In The World Of Credit Repair Companies, It Is Buyer Beware

When it comes to making a decision about which credit repair company to go with, most base their decision purely on price. If you are taking your credit repair seriously, this can be huge mistake.

What most people don't know is that all those credit repair companies that charge on a monthly service fee basis are only going to do a very small amount of work each month. If you are like the average person with bad credit, you most likely have an average of 8-15 negative items on each of your 3 credit reports. If you are only paying a $49 - $79 monthly service fee, they are only going to work on 1-2 items at a time. Keep in mind also that with the monthly service fee model, the credit repair company's motivation is to keep you paying as long as possible. You may easily end up paying far more, with fewer results, than you would have with a company that offers a flat-rate program.

With the flat-rate payment model, the company is motivated to get your credit cleaned up as quickly as possible, and that is what most people are looking for, isn't it? I have never spoken to a client who wanted to clean up their credit slowly. With all that said, you need to be very careful when choosing the right credit repair company, as they are not all created equally? The first thing you should do is check out their complaints record. If the company has been in business for more than a few years and has not been providing a good service, you will hear about it on the Internet. Just go to Google and type in "[company name] complaints". If you get more than just a few complaints about the company, you should beware.

Consumers have been warned by The Federal Trade Commission to stay away from credit repair companies, and not to work with any company who charges an up-front fee. The reason for this is that they are tired of getting complaints about credit repair companies that take money and not perform any work. Since the FTC cannot recommend any particular company, their policy is to simply tell everyone to stay away. Many companies have since adopted the model of charging a monthly service fee instead of charging for the credit repair itself. They have found it to be easy money, as most clients will sign up for this type of service and forget about it; leaving the credit repair company to continue receiving payments for a long period of time with no obligation of work.

Many times each week we receive calls from people who have been client's with a monthly service fee credit repair program for over a year, and have seen no, or only a couple of deletions on their credit reports. I personally find this appalling, and so should you.

Hopefully this will give you some useful information that will help you in your quest for the right credit repair company.