Credit Repair Begins at Home?
I attended a seminar put on by the folks at Strategic Credit Coach on Friday. Their seminar was a lot better than their web site (http://www.strategiccreditcoach.com), on which I don’t have permission to access /.No, and I shouldn’t need permission to access /. That’s what index.html is for. Or whatever else is specified in httpd.conf. Trust me on this one.
The seminar was a mixed bag. On the one hand, there was a lot of good information about the importance of good credit, and how to go about improving one’s credit score. It gave me a strong desire to check out, begin monitoring, and improving my own credit scores, and to think about how I might help clients in a similar situation. However, it left me somewhat skeptical about the credit coaching business. On the negative side, the biggest thing that caught my eyes were the fees involved, which are probably reasonable given the level of coaching and effort provided, but still problematic, I thought. For six months of credit coaching and repair efforts, this company charges $995 for an individual, or $1495 for an individual with spouse. The first thing I thought of when I saw that was than anyone with a real need for the program probably didn’t have that kind of money. In retrospect I wish I’d ask them when they charge those fees, in light of the fact that they’re not supposed to do it up front. (See Title IV of the Consumer Credit Protection Act regarding Credit Repair Organizations).
I would urge anyone who’s looking to improve their credit to make this FTC article “Credit Repair: Self Help May Be Best” your first stop. I know in my case, my financial situation always tends to improve markedly whenever I pay enough attention to it. In looking over the wealth of other materials on other web sites (and even a few articles on this one), I feel a separate article on Credit Improvement Resources beginning to gel. Stay tuned.
