A company operating under the name of the national credit repair agency was charged with engaging in fraudulent credit repair activities by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). According to information released by the FTC in August of 2003, this national credit repair agency agreed to pay over a million dollars in consumer redress. For more than 90 years the FTC has been investigating consumer complaints of fraud and unfair business practices. They also gather and publish consumer information to educate and inform. Their investigation of the national credit repair agency related to fraudulent business practices.

According to the information released by the FTC, the national credit repair agency claimed to own a unique and valuable software system that could remove any information from a consumers credit report. By agreeing to make amends, the national credit repair agency was not required to admit that they had done anything wrong or illegal. Any credit repair agency must use care in the claims that they make, just as any company in any industry must.

Consumers have the right to dispute any information contained on their credit reports that they believe to be inaccurate, misleading, outdated or unverifiable. A credit repair agency should not suggest that a consumer dispute information which is accurate. According to the allegations, national credit repair did suggest that its customers dispute every negative item on their credit report, whether the information was accurate or not. According to the FTCs complaint, the national credit repair agency did not have any special computer disc and by making this and other false claims, they had enticed more than 183,000 consumers to spend more than $53 million on credit repair services that were unsuccessful if the information contained on the customers credit report could be verified by the reporting credit bureau.

The FTC advises consumers to beware of any credit repair agency which claims to be able to achieve results in a very short period of time. Credit bureaus have thirty days to investigate disputes. If a credit report contains inaccurate information, the credit bureau may respond in less than thirty days, but chances are they will take their time. There are many legal methods that a consumer can use to improve his or her credit score and a reputable credit repair agency will be aware of all of these. There are also illegal methods, such as file segregation, using employer identification numbers and making false statements on credit applications. The consumer would be wise to steer clear of any credit repair agency which recommends any of these options.

The FTCs investigation of the national credit repair agency is just one example of the efforts that the commission makes on behalf of consumers throughout the United States. For more information about their investigations or to make a complaint against a specific company, visit their official website.

For more information about how a reputable credit repair agency can help you improve your credit scores, visit the Credit Repair Blog.