At Credit Repair Lawyers of America, we often get asked whether “credit repair companies work” in Georgia. It’s a complicated question depending on who is doing the credit repair and what things you expect to be removed from your credit report. Lets dig in.
For Credit Repair to be effective in Georgia, the letter must be written by a legitimate credit repair entity.
Credit repair companies write dispute letters for a monthly fee. Under the law, credit bureaus do not need to respond to these dispute letters that come from credit repair companies. They must, however, respond to dispute letters that come from lawyers. As lawyers, we legally represent our clients. Sometimes, we will get a response from a credit bureau asking for proof of our representation. We don’t send that proof; we merely sue them.
All three major consumer credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union have a department to screen the dispute letters they receive. They each have an algorithm to detect whether the letter came from a credit repair company or from the consumer. Again, if they believe that the letter came from a credit repair company, they do not have to respond. And frequently, they don’t.
Worse yet is when a credit repair company will dispute everything that is negative on a consumer’s credit report. The chances of everything negative being inaccurate are infinitesimal unless the consumer is a victim of identity theft. When a credit bureau sees everything negative being disputed, it often ignores the letter as having come from a credit repair company.
Letters from lawyers usually have a recipient taking notice, including the credit bureaus. The letters we send are legitimate and comply with the law. Our letters identify inaccurate items on credit reports that need to be removed or updated. If bureaus refuse or fail to remove or update the tradelines that we identify as reporting inaccurately, we sue them.
In order for dispute letters to credit bureaus to be effective in Georgia, they must specifically identify why the tradeline or collection item is reporting inaccurately.
Usually, this is what separates the legit from the illegitimate players. Credit repair companies will often dispute everything that is negative on a credit report with phrases such as “this is not mine” or “I paid this” or “I was never late.” None of these work unless the credit repair company attaches proof documents to the dispute letter. Remember, the credit bureaus have been sifting through dispute letters for many years. They know pretty quickly when a dispute letter is legit and when it’s not.
Our dispute letters are very simple. There is no magic in them beyond identifying the tradeline that is reporting inaccurately, specifically identifying the issue with the tradeline and attaching the proof documents to back up our position.
Credit Repair Companies are typically illegal in Georgia but Credit Repair Law Firms are not.
Georgia has made credit repair performed by private companies, illegal. It’s not illegal for a credit repair lawyer to litigate these issues on your behalf, but it is illegal for a private credit repair company to perform credit repair services for consumers. There is an exception to this rule. If the credit repair company is tax-exempt under IRS Code 501(c)(3), then it may operate. There are very few of these kinds of credit repair companies operating in Georgia. Surprisingly, there are many credit repair companies operating openly and illegally in GA on the internet. If you are looking for a credit repair company in GA, you should really limit your search to a credit repair law firm to stay safe.
Conclusion
If you are trying to legitimately clean up your credit report from inaccurately reporting information, you should see a Credit Repair Law firm. In fact, come visit us at Credit Repair Lawyers of America at www.crlam.com or call us at (404) 528-2058, or email us at [email protected]. We are happy to look at your credit reports for free and give you our opinion as to how we can help.
Join our 3 for Free program and we will send out up to 3 dispute letters for you for free. You can also join our Auto Pilot program and we will pull your credit reports for free every two months to make sure that they stay free of inaccurately reporting information. Call us today.
