If you are trying to avoid foreclosure, or obtain any kind of home loan, you are probably very concerned about an important number: your credit score. Unfortunately, there are scammers out there who make their living by taking advantage of unsuspecting people by providing phony credit repair solutions. The Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, regularly cautions consumers to be wary of any credit repair solution that promises to fix your credit problems for you.

If you’re serious about fixing your credit, here is what you need to do:

• Monitor your credit report regularly. If you haven’t seen it for a while, now is the time. Order one and study it for errors. If you see something that you don’t understand, contact the agency and ask them.

• If you can’t pay off your debt in full now, ask your creditors if you can work out some type of payment plan.

• Monitor your current credit card spending—most Americans are literally drowning in credit card debt, but there is no reason why you need to be one of them. Most of us consider certain things necessities, when in reality, they are expensive luxuries that we all can do without.

In the mean time, here are some of the most common credit repair scams:

• Promising to fix your credit using secret loopholes in the system. In other words, any company that promises to help you fix your credit without having to pay off your debt.

• Requesting money upfront. If you are desperate to fix your credit, you may think that paying a small upfront fee is no big deal, but this should be a red flag for anyone. Asking for money upfront is a sure sign that you won’t be hearing from this so-called “company” again once your check clears.

• Discouraging you from contacting the major credit bureaus. Again, this is exactly what you need to be doing. They just don’t want you to, because it will help to expose them as the frauds they are.

Be smart about your credit, and remember the old caveat: anything that sounds too good to be true usually is

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 8:08 am and is filed under Credit Repair. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.