Credit Repair Law Firms VS. Self Help Credit Repair
Posted by : Craig | Posted on : Thursday, January 8, 2009
DELICIOUS
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There are tons of law firms that specialize in credit repair. I may get sued for writing this, but it’s my opinion that credit repair law firms like Lexington Law and others are scams.
Lexington Law currently charges a $99 setup fee and anywhere from $39 to $79 every month. Their business module and objective is to keep you as a client as long as they can because of the fact that is how they make their money. In fact, some credit law firms tell you that it could take more than a year and sometimes up to three years. No wonder these guys are getting richer. Imagine taking their average amount of $59 and multiplying it by 12 months! That is a little over $700 dollars. What happens is you get immune to the monthly fee in which they take out on a recurring billing cycle. Before you know it you’re 16 months into the program and you see no results in your credit profile.
Why pay $2,200 or even $700, when there are excellent credit repair programs available for less than $70? The worst part of all this is you perform the work yourself at the end of the day. So why pay them? In addition to all the paperwork you have to fill out and get notarized, you must request your own credit reports. Since the credit bureaus mail all documents to you, you will be constantly copying them, putting them into another envelope, and sending them to the law firm. You might have to do this daily! Where is the service? You might as well guide yourself with step by step video tutorials.
The credit repair law firm will then post your credit reports on the internet (security issues?) Then, believe it or not, even with all the money you’re paying to the law firm, you still have to log in to their website and choose which items you want to dispute and even how to challenge each negative credit item. To this day I don’t get why they are in business or why they even charge at all. You end up doing all of the work yourself. That is why the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) advises that self help is best. I totally agree with the FTC and with the right strategies, tactics, tips and tricks you’ll end up saving time, headaches and most importantly money!
All the law firm does is print out the letters that they send to the credit bureaus. Doesn’t it make you a little uncomfortable knowing that the longer they take, the more money they make? All they have to do is remove one credit card inquiry and they consider that they’ve done their job, so there’s no money back even if 99% of your credit report is still negative after three years and $2,200. As you can see, these law firms are often nothing more than letter-printing companies that make more money the longer they take. So why pay so much money to get such little service, especially since it’s possible to accomplish more with much less work at a fraction of the cost?
Eliminate yourself from a bad experience! Before you pay a law firm to repair your credit, you should try to repair your own credit.
This is a guest post by Juan from http://attractivecreditsecrets.blogspot.com/ in a series about credit reports.
Looks like you take issue with the business model and not who owns or runs the “credit repair” company. The model you described is not specific to law firm owned/run large credit repair companies. Many in the business are turning to this type of model because of the revenue opportunities that result from recurring payments. It certainly doesn’t work in the consumers favor…
I agree with your concerns over this “model” – but while some consumers may benefit from attempting “credit repair” on their own – most will fail for a variety of reasons.
There are a handful of good options out there for consumers who recognize the value of working with professionals that do things the right way with extraordinary results…
Whichever option a consumer may choose, their main concern to be to do the appropriate research involved before getting started. I agree that some consumers may fail, and that spending the costs may be worth it to ensure everything is done correctly. For others who may be more knowledgable, doing it themselvs would be a good way to save money.
What are some of the other options you can suggest to help out other consumers?