Credit Repair Strategies to Avoid Like the Plague
June 18, 2009
By Mike Wayman
There are vast numbers of credit repair plots and schemes proffered on the Internet. Some are designed to merely take your money. Others, however, while also designed to take your money, can get you in to serious legal trouble. Let me introduce you to the “Personal Credit Number” sometimes known as a CPN or PCN. This strategy requires you to get a new Employee Identification Number from the Internal Revenue Service and the “credit repair” company tells you they will create a new credit profile for you utilizing this new number.
This “new” credit profile is supposed to be a fresh start. In reality, using this new credit profile is considered a misrepresentation of your true identity and is nothing less than fraudulent if you apply for credit using this number. If you default on credit utilizing this fraudulent identity be advised that the credit issuer may very well come after you for fraud and they will be well within their rights.
This scam isn’t new and it has been used to defraud creditors for years. Some of these scams are simple while others far more ornate and calculated. For instance, some companies actually sell credit profiles with active CPN numbers and tell their clients they will never have to pay their debts back. These companies may promise signature lines of credit and credit cards as part of the package in their service agreements.
If anyone tells you they will create a brand new credit profile for you utilizing a different social security number or a CPN stay far, far away from the company. You can find yourself in a heap of trouble.
Credit repair isn’t easy and some people make it seem as though they can perform miracles. A CPN and a new profile may not be a miraculous achievement as many people have acquired these “new credit profiles” but it certainly is something to stay away from.
Who Should You Order Your Credit Report From?
June 15, 2009
By Mike Wayman
With so many credit report companies offering credit report services these days it can be difficult to tell who to get your credit reports from. National television commercials offer free credit reports to consumers but there has to be a catch, right?
The catch is quite simple. Many of these “free” credit report providers aren’t the well intentioned do-gooders they say they are. In fact, what they’re really after is what’s known as an “up-sell” in the sales industry. Sure, they might give you something that looks like a full fledged credit report, but what they’re really after is the ability to sell you their products and services.
The most annoying aspect of these free credit report websites is that they will continue to email you for years if you let them in their efforts to sell you their credit repair services. I like to think of these free credit report sites as gigantic bait and switch schemes. They reel you in with the bait (a free credit report) but they immediately switch to sales as soon as they give you the report.
You also need to be careful about who you give your social security number to these days. As a former police officer I’m highly suspicious of anyone that asks me to give out my social security number, especially when the product they provide is completely free of charge. Isn’t your social security number more valuable than a free credit report?
My advice is to get your credit reports directly from the credit bureau’s themselves. Just Google Experian, Transunion, and Equifax. You’ll be able to get a valid copy of your credit report directly from the source.
If you are looking for a free credit report to begin the credit repair process, I would first seek out a trustworthy credit repair company and ask what the credit repair representative advises. Some companies will want you to order your reports directly from the bureaus while other credit repair firms will want to pull credit on your behalf. If you are seeking a credit report for your own use, the bureaus will give you a free copy every year if you ask for it.
