Rhetoric, Reality, and Credit Repair

Sure, it sounds good, but is it worth it?

Photo by Blaz Erzetic on Unsplash

Here’s a tweet from credit repair giant Lexington Law, one of the largest credit repair firms in the country:

They do a nice job of enumerating your rights when it comes to inaccurate information on your report.

Of course, as a credit repair company, they’d also like your business.

Here’s the reality of how this company has done business:

Credit Repair Giants Fined $2.7B for Illegal Activity | Advocate Andy | NewsBreak Original

The CFPB suit against the credit repair giants [Lexington Law and CreditRepair.com] notes the companies collected illegal advance fees for credit repair services in violation of the Telemarketing Sales Rule. Several million customers were victims of the scheme perpetuated by these companies.

By collecting advance payments for their services, Lexington Law broke the law.

This despite advertising that they will help you use the law to repair your credit.

Here’s the deal: Credit repair can take time, and no company can make time go faster.

You can do 100% of credit repair work yourself, for free:

How to Fix Mistakes on Your Credit Report

If a debt is actually owed and in collections, two things help:

1. Paying the balance and/or negotiating a settlement and paying it.
2. Time — the more time between your last delinquent payment and now, the better your credit will ultimately be.

Lexington Law (or any other company) may be able to walk you through the process, but they can’t speed up time and they won’t pay your debts for you.

In the best case scenario, negative items MAY be removed from your credit report and now you’ll owe the credit repair company. Unless, like Lexington Law, they collected your cash up front, in violation of the law.

In short, use caution when dealing with credit repair firms.

Even better, do the work yourself and save a headache and a lot of money.

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