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Tue, 2009-08-25 15:06 - Brian Aber
Corrections

Thomas,

Allow me to correct the errors you have posted so people don't think you are intentionally misleading them.

"To clarify, Credit Repair is charging consumers a fee for the promise of improving their credit report and is governed by Federal law in the form of the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA.) Many originators provide assistance to applicants at no cost. This is often part of the mortgage origination process and as long as you do NOT charge a fee for the services - it is NOT credit repair."

In this statement you are completely wrong; Credit Repair is NOT charging a fee for a promise of improving their credit score. This is not only a blatantly erroneous statement, but indicated to me that the level of education you have pertaining to credit repair is limited. Any promise of specific deletion or score increase is illegal and all reputable and professional credit repair companies are aware of this.
Also, if a mortgage originator provides credit repair assistance for their clients' that means that they also are held accountable under the Credit Repair Organizations Act and libel for their comments and actions. You are also wrong in the final statement of that paragraph ... whether you charge or not, IT IS CREDIT REPAIR.

"We are seeing significant increases in the number of investigations and audits conducted by the repositories that result in the termination of broker or lenders access to credit data."

I've heard this scare tactic before, but yet all who state this claim have yet to produce a list of mortgage brokers who have been put out of business. Would you do so please?

"Compliments of the FACT Act, consumers can dispute most any item appearing on their credit report absolutely FREE through www.AnnualCreditReport.com and obtain results faster than are possible through any credit repair company"

I'm assuming you are inferring to the worthless online dispute system that the credit bureaus have plagued us with. The online disputes system, otherwise known as the "Expedited Dispute Resolution" Section 611a(8). The key phrases to note are;

"the agency shall not be required to comply with paragraphs (2), (6), and (7) with respect to that dispute" if they delete the tradeline within 3 days."

Paragraph 2 states that it is mandatory for the CRA to forward your dispute and all of the associated records you present to the creditor.

Paragraph 6 states that the CRA must supply you with written proof and results of the dispute process.

Paragraph 7 states that the CRA must supply you with the process of verification on demand from the person making the dispute.

The problem is that the law isn't detailed enough to say permanently delete or suppress the derogatory item. The CRA can perform a "soft delete" for about a month and then the derogatory item can recur when the creditor reports it again in the subsequent 30 day cycle. This is because the CRA's aren't obliged to tell the creditor the dispute ever took place!
This compounds their defense strategy of attrition and delay by allowing the consumer to think they are getting a permanent deletion, but it is only temporary solution. Since the creditor never knew it was removed, they will report it again and the CRA will put it right back on the report. Moreover, there is no proof the investigation or the supposed results ever took place that you would have received if the dispute was done by mail by a reputable credit repair company like HTDI Financial.

All in all Thomas, I understand you work for the credit bureaus, but you shouldn't produce these falsehoods about my industry. If your employers did their job better and could actually figure out a way to control the very important information they harvest, we wouldn't even have a job.
I personally work with thousands of loan originators, realtors, car dealerships, etc ... Whether they are referring their clients to us for help, or starting their own credit repair division/company they have proven that utilizing a reputable credit repair company only makes sense, however the economy is turning out.
We are an industry helping hard working people remove unverifiable and illegitimate derogatory items that has been around for decades and will be around for decades to come.
I'm glad I had the opportunity to educate you on these matters and if you have any other questions you may contact me directly.

Brian C. Aber
Senior Account Executive - HTDI Financial
Charter Board Member - National Association of Credit Services Organizations
brian@htdifinancial.com
877-877-4834 x704

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Tue, 2009-08-25 22:21 - tconwell - Thomas Conwell
Misleading and self-serving

Brian,

Acknowledging that you are an account executive for a credit repair company, your desire to promote credit repair is certainly understandable - but, when you promote your services to mortgage professionals, you do so at THEIR peril.

Your assertion that an individual (loan officer or otherwise) assisting a consumer in correcting an error on their credit report at no cost is acting as a credit repair organization and is therefor bound by the CROA is incorrect.

Section 403 of the CROA defines defines credit repair organization as --

"(A) means any person who uses any instrumentality of interstate commerce or the mails to sell, provide, or perform (or represent that such person can or will sell, provide, or perform) any service, in return for the payment of money or other valuable consideration, for the express or implied purpose of-- "

Loan originators often provide assistance to consumers regarding credit issues, such as how to correct an error or methods by which to improve their credit profile or FICO score. As long as no fee is charged, it is clearly not subject to the CROA - your comments suggesting otherwise are absurd.

Your remarks about AnnualCreditReport.com are especially telling. AnnualCreditReport.com was mandated by Federal Law (FACTA), not by the credit bureaus as you suggest. This "worthless system" allows all consumers to obtain copies of their credit files at no cost and correct errors absolutely free of charge with results often within just a few days - far faster than possible through any credit repair company.

It's easy to see why someone selling those same services for hundreds (or sometimes thousands of dollars) would want to quickly dismiss any mechanism that allowed a consumer to accomplish the same results, faster and free of charge - all with a few mouse-clicks.

As you are no doubt aware, all three repositories prohibit entities (and individuals) engaged in credit repair from access to consumer credit. Your comments regarding the repositories policy being little more than a "scare tactic" are insulting and dangerous to mortgage professionals that might mistakenly accept your wishful opinion as fact. An originator or broker that misguidedly trusts your comments can find themselves barred from accessing consumer credit data through any CRA nationwide and instantly out of the mortgage business.

It's easy for any mortgage professional to verify these facts by either reviewing their contract with their CRA or simply call and ask what would happen if they took your ill-fated advice and started up a credit repair company.

Thomas P. Conwell III
President, Credit Technologies, Inc.®
Director, National Credit Reporting Association (NCRA)

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Good bye Tom

Tom,
Acknowledging that you are the owner of a credit reporting agency and that you work for the credit bureaus I also can understand your wish to promote your services and theirs, but you're erroneous comments towards my industry were unprovoked and unnecessary.

In the BLOG you attacked my honorable industry by starting out with a blatant mistruth, "To clarify, Credit Repair is charging consumers a fee for the promise of improving their credit report" and you end with a leading statement to the direction of your company "If your credit reporting agency can't provide these crucial services, you need a new CRA." It appears the title to your response was a self reflection as, rather my response, it was your original BLOG that was being misleading and self serving and it is the reason for this whole debacle.

We provide and will continue to provide a valuable service to mortgage brokers, loan officers, realtors, car dealerships, and anyone else who wishes to assist their clients to achieve credit worthiness. Working on their behalf and going against the furnishers of information is the least we can do after they have been held back by the credit bureaus defense strategy of attrition and delay and being misinformed by the erroneous reports you sell.

To clarify - Credit Repair is the removal of unverifiable and illegitimate negative items from a consumer's credit report. It all comes down to whether or not the negative items that are on the report are meeting the requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and other various laws that protect consumer rights. If they do not meet these criteria, or they aren't verified within a reasonable amount of time, then by law they must be deleted.

In the past three years I have enrolled a litany of mortgage professionals and entrepreneurs both as referral partners or assisted them in starting their own credit repair company and I will continue to for years to come.

I'm glad to have the opportunity to introduce myself to you although I honestly wish it were under more pleasant circumstances. I come across a few anti-credit repair propagandists' like you out there and typically after a few conversations they understand that a majority of our industry is nothing but polite, warm-hearted individuals maintaining lucrative and compliance enterprises. Hopefully one day you will see the light and possibly even join our beloved trade ... I would even contemplate allowing you start a company through us.

I'm glad I was able to state my peace here and I very much so hope the next time we cross paths it is in a more professional and productive manner.

Good bye Tom,

Brian C. Aber
Senior Account Executive - HTDI Financial
Charter Board Member - National Association of Credit Services Organizations
877-877-4834 x704
brian@htdifinancial.com