The original heading I was
going to suggest for this column was: “Let’s Be Careful
Out There,” however; credit scams are so prevalent that
I will devote a whole article to it.
Many industries have a HIGH PERCENTAGE of bad apples as
opposed to small numbers. A few of these “let’s be
careful” industries would be: “make money at home”
(envelope stuffing or similar), “cheap loans” (overseas
money), “become a model,” (we market your invention) and
credit repair.
I could, and perhaps will, devote more time on these
subjects in future articles. Note that these particular
businesses prey on people with no money, bad credit,
and/or star-struck model hopefuls, or unwary inventors.
Let’s be careful: I am not-not-not saying that anybody
operating one of these businesses is a crook. I am
saying that the percentage of crooks in these businesses
is far too high and a few words will sum up this article
- DO YOUR HOMEWORK.
Let’s discuss credit repair in this article since I am
in the loan business. It is common for our company to
make loans for people who have good equity but poor or
horrible credit. Many of these people tried to clean up
their credit with a credit counselor, or similar name,
only to find that the “non-profit organization” took
money from them to fix their credit and then did NOTHING
other than skip town. As an example, one of these
organizations collected $810.00 (in cash) from a debtor
and sent us their company check. Well, the check
bounced! The poor customer was out $810.00 and Nick, the
president of the company, skipped town. Though I would
not normally use Nick’s actual name – I don’t mind
because it wasn’t his real name anyway: he has several
others. Obviously credit repair agencies deal with
people who have “dinged,” poor or horrible credit. A
credit “ding” is usually easy to repair and can be
handled easily by a legitimate agency. |
Unfortunately, there are people with terrible
credit who believe that they can (miraculously) FIX
their terrible credit by just paying someone money.
It doesn’t work like that. Yes, there are some
clever, unethical companies that manipulate and
abuse the system in such a way as to clean
legitimate bad debts. It is usually this type of
unethical – abuse the system – type of company that
often defrauds the person that was looking for a
“quick fix.”
Have you seen an ad in the PennySaver or
Recycler? Have you seen flyers tacked up on
telephone poles? Check them out carefully. How long
has this company been in business? How long has this
company been at the same address? Check with the
Better Business Bureau and then do more checking
before giving this company any money.
In summation, there are many legitimate credit
repair agencies in California; unfortunately it is
the type of business that attracts a much higher
percentage of crooks than normal. Get my drift?
Check them out.
Have you seen an ad in the PennySaver or
Recycler? Have you seen flyers tacked up on
telephone poles? Check them out carefully. How long
has this company been in business? How long has this
company been at the same address? Check with the
Better Business Bureau and then do more checking
before giving this company any money.
In summation, there are many legitimate credit
repair agencies in California; unfortunately it is
the type of business that attracts a much higher
percentage of crooks than normal. Get my drift?
Check them out.
Peter Rosenthal
VIP Trust Deed Company |