If all you knew about credit repair companies was learned gleaned from how they are portrayed in the media, you’d probably have a very low opinion of them. It seems like anytime a credit repair company gets mentioned in the news it is because they are being investigated or shut down. After a while you’d begin to think that there is no such thing as a legitimate credit repair organization.
There are problems in the credit repair industry. Too many people out there are preying on desperate consumers who will do almost anything to get a good credit score. When these companies get shut down it is a good thing. When media outlets warn people of the things to watch out for so they don’t become the victim of a credit repair scam, they are providing valuable information.
But where the media fails us is by never portraying the positive side of credit repair. You never hear stories from people who have had success with credit repair companies. You never get to read about the life altering results credit repair companies have produced for consumers time and time again. It is a shame. The fact of the matter is that for every story featuring a shady credit repair company, there could be dozens more featuring people who’s lives were completely turned around because of the assistance they received from a credit repair company.
But instead of telling both sides of the story, the media focuses only on the negative. But it goes even beyond that when talking about credit repair. It is common to find a story where someone has responded to a telephone pole ad or a flier promising to restore their credit, paid the company thousands of dollars upfront, and then gets nothing in return. Granted, this is a terrible thing and the people behind such a racket should be held accountable, but the way these stories invariably get reported is a disservice.
These news stories almost always follow the same format. They start by stating the who and what. Company A has been shut down for duping people out of money. But then the stories always devolve into the typical anti-credit repair messaging about how credit repair companies cannot do anything for you that you cannot do yourself (true, but they are probably much better at it), how accurate information must remain on your credit reports (accurate in this sense is very open to interpretation), and how disputing errors is as simple as filling out a form on the credit bureaus’ websites (something any credit repair expert will tell you is a bad idea).
It is because of the way these news stories end up that so many people get turned off from credit repair when the fact of the matter is that the companies these articles are written about have little to do with actual credit repair and whether or not the practice is legitimate. The things they are doing wrong (taking people’s money under false pretenses) would be wrong in any industry.
Because they are promising to clean up people’s credit, and credit repair is seen as a target, these companies are portrayed as what is wrong in the credit repair industry. If instead of promising to clean up people’s credit, these con artists were promising to take care of people’s lawns and then not fulfilling their promise, you certainly would be reading stories about how to avoid a lawn care scam and how there is nothing a lawn care specialist can do for you that you cannot do yourself. But when credit repair is involved, it becomes an issue with the whole industry and not just the individual offenders.
It is hard to have confidence in a service when you hear so much negative about it, but when it comes to using a credit repair company, doing so may be one of the best financial decisions you can make. You see, there are quality credit repair companies that would never think of taking your money and running. These are companies that have been around for decades, employ hundreds of people, and have helped millions with their credit troubles.
Hopefully, someday more light will be shed on these companies that are doing so much good for people, but for now it can be our little secret.
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