Imitation
may be the sincerest form of flattery, but sometimes it’s illegal. Just ask the
people behind First Time Credit Solutions, who promoted their business as “FTC
Credit Solutions” until the real Federal Trade Commission shut them down. The
group claimed their credit repair firm was licensed by the FTC, and allegedly
took thousands of dollars from people after promising to delete negative, but
accurate, information from their credit reports. In fact, the operation wasn’t
licensed by the FTC — no credit repair service is — and didn’t get
true, negative information removed from credit reports, because that’s against
the law. The FTC is working to permanently ban the operators from offering
credit repair.
FTC
Credit advertised nationwide — online, in print and on radio and social media. According
to the FTC, the company preyed mostly on lower-income Spanish-speaking people
who wanted to modify heavy debts or improve low credit scores. It took illegal
advance payments of about $2,000 per person. The FTC said the company mis-used
the Commission name and an altered Commission seal, and boasted that its
connection to the FTC allowed it to lawfully “delete” true information about
late payments, defaults, even bankruptcies. In the end, all it did was draft
dispute letters full of false information for people to send the credit
reporting companies, the FTC said.
You
can improve your credit, with time and effort. You don’t have to use a credit
repair company; you can do it yourself or with a credit counselor. It doesn’t
cost anything to dispute mistakes or outdated items on your credit report. Some
accurate negative information will stay on your report for a time, and there’s
nothing you can do to make it go away sooner. Most accurate negative
information stays on your report for several years. Bankruptcy information
usually stays for seven to 10 years.
This article
originally appeared on FTC.GOV, by Bridget Small
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