ALABAMA A&M and AUBURN UNIVERSITIES

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contact Donna Reynolds, Extension Assistant Editor

CREDIT REPAIR AND CREDIT OFFER SCAMS TARGET CONSUMERS EVERY DAY

AUBURN, JAN. 29---Every day, some companies across the nation make appeals to consumers with poor credit histories. Many of these companies guarantee they can erase bad credit, remove bankruptcies, judgments, liens and bad loans from your credit files and create a new credit identity.

These companies promise, for a fee, to clean up a credit report so a consumer can get a car loan, home mortgage, insurance, or even a job. The truth is they can't deliver, says Dr. Fred Waddell, Extension family resource management specialist with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System.

No one can legally remove accurate and timely negative information from a credit report. A credit repair company could be charged and prosecuted for mail or wire fraud if they use the mail or telephone to apply for credit and provide false information.

It's a federal crime to make false statements on a loan or credit application, to misrepresent a Social Security number and to obtain an employer identification number from the Internal Revenue Service under false pretenses.

Under the new Federal Trade Commission Telemarketing Sales Rule, it's also illegal for telemarketers who offer credit repair services to require consumers to pay until six months afterthey've delivered the services, says Waddell.

If credit information is wrong, the law allows consumers to ask for a reinvestigation of information in their file that they dispute as inaccurate or incomplete. There is no charge for this, says Waddell. In short, everything a credit repair clinic can do for a consumer legally, the consumer can do for him or herself at little or no cost.

Only time, a conscious effort and a personal debt repayment plan can improve a consumer's credit report.

For more information about credit repair scam, write to the Federal Trade Commission, Washington, D.C., 20580 or call the National Fraud Information Center toll-free at (800) 876-7060.