The Truth About Credit Repair Ranking Sites
Credit repair services are a hard thing to shop for. It’s not like you can go down to the local store and try them on, compare them side by side, or take one for a test drive. Odds are you also can’t ask around to see which companies your friends are using because most people haven’t even heard of credit repair, let alone signed up for a credit repair service.
So when you are shopping for a credit repair company, you may start by reading through the websites of the various companies you come across online. In a perfect world, everyone would be 100% honest and upfront, and this would be enough to make a well informed decision. Unfortunately, that is not the case and it can be hard to separate the legitimate companies from the outright liars. For example, one well known company in the industry makes it a point to publish their deletion numbers yearly. Since they are a very large company, these numbers are typically very impressive and are a good selling point. Recognizing this, there are a handful of other companies who also “publish” deletion numbers that are even higher and more impressive. The problem is that these companies are so small and new that it is obvious to anyone who keeps an eye on the credit repair industry that they lying. But for people first starting to look at credit repair, it is less obvious that they are being lied to.
Online consumer today, however, are becoming more and more saavy – and skeptical. So while you may not know exactly which lies are being told to you, you know to take things with a grain of salt. Even something that is one-hundred percent accurate can be deceiving. Just like the expression says, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics.
So, knowing that the only thing you can count on is that a company is going to do it’s best to paint itself in the best light, you begin searching for more objective resources. You seek out the opinions of experts who don’t have something to gain. This is when you will start coming across the dozens, maybe even hundreds, of credit repair ranking and reviews websites on the net. While this may seem like a wealth of information you can use, the sad thing is that these reviews sites are almost always more deceptive than the credit repair company websites.
Think about this for a second, why would someone create a credit repair reviews site? Because they are so excited about credit repair that they enjoy objectively reviewing and ranking the companies in the industry? Not likely. Because they have experience using a credit repair company and want to share it with others? More likely, but why include other companies as well? Or maybe because there is good money in getting people to sign up for credit repair? BINGO!
Credit repair companies are willing to pay $50 to $100 and sometimes more for a new customer. This has made credit repair a very lucrative field for affiliate marketers who earn their money by selling other companies products and services. One of the best converting types of websites for affiliate marketers is a ranking site because it makes visitors feel like they are reading valuable, objective information that is making it easier to find the best company. Usually, the opposite is true.
Affiliate marketers are trying to make the most money they can so they are almost always going to most aggressively promote the service that pays them the best, regardless of whether or not that is really the best service for you. So if you see a website that lists the top 5, top 10, top 15, etc., credit repair companies, don’t be surprised if they are ranked according to who pays the most, and not according to who the website owner thinks is really the best.
In addition, the success of these affiliate marketers has created a new, far less scrupulous, type of credit repair ranking site. These sites usually look just like any other credit repair review site except that they are owned or operated by the very credit repair company they rank #1. And it is not just the bottom-feeders of the credit repair community using this tactic. At least two of the largest and most established credit repair companies out there have their own ranking sites.
Now, we don’t want to say that all ranking sites are fraudulent or that all affiliate marketers are corrupt. Some affiliates genuinely care about the quality of the information they provide and some ranking sites make a real effort to provide objective reviews. But as a general rule, affiliates are looking to make money and their actions will be driven by this goal. So before you make a decision based solely off of what someone website owner says, be aware of the motivation they have for saying it.
Probably the best credit repair rankings you will find is at TheTopTens. This website invites users to vote and comment on lists. The reviews you will find on that site are left by actual visitors of the site and the rankings of the lists are determined by visitors and not the owners of the site. Plus, if you truly are an expert in the credit repair industry, they allow you to create your own version of the list of best credit repair companies.
Click here to see TheTopTens list of best credit repair companies and to vote on the company you feel should be on top of the list.
Credit Repair Services are Cheap Compared to Living with Bad Credit
Compared to many of the other things we spend our money on, credit repair services are not exactly inexpensive. Most legitimate companies (as opposed to the scams that demand an upfront fee of thousands of dollars) charge a set-up fee in the neighborhood of $100 and monthly fees ranging from $40 to almost $100 depending on the types of services being provided. When you consider that repairing the average credit report can take 6 to 12 months, the total fees for service can be many hundreds of dollars.
So where do we get off saying that credit repair services are cheap? Because we are looking at things in a relative sense and at the end of the day, what you pay for credit repair today will come back to you many times over in the future.
Consider what it costs to purchase a home and the savings you can realize if you improve your credit score. If you buy a $250,000 home and get a 30 year mortgage at 8%, you can expect to pay $1,834 per month before taxes and insurance. By the time you have completely paid off the loan, you will have paid $410,000 in interest payments on top of the original price of the home. Now suppose you improve your credit to the point that you qualify for a 6% home loan. Your new monthly payment is now only $1,499 per month and your interest savings over the course of the 30 year loan are $120,000. Imagine what you could do with an extra $120,000!
Of course, if you have the $1,800 per month to spend on your mortgage and can get approved for a 6% rate, you don’t have to settle for the $250,000 house. For slightly less than the monthly payment someone with an 8% interest rate would have on a $250,000 house, you could purchase a $300,000 home. All because you have a better credit score.
So how can we say credit repair services are cheap? Because when you consider that you could end up paying $100,000 or more extra because you have a low credit score, $1,000 to clean up your credit is more than a bargain. It’s a no brainer.
Of course, some people will point out that you can repair your credit yourself, which is 100% true. Everyone in this country has the right to dispute the negative items in their credit reports and to do anything else that a credit repair company can do for you. Given time and experience, you could do everything to repair your credit that any credit expert can do for you for little to no cost.
But there is a caveat. Credit repair is not easy. Depending on your situation, repairing your own credit will likely require a lot of time, study, and effort. On top of that, many people who attempt to repair their own credit find it to be too difficult and give up without seeing the desired results. Some even make matters worse because they act without completely understanding how the credit system works.
An experienced credit repair company already has the knowledge of the credit system and experience with credit improvement to begin working on your credit reports immediately. They are also more likely to produce better results in less time than the average consumer would working on their credit by themselves. And when you consider the case of the home above where bad credit costs over $300 a month, it makes sense to pay a credit repair company to get results sooner than later.
To help you get started with selecting a credit repair service, TheTopTens provides a list of the top ten credit repair companies that has been voted on by thousands of consumers. TheTopTens also features thousands of other lists including the best debt relief companies, health insurance companies, and car insurance companies.
5 Additional Benefits to Having a Home Security System
When most people consider getting a home security system, they only consider one benefit of having a home security system – to protect their homes and family by scaring burglars away with the deafening screech of an alarm. In reality, there are many more good reasons to have a home security system that you will have a better chance of benefitting from.
1. Decreased Chance of Getting Burglarized
What’s better than scaring a burglar out of hour house? How about keeping them form targeting our house in the first place. Studies have shown that homes with alarms and clearly visible signage are significantly less likely to have an attempted break in than homes without protection. And before you run off and get ADT signs to put in your front yard, remember that many break-ins are conducted by people who know you and will know if you really have an alarm system.
2. Fire Dispatch
A home security system can also include a smoke detector tied into to system that will automatically alert dispatch when it detects a fire. So unlike traditional smoke detectors that are merely there to alert you of a fire, a smoke detector tied into an alarm system can make sure fire crews get dispatched to your home even if you aren’t there. Getting help to your home faster can be the difference between loosing valuables, pets, and even your entire home.
3. Lower Home Insurance Rates
Since homes with security systems are less likely to be robbed, and in the case of a security system supplemented with a smoke detector, less likely to burn down, the homeowners are less likely to need to file an insurance claim and when they do, it isn’t for as much. Knowing this, home insurance providers are willing to provide discounts to homeowners who have a security system in place. In some cases, these discounts are enough to completely offset the monthly monitoring fees charged by the monitoring company so once the security system is in place, everything else is essentially free.
4. Silent Alarm
A desperate criminal may try to confront you outside of your home and instruct you to turn off the alarm so they can proceed to rob your home or worse. Accounting for this, security systems today have a silent alarm option. Instead of punching in the disarm code, you have a special code that appears to turn off the alarm but in actuality alerts dispatch that there is an emergency. You stay safer because the criminal believes you are being cooperative, but in truth the authorities are on their way to assist you.
5. Door Chimes
This benefit may seem inconsequential, but it may end up being the feature you use the most. Enabling chimes in your security system will tell it to announce each time a protected door or window in your house is opened. This way, even when the alarm is off, you can tell when children enter or leave your house, if the dog has pushed a door open, or if an unwanted guest has opened a back window.
When you consider the safety of your family and the cost savings on home insurance, deciding to get a home security system is a no-brainer. Choosing the right system is a little more difficult so TheTopTens provides a list of best home security systems where people can vote and comment on the companies they feel are the very best.
Identifying Fake Credit Repair Reviews
Finding the best credit repair company for you isn’t easy. Credit repair isn’t like other products where you can try out a few and see what works best. Plus, just about every credit repair company offers the same types of services. With credit repair services, once you sign up, it will likely take many months and possible many hundreds of dollars before you know for sure if you have made a good decision.
This is why reviews are so popular. Reviews are a tool for gauging the effectiveness of a company’s services by looking at what they have been able to do for other people in the past.
The problem with reviews, however, is that they may not be all they appear to be. Knowing how a well-placed positive review can factor into the decision process, some less than honest companies or marketers have been known to post fake reviews promoting their company or defaming their competitors. While this is an illegal practice that recently resulted in a company being fined $300,000, it still happens and is something you should be on the lookout for.
Provided below are six things to look for in a credit repair review that could be a sign that the review is not what it appears to be.
Use of Industry Lingo
Unless a person has fairly extensive experience with credit repair, it is unlikely that they are going to know what CRO, FCRA, FDCPA, and CROA are, and while they can guess what derogatories refers to, it is unlikely that they would ever use it in conversation. Odds are, a person leaving a comment like this is employed by the credit repair company being reviewed or at the very least being compensated for their marketing efforts.
This may also apply to a review that refers to the company itself using an acronym. If everywhere on their website the company refers to itself as Righteous Credit Repair but the reviewer uses RCR, there is a decent chance that the person is involved with the company.
Finally, for those who are interested, the acronyms stand for Credit Repair Organization, Fair Credit Reporting Act, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and Credit Repair Organizations Act.
Extensive Knowledge of the Credit Repair Process
Each and every person in this country has the right to repair their own credit without the help of a credit repair company. What stops most people form doing so is that they don’t have the knowledge of the process or the time and desire to acquire it. So, if it sounds like the reviewer is an expert at credit repair, ask yourself – if they know so much about it, why are they paying someone else to repair their credit when they could do it themselves for free?
Extensive Knowledge of the Credit Repair Company
Actual reviewers tend to talk about themselves and their experiences. Companies tend to do the same. So if a review is primarily focused on the company itself, it’s a good sign that the company is the one who wrote it.
Additionally, as with other shady reviews, the sample review demonstrates that the author has much more knowledge of the company than a typical consumer would.
Extensive Knowledge of Competing Companies
Note that this type of review is different from a typical negative review in which a customer expresses dissatisfaction with the service they received. In this type of review, the reviewer itemizes the perceived negative attributes of one or more other companies making it seem like the company being reviewed is the obvious choice for people looking for a credit repair service. Genuine credit repair reviews rarely provide state of the industry observations (likely because the average person is not well versed enough to be able to provide such an analysis) and instead focus on the one or two companies the person has experience dealing with.
Basically, if a credit repair review sounds like a smear campaign against other companies, it probably is.
Inclusion of URL or Phone Number
Marketers know the value of a clear call to action. It’s not just enough for you to see an advertisement, you need to act on it. That’s why websites have big orange Sign Up buttons and put the text “Call Us Today” next to a phone number.
Reviewers, on the other hand, aren’t concerned with generating traffic to the company. In fact, many reviewers don’t know the website address of the credit repair company they used off the top of their head and certainly don’t know the phone number.
If you see a review with a phone number ask yourself this; is it more likely that the reviewer is a satisfied customer who before submitting the review took the time to track down the company’s phone number before posting the review or is it more likely that the person already knows the number because they are acting on behalf of the company being reviewed?
Multiple Reviews in a Short Time Period
Many reviews sites will include a date when each review was submitted. If it seems like a company’s reviews seem to come in waves where many reviews are added within a matter of a few days and then months go by with no new reviews being added, this should be a warning sign.
There are a couple of reasons why this could happen, one good, one bad. It is possible that the company sent an e-mail to clients or otherwise requested that they visit the reviews site and post a review which would result in multiple reviews showing up all at once. Alternatively, someone within the company may have visited the site and posted numerous reviews in an effort to make the company look good. Using some of the other tips in this post, you should be able to tell which scenario actually took place.
While no site featuring credit repair reviews is guaranteed to be 100% free of fake reviews, these tips will help you weed out the reviews you shouldn’t believe in your search for the best credit repair company for your needs.
So, You Want to Repair Your Credit Yourself
Judging by the page on the FTC site titled “Credit Repair: How to Help Yourself”, the FTC’s official stance on credit repair is simple: if you have errors on your credit reports, you can take care of the problem by sending a letter to the credit bureaus. In practice, however, credit repair is much more powerful and complicated.
For starters, the definition of an error on a credit report is much more fluid than one would expect. Essentially, credit reporting errors in the legal sense include anything on your credit reports that cannot be verified as accurate. And as for getting these errors removed, not only are credit bureau disputes not your only option, but they are also not guaranteed to work no matter how egregious an error is.
Unfortunately, many people don’t realize this and dive into repairing their credit with a limited knowledge of the credit system. Not surprisingly, they don’t get the results they hoped for. To help you avoid committing the same mistake, here are four myths of credit repair to be aware of.
Credit Repair is Easy
This is probably the most common misconception about credit repair. The FTC distills credit repair down to sending a letter to the credit bureaus. Offerers of credit repair kits make it sound like you can completely clean up your reports by utilizing their intuitive templates. Producers of credit repair software imply that achieving your credit goals is as easy as entering the correct information in a few forms and printing out and mailing a few letters.
In truth, repairing your own credit is rarely so simple. It’s not just about sending letters. It’s sending the right letters at the right time. It’s about disputing the correct items in the correct order. It’s about contacting the correct parties with the correct messaging, and it’s about properly following up on letters and managing rejections.
Given the difference between the perception of credit repair and the truth, it’s easy to see why so many people give up on cleaning their credit reports before seeing results.
The Credit Bureaus are Anxious to Help
Another fallacy is that the credit bureaus are eager to help you resolve issues with your credit reports. In truth, the opposite is true which is why the credit bureaus have been fined millions of dollars for not providing customer service.
The credit bureaus make their money by collecting information about you and then selling it to lenders or right back to you. Communicating with consumers and investigating errors are things that cost them money and reduce profits. As you would expect from any company, this leads to the bureaus refusing to communicate with consumers, rejecting disputes, and generally employing tactics to dissuade people from working to repair their credit.
There is No Risk in Repairing Your Credit
So what’s the worst that could happen? If you try to repair your credit and fail, at least you’re right back where you started, right? Not necessarily.
If you don’t know what you are doing, you may find yourself worse off than if you had just left your credit reports alone. Aside from making future credit repair efforts more difficult or time consuming, making errors while attempting to clean up your credit can also result in your credit score getting worse, in renewed collection attempts on unpaid debts, or possibly a lawsuit.
Credit Repair Companies are a Scam
The truth is that the credit repair industry has seen it’s fair share of fraudulent companies. That combined with the messaging that credit repair is easy and the credit bureaus are eager to help you has led to the perception that all credit repair companies are scams. It is unfortunate that this belief exists because it has prevented many people who could use the help of a credit repair experts from taking advantage of the services they have to offer.
There are many well established and highly successful credit repair companies operating today that have been providing credit repair services to the public for decades. These companies have employed their experience and knowledge of the laws surrounding the credit reporting systems to help thousands of Americans legally improve their credit scores.
For those considering working with a credit expert to help improve their credit score, TheTopTens provides a list of the best credit repair companies. The site also provides thousands of other lists such as the top movies, best Xbox games, and best home security systems.