A great deal of spam is circulating around the Web, sent by people promising that they can erase your bad credit, 100% guaranteed, or legally create a new credit identity. Some claim they can remove bankruptcies, judgments, liens, and bad loans from your credit file forever!
Let’s start off by stating that there is one way, and only one way, to have a good credit record — and that is by making your loan payments on time. Only time, a conscious effort, and a personal debt repayment plan will improve your credit report.
But rest assured, around every corner there will be people who will tell you otherwise — for a PRICE! It’s a real shame, because the people they target can least afford to lose the money that they definitely will lose, and the victims will most likely end up with a WORSE credit history than when they started!
You’ve seen the ads such as “BAD CREDIT erased from bureaus’ files. Guaranteed results!” They offer an easy guide and legal forms, and you will most likely receive one of two offers:
1) For between $10 and $1,000 you will receive instructions to write letters to the credit bureaus contesting every entry. If the original creditor doesn’t respond (which they bank on) then the entry must be removed until verified. But once it is verified, it goes back on your credit history and the clock is reset to the original entry date. This will add several more years to the claim.
But there is another catch (which they won’t tell you). Credit bureaus can easily spot someone who is flooding them with dispute letters. They can flag your account indicating that you are involved in this activity. The law allows for this. Now, what potential creditor will give you credit knowing that you are playing these games with past creditors?
2) The other common scam is that they tell you to establish a”new credit identity” by applying for a federal Employer Identification Number. They say it’s legal. While it is perfectly legal to get an EIN, it is illegal to tell someone that it is your Social Security number. To represent it otherwise is fraud and will probably ruin your credit forever. It could also land you in jail for attempting to defraud a federally-insured institution.
It’s a federal crime to make false statements on a loan or credit application, to misrepresent your Social Security number, and to obtain an Employer Identification Number from the Internal Revenue Service under false pretenses. EINs are in a different number range than SSNs, and the computer will quickly spot them. It will then find your real SSN, tie the two files together, and flag them indicating that you misrepresented yourself on a loan application. Guess how hard it will be to ever get credit now?
No one can legally remove accurate and timely negative information from a credit report. But the law does allow you to request a reinvestigation of information in your file that you dispute as inaccurate or incomplete. There is no charge for this.
Everything a credit repair clinic can do for you legally, you can do for yourself at little or no cost. There is NO way to get correct information off of your credit file if the person who placed it there wants it to stay. Period!
by Bob Osgoodby
Bob Osgoodby is a marketing consultant who publishes the free weekly “Your Business” Newsletter. http://adv-marketing.com/business/subscribe2.htm to subscribe.
