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WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE...........Between the legitimate resolution of disputes with credit reporting companies, creditors/debt collectors and credit repair scams or credit repair fraud?

Over the past decade the term Credit Repair has become widely known. Many people established businesses which, for a fee, promised to advise and assist consumers in improving their credit record, history or rating. Techniques used by these persons to "repair credit" usually including sending multiple disputes to the various credit reporting companies in an attempt to remove accurate negative credit information from consumers' credit reports. This dispute process often works and negative information is removed from credit reports although it may reappear in future reports. Credit reporting companies disdain credit repair because they are required to act upon disputes they believe to be frivolous or irrelevant. Credit reporting companies' resistance to acting upon consumers' disputes grew so prominent by the early '90s that many consumers' legitimate disputes were rejected by the credit reporting companies as frivolous and irrelevant and these consumers were left with false and damaging credit history information on their credit reports that should have been corrected or deleted. The credit reporting companies became so resistant to acting upon any consumer disputes that they lobbied for laws to prohibit individuals from engaging in credit repair for a fee. Laws were enacted called Credit Services Organization Acts which effectively put all credit repair companies out of business. These laws have no concern for consumers with legitimate disputes who are unable to resolve credit reporting disputes of their own.

Nevertheless, some credit repair companies continued to exist in various forms including those who engage in illegal conduct while assisting consumers in improving their credit histories, record or ratings. These companies teach consumers how to manipulate the credit reporting system with frivolous disputes or even how to change their credit identities so their bad credit can be erased. It is obvious that this conduct is wrong and must be prevented.

So what should a consumer do if he or she is unable to resolve disputes with credit reporting companies or creditors or has failed in his or her attempts to resolve disputes with these businesses? Statistics reported in various national publications and those published by reputable surveys indicate credit reports often contain an abundance of erroneous information which should not appear on the reports. This negative information is misleading and derogatory and results in the frustration and embarrassment of credit denials. These reports and statistics claim errors anywhere from 30% to 90% of all credit reports, yet consumers' disputes associated with this false information often go unresolved. Resolving credit reporting issues is analogous to filing your income taxes. Preparing and filing your own tax return can be accomplished but many consumers either choose to or need to hire professional tax preparers or accountants to assist them with the process and reduce their ultimate tax liability.

There are federal and state laws to protect consumers in regards to false credit reporting or problems with creditors, including the way creditors report credit information to the credit reporting companies. Consumers are shunned and ignored by these businesses and are often told, they, the consumer, have no say about what is reported by credit reporting companies associated with their names whether the information is accurate or inaccurate. This contention is wrong because consumers have as much right to control what is on their credit reports as the creditors' reporting the information to the credit reporting companies and as the credit reporting companies do in publishing the information. And think about this, did you ever give a creditor or credit reporting company permission to publish any credit information associated with your name or did the credit reporting companies give you the chance to review the information they published in association with your name before they sell it to a third party? The answer is an emphatic NO! The reporting of credit information can be changed, be it inaccurate, accurate, false or misleading.

Consumers learn that even if they were shunned and ignored by these businesses and their disputes have gone unanswered their problems can be resolved. Consumers learn they have rights against businesses and that they have as much say about what credit reporting companies publish associated with their names as the credit reporting companies and creditors do. This is the difference between the legitimate resolution of credit reporting and creditor issues and the illegal use of credit repair scams or credit repair fraud.