items corrected. To me it is obvious that I would rather pay $1000 and in 6 months if I don’t feel I got my money’s worth, have my case evaluated for the money-back guarantee.

We have done business in this manner for years and that is why we have no complaints. We are also now in the process of developing a new program for those who wish to do their credit repair on their own, but use our proven process that we have refined and simplified over the past 10 years. It will be a do-it-yourself credit repair program, but with our experts available to assist you when you need it. The cost will be a very low monthly membership that can be cancelled at any time.

Jon Ochs Credit Repair , , , , , , ,

When it comes to Credit Repair, it is “buyer beware”.

July 15th, 2008

I know from talking with hundreds of clients every day, that when it comes to making a decision about which credit repair company to go with, most base their decision purely on cost. If you are serious about repairing your credit in an effective and timely manner, this is the biggest mistake you can make.

What most people don’t know is that all those credit repair companies that charge on a monthly service fee basis are only going to do a very small amount of work each month. If you are like the average person with bad credit, you most likely have an average of 8-15 negative items on each of your 3 credit reports. If you are only paying a $49 – $79 monthly service fee, they are only going to work on 1-2 items at a time. Keep in mind also that with the monthly service fee model, the credit repair company’s motivation is to keep you paying as long as possible. You may easily end up paying far more, with fewer results, than you would have with a company that offers a flat-rate program.

With the flat-rate payment model, the company is motivated to get your credit cleaned up as quickly as possible, and that is what most people are looking for, isn’t it? I have never spoken to a client who wanted to clean up their credit slowly.

With all that said, you need to be very careful when choosing the right credit repair company, as they are not all created equally. The first thing you should do is check out their complaints record. If the company has been in business for more than a few years and has not been proving a good service, you will hear about it on the Internet. Just go to Google and type in “[company name] complaints”. If you get more than just a few complaints about the company, you should beware.

The Federal Trade Commission has made statements that tell consumers to stay away from credit repair companies, and not to work with any who charge a fee up front. The main reason for this is that they are tired of getting complaints about credit repair companies that take client’s money and not perform any work. Since the FTC cannot recommend any particular company, their policy is to simply tell everyone to stay away. Many companies have since adopted the model of charging a monthly service fee instead of charging for the credit repair itself. They have found it to be easy money, as most clients will sign up for this type of service and forget about it; leaving the credit repair company to continue receiving payments for a longer period of time with no obligation of work.

I cannot tell you how many times a week we get calls from people who have been a client of a monthly service fee credit repair program for more than one year, and have only seen a couple of improvements on their credit reports. I personnaly find this appalling, and so should you.

I hope this information has been useful. If you want to check out a credit repair company that has been in business over 10 years, licensed and bonded, with no complaints, here is our plug Best Credit Repair Company.

Jon Ochs Credit Repair , ,