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Credit Repair Scams and Reputable Credit Repair
- By Stuart Hunter
- Published 01/15/2010
- Accounting and Finance
- Unrated
Stuart Hunter
Providing credit repair services since 1991, Lexington Law has helped over 500,000 clients legally take on their credit. Last year alone, Lexington Law helped clients remove over 600,000 negative items from their credit reports.
View all articles by Stuart Hunter
The credit repair world can be a frightening place. Given the abundance of news articles, TV segments, and "expert" pieces warning of credit repair scams that get published by well regarded media outlets, it can look like the best option is to steer clear of credit repair companies altogether - a course of action the news outlets seem to support.
A quick search turns up dozens of articles detailing how to keep yourself from becoming the victim of a credit repair scam. Most talk about warning signs such as companies that charge large upfront fees, claim to be able to create a clean credit history, don't keep you informed of your right to repair you credit yourself, and generally make misleading or inaccurate claims. At this point, however, very few articles concede that there are credit repair services who do not engage in the illegal or fraudulent practices that are common to a credit repair scam. In fact, many articles from premier news agencies like CNN conclude by advising people to "get legitimate help" from consumer credit counseling services.
Not only is this advice incomplete, but it is also 100 percent useless to people who
are in need of credit repair. Credit counseling programs may be able to assist people who are struggling to pay off their debts, but it will do nothing to repair your credit reports. Some credit counseling programs may even make your credit look worse.
Unlike consumer credit counseling services that aim to help bring your finances under control, credit repair services are designed to help you increase your credit score. They are not mutually exclusive services and in many cases, a person who has used a credit counseling service to help overcome their debt issues becomes a good candidate for credit repair.
Legal credit repair services have a purpose and it is a disservice to imply otherwise. Hopefully as consumers and news columnists alike become more familiar with the services credit repair organizations provide, we will start seeing a better balance between news stories warning of credit repair scams and news stories listing the qualities to look for in a good credit repair company.
A quick search turns up dozens of articles detailing how to keep yourself from becoming the victim of a credit repair scam. Most talk about warning signs such as companies that charge large upfront fees, claim to be able to create a clean credit history, don't keep you informed of your right to repair you credit yourself, and generally make misleading or inaccurate claims. At this point, however, very few articles concede that there are credit repair services who do not engage in the illegal or fraudulent practices that are common to a credit repair scam. In fact, many articles from premier news agencies like CNN conclude by advising people to "get legitimate help" from consumer credit counseling services.
Not only is this advice incomplete, but it is also 100 percent useless to people who
Unlike consumer credit counseling services that aim to help bring your finances under control, credit repair services are designed to help you increase your credit score. They are not mutually exclusive services and in many cases, a person who has used a credit counseling service to help overcome their debt issues becomes a good candidate for credit repair.
Legal credit repair services have a purpose and it is a disservice to imply otherwise. Hopefully as consumers and news columnists alike become more familiar with the services credit repair organizations provide, we will start seeing a better balance between news stories warning of credit repair scams and news stories listing the qualities to look for in a good credit repair company.
