Illegal Credit Repair Tactics

To understand what legal credit repair is, you need to understand illegal credit repair.

Illegal: Altering your social security to improve your credit rating. Report to the authorities any credit repair company that encourages you to change your social security number or acquire a new security number under your name.

Illegal: Disputing every credit listing on your credit report

The Fair Credit Reporting Act specifically states that only information on the credit report that are unverifiable, inaccurate, or misleading may be disputed. Any credit listings that are definitely yours should not be disputed.

Illegal: Charging for credit restoration that have not been completed.

What is credit report repair?

Legal Credit Repair consists of removing the negative items from a person’s credit report. There are different strategies to improve a credit report:

"Goodwill" Negotiation - Simply asking creditors to remove negative items from your credit reports can result in deletion of negative information. Creditors have the ability to remove late payments and other damaging information. There are no laws that prevent creditors from removing negative information.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act the provides with the opportunity to contact the credit reporting agencies directly and contest negative items on your credit report. Just like in court, consumers can plead "not guilty" to negative information on their credit reports, and make the credit bureaus prove that you have negative credit information. The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives you the legal right to dispute any and all questionable items on your credit report that you believe are unverifiable, inaccurate, or misleading. Disputed information on a credit report must be deleted if the credit agencies are unable to confirm that the information on your report is accurate.

Credit Repair: how to help yourself

Advertisements may be found in newspapers, on television, and on the internet. On the radio, you may hear them.You may get flyers in the mail, emails, or phone calls advertising credit repair services. All of them make the same claims:

“Do you have a credit problem?“ It's no problem!”

“Bankruptcies, judgements, liens, and bad loans may all be permanently removed from your credit report!”

“We promise that we will be able to remove your poor credit.”

“Legally create a new credit identity.”

Save some money and do yourself a favor.Don't trust their assertions; they're almost certainly a ruse.Indeed, lawyers with the Federal Trade Commission, the country's consumer protection body, said they've never heard of a reputable credit repair company making such claims.

The truth is that creditworthiness is not a one-size-fits-all solution.

You can genuinely increase your credit score, but it will require time, effort, and adhering to a personal debt payback plan.

SOURCE: Federal Trade Commission

Credit utilization calculation

According to Experian, credit utilization represents up to 30% of a credit score. Credit utilization is the measurement between the current loan balance and the credit card limit. For example, let's say you have a credit card with a $1,000 limit and you owe $500, the credit utilization percentage in this example is 50%. If you owed $300, the percentage would come in at 30%. You can calculate the individual and combined credit utilization percentage with the credit card utilization calculator

Frequently Asked Questions About Illegal Credit Repair

Q. How can I change my credit score illegally?
A. Illegal ways to change a credit score include:

• Employer Identification Numbers - Are social security numbers that are obtained by companies.
• Credit Privacy Numbers - A CPN, or credit privacy number, is a nine-digit number that's formatted just like a Social Security number (SSN). It may also be called a credit profile number or credit protection number. Companies that sell CPNs to consumers market them as a way to hide a bad credit history or bankruptcy. They'll also claim you can use the CPN instead of your SSN to apply for credit with your new credit identity.
  Does this seem too good to be true? That's because it is. In fact, it's illegal. SOURCE: The Truth About CPNs
• Companies that add information to credit reports -Fake companies are created who then add information to credit reports.

Q. How can I fix my credit score fast?
A. Reduce your credit card balances, do not miss any payments and ask for a credit line increase. Using the Rapid Rescore program can improve a credit score.