You see the advertisements in newspapers, on TV, and on the Internet. You hear them on the radio. You get ads in the mail, and maybe even cold calls offering credit repair services. They always make the same claims:

“Credit problems? Not a problem!”
“We can easily remove all your bankruptcies, tax liens, judgments and bad loans from your credit file for ever!”

We can legally erase all your bad credit – 100% guaranteed.

Get a new credit file overnight – all legal.

It is not too good to believe these claims: they are very often signs of a credit repair scam. Some professionals even state they have never seen a legitimate credit repair company trying to make those claims. The fact is there is often not a quick fix for credit and creditworthiness. You can actually improve your credit report legitimately, but it takes some time, a conscious effort, and also sticking to a personal debt repayment plan.

Warning signals that should alert you on a Credit Repair Scam

Many times, firms target uninformed victims who have bad or no credit histories with promises to clean up their credit report so they can get a car loan, a home mortgage, insurance, or even a job once they pay them a fee for the service. The truth is, these firms cant deliver an improved credit report for you using the tactics they promote. No one is allowed to legally remove accurate, but fatal information from somebody’s credit report. So after you gave them over thousands of dollars in fees, you are often left with the same credit report and they have your good money.

If you analyze a credit repair offer, here is how to tell if the organization or firm behind it is criminal:

The service company does not tell you your rights and what you can do for yourself for free.
The company insists that you refrain from getting into communication with any of the three major national credit reporting companies directly yourself.
The company tries to offer to create a brand new or false credit identity – and then get a completely new credit report – by applying for an EIN number, so that you use that instead of your old and “damaged” Social Security number.

The organization wants you to pay for credit repair services before they provide you any services. Under what is called the the Credit Repair Organizations Act, companies that are offering to repair credit, cannot require you to hand over the money, until they have completely delivered the services they have advertised.