Frequently Asked Questions

What is credit repair?

Credit repair is a service provided under the CROA that allows credit repair service providors to assist consumers in the correction of items on their consumer credit reports that prove to be innaccurate, outdated, or unverifiable. Any credit repair agency that claims to be able to remove ANY item other than those identified above is in violation of the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA).

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How does our service work?

Most credit repair companies try to get you to make untrue statements such as "this account is not mine." or "I was never late." This is yet again a violation of the CROA. Our processors will NEVER ask you to make a statement to any credit bureau or creditor that is not true. First because it is illigal, and second because those tactics simply don't work very well. Our service helps identify items as innaccurate, outdated, or unverifiable, as well as finding mistakes and violations by creditors in the credit reporting process. Many times when presented with these violations, the creditor will choose to remove items as opposed to deal with complaints to state and federal regulatory agencies.

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What items can be removed?

This is a tricky question. For one, we can't tell you upfront that ANY item can or will be removed from our clients' credit reports. Again, like all legally compliant credit repair agencies, we can only remove items that show to be innaccurate, outdated, or unverifiable. However, MANY items on most people's reports could fall into one of those catergories. For a list of items we have helped remove in the past, check out our results page.

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How long does this service take?

We provide all our clients with an estimated timeframe for service. In general, clients are usually with us from 3 to 6 months. However, this is not saying all items will be removed in that timeframe or that all items will be removed at all. This is just the usual timeframe people choose to stay in our program. Since we do not charge any fee until we acheive results, we work to acheive those results as fast as possible.

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What are all the costs involved?

For our credit repair service costs, please refer to our pricing page. This section will serve to inform you of all other associated costs. These costs may include:

A credit monitoring account. This will cost roughly $15 per month

Postage. Some of our letters are recommended to be sent certified return receipt. This is not a requirement but comes highly recommended.

Printing, Paper, Ink, Envelopes. This is a negligable cost, but hey... you asked about ALL associated costs.

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Why do I mail my own letters?

Most other credit repair companies mail your correspondence for you. They do this to hide their tactics from you. They don't want you to see that all they do is claim the items are "not yours" over and over. In our service, you print, sign, and mail your own dispute letters. We of course create all of this correspondence for you, so your job is very easy. The reason we do things this way is quite simple. The FCRA (Fair Credit Repoting Act) states that the bureaus can ignore any letter that does not come directly from the creditor. We have no need to hide our tactics, so we take away that defense from the credit bureaus. They can't claim the letter didn't come from you if it has your signature, includes your proofs of identity, and was mailed from your zip code.

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Why do I have to prove my identity?

The simple answer is because the credit bureaus say so. Unfortunately, they use some wording in the laws to require you to give them information. If you don't supply the proof of your identity and address, the bureaus will simply ignore your dispute and you will get nowhere. Below is a list of what can be used as proofs.

You must send at least two of the following:

Driver's License
Utility Bill
Pay Stub with Social Security number
W2 Form
Lease Agreement
Bank Statement
Cancelled Check

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How much will my score go up?

As much as I would like to, there is simply no way to know the answer to this question. There are far too many factors involved in the credit scoring model. The biggest variable being the "human factor". We don't know what you are going to do during this process. You might get new lates, max out credit cards, get new credit, get new collections, get a judgment placed against you, or one of hundreds of other things that would change the outcome of your service.

REMEMBER! Complete Credit Care is hired only to help remove items from your report that you wish for us to work on, the score change is simply a byproduct of our service.

For a more detailed answer on how your credit file is scored, check out our Credit 101 Section.

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Will I get approved for my house, car, funding, etc?

We must make it very clear, Complete Credit Care does not give any type of loans or financing. Therefore, we can not tell you if you will be approved for any of those things. Many people come to us with very poor credit and hope to be approved for loans or funding programs with very strict financing guidelines. Remember from above, if we can't promise you ANY item is going to be removed from your report, how could we possibly assure you that you will be approved for a loan after working with our program? We are here to help and we help hundreds of people, but please do not expect miracles.

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Is there any way to speed up the process?

Short and sweet... NO. We want this service done as fast as possible. Think about it, we don't get paid until items are removed. We would love for there to be a legal way to make things "disappear" in seven days. However, it just doesn't exist.

Now for a little more detail... From the time the credit bureaus receive your dispute, they have 30 days to respond. What trips up a lot of people is that fact that they do not have to count weekends or holidays in those 30 days. This leads to the bureaus often taking longer than some people expect and leading people to believe that if it has been more than 30 calendar days, then they MUST remove those items. This is simply not the way it works. Check out the next question to see why you don't want to "speed up" the process.

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What about "online" disputes?

Some companies try to speed up their service by using online disputes. There are a whole host of reasons NOT to do this. Additionally, you should never dispute online either. Here's why:

When a dispute is entered online, it goes into EDRP or expedited dispute resolution process. This sounds great until you read a little further unto the FCRA. It clearly states that if a dispute goes into EDRP then the bureaus do not have to comply with certain sections of the FCRA.

Did you hear that? They get to ignore the law!

The sections they don't have to comply with are also quite handy in the credit repair process. One section is the "Method of Verification" section. If an item comes back as verified, they don't have to tell you "HOW" it was verified. Another section is the "Re-Insertion Letter" section. Usually, if an item is deleted, there are steps the bureau must follow in order to be able to re-insert that item. One of these steps is to send you a re-insertion letter before placing the item back on your report. The simple cost of creating and sending this letter drastically limits the amount of re-inserted items. If an item is processed under EDRP, THIS LETTER IS NO LONGER REQUIRED! They can just put the item back whenever they get good and ready.

Just take our advice... Don't dispute online.

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Credit Law References

Below you will find a collection of credit law references. Check them out, knowledge is POWER!

FCRA - Fair Credit Reporting Act
CROA - Credit Repair Organizations Act
FACTA - Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act
FCBA - Fair Credit Billing Act
FTC - General website for the Federal Trade Commission

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If you did not find your question answered here, check out our credit 101 section or click HERE for our contact information.