Personal Credit Division - FAQs

The Foundation offers credit repair services through an affiliated attorney network. An Attorney enforces your consumer rights. Everyone knows that under the law, if you are accused of anything, the burden of proof lies with your accuser. In other words, if the credit bureaus are going to promote and sell information about you that can cause you economic hardship, they must back it up to the full letter of the law.

Congress has provided consumers the right to challenge information that is deemed to be inaccurate or information that is not properly validated under the law must be removed regardless as to whether it is accurate or not. Regardless of the accuracy, credit bureaus are often unwilling to invest the resources necessary or unable to get the credit grantor to invest the resources necessary to verify the disputed item. Oftentimes, it becomes a matter of economics. If the case is presented properly, it is often more difficult and expensive for the credit bureaus to substantiate the item than to simply remove it.

The law requires more than a form letter to verify that an item is accurate. If the credit bureau confirms an item on your report, the assigned attorney will ratchet up the intensity of our challenge and represent it. This forces the bureau to invest additional time and expense to conduct the new investigation.

2. Do I need to know exactly what is on my credit reports before I sign up for the service?

No! If you have been turned down for credit or pay sub-prime interest rates you need to restore your credit. Most lenders obtain consumer credit history reports and scores by subscribing to at least one of the three major national credit reporting bureaus, In turn, they must report information about their accounts to the bureaus. Usually, consumers do not know everything that is listed on each of their reports unless they pay for a credit monitoring service.

3. Is repairing my credit legal?

Absolutely! If credit repair was illegal, attorneys would not offer this service. Congress has provided consumers with the right to challenge information that’s deemed to be inaccurate or unverifiable or obsolete. Therefore, the disputed item must be corrected or removed if it is not properly validated (whether it is accurate or not).

Credit reporting bureaus are heavily regulated by FTC under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The law requires more than a form letter. Due to this fact, it becomes a matter of economics, the credit bureaus and credit grantors are forced to either spend the time and expense to substantiate the information or simply remove it.

The Credit Repair Organization Act was passed to govern credit repair facilitated by a third party. Assume providing credit repair advice and services were illegal, then there would be no laws governing how to provide credit repair services within the law.

4. Can I restore my own credit?

Absolutely! Credit bureaus spend millions of dollars to inform consumers they don’t need an attorney to represent them. Why? They have lost BIG court battles. Attorneys that specialize in credit law enforce your rights under the applicable consumer protection laws. Truly, professionals are often able to accomplish a task more quickly and more effectively than a novice.

Getting results from the credit bureaus as a layperson is amazingly difficult, complex, and infuriating. The Federal Trade Commission receives more complaints against credit bureaus than any other type of business. In February 2000 the 3 major credit bureaus paid a fine of 2 ½ million dollars for ignoring consumers requesting information regarding their file. Remember the credit bureaus are primarily interested in protecting their profits. Investigating consumer disputes consumes these profits. Sparking a mass number of lawsuits, the bureaus do everything in their power to impede your progress with credit restoration.

Restoring your own credit is like repairing your own transmission or representing yourself in court; it is possible, but you have to be willing to invest the time to learn the processes, assume the risks of inexperience and realize that it will probably take you longer and you will be less effective than a professional.

5. When the process is completed will I be approved for credit?

Good question. Yes, as long as you meet several requirements of the credit grantor, such as a good credit history over the past 6-12 months, length of employment, debt ratio, length of time at current residence, and amount of down payment, etc.

6. How long does it take to restore your credit?  

Each case can very significantly. The most basic variables are how involved your credit problem is and the responsiveness of the credit bureaus. Many cases are completed in 4-6 months. A few of the more complicated cases could take much longer. For example, a court action whether it is filed against your or for you will lengthen the process considerably.

Of course, you must have or may need to add positive lines of credit to build your credit score. Therein lays an unknown time frame where scores are concerned. Each credit reporting agency can generate a different score for several reasons. Primarily, a creditor 1) may not report to all “three” major CRAs, 2) may not report at all, or 3) updates in 60 to 120 day cycles.

7. How long do the credit bureaus take to respond to a dispute?  

By law, CRAs are allowed 30 days to investigate. They contact the creditor that submitted the information to verify its accuracy and then, within ten business days, the bureaus must send to “the consumer” an updated report.

If the creditor does not respond by the deadline the disputed information is deleted permanently. Occasionally, a good line of credit is deleted when some minor error should have been corrected. In that case, the creditor must be contacted to re-insert the account correctly.

8. Can a deleted item reappear on my report?  

Yes. By law, you must be notified before a previously deleted item can be re-reported. This most likely will occur when the status of the account changes. A creditor may report it has become a charge off, judgment, or collection. Rarely, it may be re-inserted simply because the creditor verified an item shortly after the 30-day investigation period.

9. Will paying off a negative-rated obligation repair my credit?  

No. That assumption would be logical but is not true. The negative item is not removed and can remain on your report for seven years from the date it was paid. Ironically, paying an old debt is not generally looked upon favorably as most lenders will only offer you credit at higher interest rates.
 

10. Does the law require an accurate item stay on a credit report for at least seven years?  

No. The law limits how long information can stay on your report. The CRAs and creditors can delete the item when they see fit. The time limit is totally arbitrary. In fact, the advisor to President George Bush on consumer affairs, Dr. Bonnie Gution remarked, “…it is our understanding that computer models that predict credit risk find that most information that is more than two years old is nonessential.”

Credit bondage punishes the debtor unjustly. Credit bureaus choose to err on the side of negative information. Jobs are lost, insurance cancelled or denied, and reputations ruined by sloppy collection and data handling methods.

Why are the credit bureaus not very concerned with the impact that selling inaccurate data has upon individuals, let alone the economy? The reason must be self serving considering the fact that many of their biggest customers are credit card companies and predatory lenders.
 

11. Are credit report records verified or validated?

A credit report is no more than an allegation. If challenged the CRAs contact the creditor to simply verify the accuracy of the disputed information (proof is not requested). In effect, the credit bureaus have placed themselves in the position of both judge and jury.

How is a system like this allowed to operate in our democracy? Simply, the focus is on profit. Foremost, creditors accept credit reports as the gospel truth. Furthermore, credit repair has become synonymous with fraud although it has been proven many times that errors are more common than CRAs like to admit.  

What can be done? By law, it requires more than just a form letter to validate debt and prove it was reported accurately. Consumers can choose to obtain legal representation to defend their rights. Truly, an attorney increases the intensity of the challenge and it becomes more difficult and costly to prove the validity than to simply remove the disputed information.

12. Does this program offer a guarantee?

It is important to understand that there can be no absolute guarantees involved in any legal matter. As in a court of law, an attorney could never guarantee that a judge would rule in their favor.

13. What are the member’s responsibilities?

As detailed in the Service Agreement, you must make sure that your membership dues and “correction fees” are paid as agreed and act as a conduit (as you receive information forward it promptly) to keep the wheels of progress moving. Other than that, being our member is simply an exercise in patience, fueled by regular updates that will come to you directly from the bureaus in the form of updated credit reports.

14. Will I be opening a new credit file?

NO! Establishing a new Social Security Number is very unwise and using a Federal Tax ID number as a social security number is illegal (fraud).

15. How will I be updated as to the progress on my account?

Credit reports will be sent to you from each of the three major credit reporting agencies regularly. As you receive them, you will see items being removed from your report. It is a little bit like losing weight, every time you step on the scale you are down a few pounds and eventually with patience and perseverance you reach your goal. Should you have questions regarding your progress you may always contact Member Services for an update.

16. Who do I contact if I have questions?

NACCR Member Service representatives will handle all of your service needs. If you need to make contact, you will be provided with a member service number, a special e-mail address and a fax number that goes directly to member services.

The NACCR attorneys offer the association heavily discounted rates. For this reason, Members may not contact the attorneys directly without incurring an additional fee.
 

17. How do I know that NACCR is legitimate?

Please consider these facts when considering an NACCR Membership. Member Services……
•   was founded in May of 1990. A longstanding solid track record
•   is a national association with members in 49 states. Thousands of satisfied members
•   assigns you a licensed and bonded attorney. Attorney can be held accountable
•   maintains Class A office space on the 17th floor in a prominent area of Atlanta
•  has created alliances with banks, lenders, financial institutions, attorney networks, accountants, financial planners, medical discount programs, computer vendors and others to bring you our unique member benefit package.
•  offers you a MONEY BACK triple results warranty. You get results or MONEY BACK
•  will make available before & after credit reports. Proof of demonstrated results
•  will show you dozens of testimonial letters. See what members have to say about us!
•  obtains most of it’s new members from referrals
 

18. When I pay off a past-due account, such as a charge off or a collection account, it will show “paid” and no longer be negative. Correct?

It is difficult to fully restore your credit without paying your outstanding debts. However, paying off a debt can actually hurt your credit. Negative items on your credit report are allowed to stay on your credit report for a maximum of seven (7) years, except for bankruptcy that can stay for up to ten (10) years. This 7 or 10 year clock begins ticking at the date of last activity. Making a payment represents new activity and restarts the clock. When paying an outstanding debt, you will change the account status to paid collection, paid charge-off, satisfied judgment, or paid ‘was xxx days late”. This is still considered very negative and appears as though you had to be strong-armed by the credit bureau to pay the account. It is almost always prudent to have a professional help so as to not further damage your credit by trying to do the right thing.

19. If a negative item is successfully deleted from my credit report, will it just come right back on my report?

The credit bureaus have cleverly spread this myth through the news media and government agencies. In truth, the credit bureaus will often temporarily delete a negative listing if they have not heard from the credit grantor for 30 days since an item has been disputed. Should the credit grantor submit verification a week or two later, it will be re-inserted. (This is called a soft delete.) Most of the time the creditor simply fails to respond and the negative item is permanently deleted. If the creditor verifies the item the account may still be deleted later in the process as the challenging process is intensified.

20. Are items such as bankruptcies, foreclosures, and tax liens impossible to remove from the credit report?

There is no type of negative listing that has not been removed from a credit report thousands of times.
 

21. The credit bureau allows me to submit my 100-word explanation. Will Creditors read my statement and take it into consideration?

No known creditors consider the information submitted in your statement. This statement only verifies some of the negative items on your report. The 100-word explanation should be the first thing deleted from your credit file.

22. Aren't the credit bureaus are a branch of the government, infallible, and above reproach?

The credit bureaus are publicly traded companies in business to impress stockholders. They are not government agencies. They are one of the most heavily regulated industries. The strict regulations stem from a public out cry of abuses and mistakes.

A recent survey by an independent research group revealed more than 70% of credit reports contained mistakes or errors. The prevalence of errors has lead to consumer protection legislation that allows consumers to challenge the bureaus and force the removal of inaccurate, outdated or unverifiable information.
 

23. Can't I create a totally new credit file by getting a federal tax ID number or changing a few numbers on my social security number?

This fraudulent scheme has proven to be complex, difficult and illegal. Lying on a credit application is a criminal offense and with the linking of computer systems it is virtually impossible to get away with. It is in your best interest to hire adequate representation and face the music by confronting the credit bureaus armed with the rights congress has granted you through the consumer protection laws.

24. If I were to build enough good credit, will it offset my bad credit and make me credit worthy?

Any amount of bad credit is devastating to your chances of being approved by a creditor. The approval is almost never in the hands of a human sitting across a desk from you. It is a computer achieving a point total. The slightest amount of negative credit will cause an auto loans interest rate to skyrocket. Generally, even a little bad credit (regardless of the amount of good credit) will cause you to be declined.
 

25. Is it illegal for creditors to take a negative, accurate listing off my credit report?

The law requires that these items remain on the credit report for at least seven (7) years.  When you speak to credit grantors, collection agencies, or credit bureaus, their typically under-educated staff may tell you all manner of such pseudo-legal nonsense. The law limits negative information from appearing longer than the legal (7) year maximum. The credit grantor or credit bureau may choose to delete the item whenever they see fit.

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