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What Are Credit Reporting Errors
USING ARBITRATION AS A CREDIT REPAIR STRATEGY

What to Charge?

---Back to dashboard--- We recommend that you charge a flat rate for creating and sending dispute letters on behalf of your clients correcting errors. This can range from $250 - $1500.00 for an individual and $400 - $2,000 for a couple. You can offer other monthly services, which should be part of your service scope agreement. For example, you can offer a credit and Financial Accountability Service. This is not performing credit repair services but a monthly or weekly service you can offer your clients to help them stay accountable to their credit goals. Each month, you will review their credit report and make sure they are not using credit improperly; stay abreast of any negative marks or ANYTHING that will prevent the client from reaching their goal, such as obtaining a mortgage. You will call the client each month to review and let them know their progress. The client will need to have credit monitoring services, and you can charge them from $29 to $59 per month for this service. This can be a perpetual agreement until your client obtains their mortgage. The Accountability Service usually works when a client is seeking a mortgage and wants to stay on track until it is accomplished. Its best to align your company with Mortage Brokers or Realtors. Make sure you learn about the mortgage process to be able to help your client navigate this process. Another way to earn additional revenue is to freeze or suppress your client information for them for a fee. You can charge a flat fee of $75 to 500 to freeze their information with all CRA firms. Keep in mind that based on CROA, a credit repair company cannot charge upfront fees. Perform the service and get paid. Just make sure to spell out exactly what the fee will cover or the services you are rendering. TSR requires that you prove that the client’s credit report deletions or changes remain after six months prior to receiving payment if you use a telephone to secure the client. Internet sales are only subject to CORA only. Make sure your service scope is clear so that it is easy to prove results if using the telephone. Again, if you are conducting business face-to-face, you are exempted from TSR. Service example, one can offer their dispute letter writing service and credit report review via an online chat and charge the client a flat fee when you mail off the letters. You are only offering letter writing and credit report review skills. You will only promise to have ALL errors corrected or deleted, or you will refer the client to an FCRA attorney. The best part is that your service scope is direct and fully understood. One of the major problems you will have is setting a price point. This should be according to the current market value in your area. However, a good price point is from $200 - $750 per case or by the hour. For example, some charge $150 per hour, and you may work on a case for 2 hours, and the full price is $300 flat fee.  In some cases, successful firms can charge up to $2000 per case or couple. Set the price in the range that’s comfortable for you or that you are capable of receiving.  ---Back to dashboard---

The Interview Process (Building a Case)

This section will be repetitive but provide information in steps.

In this current credit industry climate, all clients are good candidates for credit repair services, but previously, they should not be behind on bills. You do not have to turn anyone away who needs help addressing errors on their credit reports. As long as the client is aware that it will not help their scores if they are behind on paying credit accounts. If they are behind on their bills, it is best to offer them budgeting services first.  Once their finances are controlled, you can start the credit repair process. But as stated before, furnishers must report everything 100 percent accurately. IMPORTANT: If a client is seeking a mortgage as their goal, it is important to understand how any action that you take could affect them, from settling collection debts to waking up old collection accounts. Each state has a statute of limitations about how long a debt collector can pursue old debt. For most states, this ranges between four and six years. These statutes govern the amount of time that a debt collector can sue you, but there is no limit to how long a collector has to try and collect on a debt. However, If you contact them, they can start the collection procedures all over again. Nothing in the act prohibits you from speaking with them verbally. But when collections accounts are paid after four years, they could be re-aged. It is important to negotiate and make verbal settlements. There are ways to settle in conjunction with a mortgage underwriter or loan officer to manage this task that will NOT affect the score and help your client close their mortgage loan. ---Back to dashboard---

Second Step Video. ---Back to dashboard---

---Back to dashboard--- Next Steps.

1. Just ask the client what their goals are or if is there anything they are attempting to purchase that requires the use of their credit.
2. Ask if they have ever used a credit repair company to dispute any items before or have they personally disputed any items before. This is a very important question for the sake of consistency and to build your case. If a dispute is different than previous ones, the credit bureau will have proof that you have lied previously to them, and it can hurt your case.
3. Then, make sure you obtain your client’s official credit reports from annualcreditreports.com; never take their word on what is on their credit report. Whatever they share about their credit reports, you will imply that you understand and will take a look to see how you can help. You will need their credit scores, too, which always costs your clients extra. Therefore, you can get them to obtain them directly from the credit bureaus or get them from credit monitoring services. Using monitoring services like Smartcredit and IdentityIQ is also great because if you are using software, most credit repair software imports from these services. You should become an affiliate so that whenever your client signs up, you can get a commission. IDIQ Affiliate. All credit reports, especially from monitoring services, will provide suggestions on how to increase scores, and you can follow that process. Even though clients can have the same information, most won’t fully understand it as you will.
4. Evaluate the report and list all negative items affecting their credit scores, and scan for errors. You can use the Credit Dispute Preliminary Form.  Credit-Dispute-Preliminary-Form.pdf
5. Discuss all the services you are offering and fees. Make sure you have a signed agreement and ALL disclosures signed by the client. Once the agreement is signed and payment is discussed, You will audit their credit report and provide an analysis of what you found. You will start the interview process with the client, going line by line on the credit report, asking your client about everything from names and addresses to accounts. You will look at your client's current utilization rate and the balances on their credit reports. Compare this to the date they were last reported. Then compare this to what the actual balance on their credit cards is right now. Why? if those balances are not reported yet and are higher and reported later, it will change their utilization rate and could drop their scores. This is why you should determine how your client is currently using credit cards or planning to make a purchase. Advise them on how this could affect your approach.
6. ASK YOUR client about each negative item(s) within the credit report and what happened. Ask for evidence,  but items can still be disputed if no documentation supports claims. You will just need to take their word for each item because you are building a case for them. Look for discrepancies with the report,  incomplete information, such missing data fields. Just have the client initial the errors on their reports to protect you from regulators because you can not lie and send in false disputes. Again, NEVER lie in your dispute letter.
7. But in evaluating the report, FIRST VERIFY and Check to see if there are any recent past due accounts. If they are, this client is NOT a good fit for repair until they are caught up on their bills, But you can still fix errors. If you see all accounts are paid up to date and only one account is past due, find out the problem and maybe this can be resolved.
8. Check to see if anything is outdated on the report, meaning over seven years or ten years in case of bankruptcy as well as If they are outdated, it will be easy to write a dispute letter to point this out and have it removed. Check for collections and revolving accounts because these hurt their scores the most.
9. Check for the missing dates, missing amounts, last date of payment activity, or when the last time the furnisher reported to the credit bureau. This is an important credit repair tool. Sometimes, one may get a client to pay an account that hasn’t been reported to the credit bureau within the last 6 1/2 years, and that one payment will start the 7-year clock ticking again. Make sure you notice this so that you can advise your client to wait it out until the account is outdated.
10. Again, check for personal information that is incorrect. It may be a good idea to dispute outdated and incorrect personal information first, but since you will be sending a detailed letter in the beginning, you can skip disputing this first unless you have another strategy in mind.
11. Next, you must figure out what is affecting their credit scores from what’s keeping them from reaching that goal. Most monitoring services will assist in this area. Also, the credit report will show what is negative upfront. Write down these accounts or mark them directly on the credit report you printed out; this is where you will start developing your strategy. (NOTE THESE ARE PRIVATE DOCUMENTS, AND IF YOU ARE PRINTING YOUR CLIENT’S REPORT, MAKE SURE THEY ARE NOT AVAILABLE FOR ANYONE TO STEAL THEIR IDENTITY.
12. Look for violations based on the 13 common FCRA errors on the credit report we provided here, and if they are there, pass them directly over to the law firm we have listed for you to sue the credit bureau. Remember the credit gets one opportunity to correct an error.
13. If they are not there, you will start your dispute process with the credit bureau. Use the McCarthy Law Firm Dispute Hand-book to help you build your client's case.
14. Also and this is very important: Credit Bureaus are separate entities. What one is reporting has NOTHING to do with the other. Sending what another credit bureau is reporting is ONLY a good strategy if there are inconsistencies in reporting the same account between bureaus. They are competitors and do not care if one is reporting, and the other is not. Make sure that you deal with what they are reporting in their bureau’s file and allow your client to take further actions if inaccuracies are not corrected when disputing. In other words, do not hurt them with frivolous, unsubstantiated disputes.
15. Collections:  Are they paid or unpaid? Remember, if they are unpaid, they can restart the collection process if you dispute them. Therefore, you must warn your client of this issue.
16. Create the dispute letter; again, it doesn’t matter how many accounts or the number of pages. You will see in social media that you should not dispute all accounts, but you are not using tactics or trying to trick the bureau. You will dispute ALL errors in one letter. Send all dispute letters by certified mail.
17. Give detailed explanations on each account or Bio information disputed as to why the errors exist if it's incomplete and why it should be corrected or deleted.

Did they respond? Keep in mind that you have to depend on your client to provide this information, and sometimes they lose mail. Therefore, you can send a reminder letter alerting them that a response was not received. If they respond and state that items are verified, you can request their method of verification. The bureau must respond with the furnisher’s information: 15 U.S. Code § 1681g - Disclosures to consumers.    

The question is what to do if they do NOT respond? ---Back to dashboard--- Next: Remember that the credit bureau is also governed by regulators and a business. You are building a case and want to exhaust your steps prior to sending to an attorney. The other option is to file a complaint with the list of sources below using the failure of the Disclosures to Consumers clause of the FCRA. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau CFPB https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/ File a Complaint to the Federal Attorney General’s office http://www.ncdoj.gov/Consumer/2-2-12-File-a-Complaint.aspx The Better Business Bureau in the state where they reside. https://www.bbb.org/consumer-complaints/file-a-complaint/get-started Afterward, you can contact an FCRA attorney. Because you have prepared a case for your client from the beginning, you can share everything that was done to correct the errors. The attorney will review your case and will either take your case or not. If there is no case, you are handed all possible disputable errors, and it is time to close the client file and provide. Educate them on methods of rebuilding their credit. The customer is paying you to use skills to have their credit report 100% accurate. If you explain your services properly, there should never be a dispute between you and the client. More Tips: You can open an account with Letter Streams to mail all of your credit disputes. If you get stuck, just ask us for assistance in our helpdesk; just email us at help@credithelpdesk.org.  You can upload a scanned image, too, if you need us to look at any non-legal documents.  MAKE SURE YOU ASK ONE QUESTION AT A TIME AND NOT A long narrative. Please include a phone number in case a consultant can’t respond in writing but can do so via phone.  ---Back to dashboard---

Nuances regarding The Credit Report

Mortgages and Car loan inquiries within a 30-day period are combined and considered as one. FICO does not count all of them separately. Credit inquiries will hurt so make sure that your client DOES NOT apply for any credit period during the credit repair process and really they should stop until their credit issues have been resolved. Also, check for collection accounts that are under two years old and open revolving accounts.   Credit Bureaus Addresses: Experian P.O. Box 4500 Allen, TX 75013   Experian Phone Numbers: 800-509-8495: Dispute Credit Report Items 888-397-3742: Report Requests & Fraud Help 877-284-7942: Existing Customer Support 888-243-6951: Business Credit Services 972-390-4908: Fax Line Dispute fax Numbers: 972-390-5790 Equifax Information Services LLC P.O. Box 740256 Atlanta, GA 30374 Equifax Phone Numbers: 866-349-5186: Dispute Credit Report Items 800-685-1111: Request Free Credit Report 888-766-0008: Place Fraud Alert on Profile 866-493-9788: Existing Customer Support 888-202-4025: Business Solutions 404-885-8078: Fax Number Dispute fax Numbers: 888-826-0549 - 888-826-0573 - 888-826-0727 TransUnion LLC Consumer Dispute Center P.O. Box 2000 Chester, PA 19016 TransUnion Phone Numbers: 800-916-8800: Disputes Items & Status Checks 877-322-8228: Free Annual Credit Report 800-888-4213: Purchase Credit Report 888-909-8872: Place a Security Freeze 800-493-2392: Credit Monitoring Customer Support 866-922-2100: Business Services Assistance 610-546-4771: Fax Machine Dispute fax Numbers: 610-546-4605 - 610-546-4771 ---Back to dashboard---

Credit Laws

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