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If you ever find yourself in a situation where you are struggling with your creditors and making payments to them in a timely fashion, you might look into several different credit or debt management companies and their options for help. Credit repair companies have an arsenal of tools and techniques at their disposal to help get you back on your “credit feet” and avoid the downward spiral into bankruptcy.
Options available include budget counseling, debt consolidation and debt negotiations. Before you sign with a credit repair company for assistance, there are some things you should be asking or looking out for in order to avoid being taken advantage of. Here are five simple questions you can ask when interviewing credit repair companies to make sure you are getting involved with a reputable and decent company.
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What services does your company offer?: A credit repair company that you want to use should not be focused on a single aspect on credit repair, because different situations require different techniques. A company that is focused on a single type of credit-repair option is usually doing so because it is the most profitable for them. Of most value often are the companies that offer budget counseling services, because it is generally a low-profit margin service and indicates that the company’s true goal is to help consumers learn how to manage their finances better in order to avoid difficulty in the future.
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What is your payment/fee schedule?: If the words “up front” are a part of their fee schedule, you should hang up the phone immediately and try someone else. No reputable debt management service will demand money from you up front before they get started on what they say they can accomplish for you.
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(if non-profit), Can you send me your 501-3(c) credentials?: This is to avoid being taken advantage of or manipulated by companies that claim to be not for profit in order to lure customers into thinking that they can be trusted and aren’t out to make a quick buck. Any reputable non-profit credit repair company will immediately comply with this request.
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Do you have references?: Again, you should get a quick and immediate yes to this question. If they do not answer to the affirmative, then you will want to do your own research online in order to find out what it is that they may be hiding about the satisfaction levels of their prior customers.
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Are you a member of any national agencies?: If they start spouting off names you’ve never heard of, then write them down and start doing some research on them later. Find out what these organizations are, who formed them, when they were formed and the names of some other companies that are involved in it.
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