Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Disregard references and testimonials, do your research instead
Someone asked me for references today.
At least half the credit problems are the result of people believing advertisements, testimonials, references and resumes.
In about 1990 I attended the Roger Butcher seminar for real estate agents and he explained in great detail how new agents can fabricate a WINNING resume with references. Just about everybody has associates, friends or relatives who’ll be happy to praise the agent when prospective clients call. Considering the 6 - 10% commissions, the people who provide references can of course expect compensation too.
I learned that many of my foreclosure clients had chosen their real estate and loan agents who caused the foreclosures because friends or relatives recommended them.
Not only were the people who made the recommendations not qualified, but most people will say anything for a limo ride to a nice restaurant or some cash or a discount off the next commission. I’ve had people tell me that they had recommended the agent they were NOT happy with because he gave them a nice gift at closing. Go figure ...
I’ve always made a point of NOT bothering my real estate clients with calls from people who want to check out references and I certainly would not subject someone who paid me $150 or whatever with to phone calls from people who want to know how well I did working on their BAD credit. Most people really don’t want the world to know that they have credit problems.
When it comes to real estate or any big ticket item, forget the references. There are ways to really check out real estate people, but that’s beyond the scope of this posting and takes some serious work.
The testimonials on the web are obviously made up.
There’s NO way to contact the person who is so excited about the wonderful goods or services.
Ebay openly supports power sellers engaging in blackmail to get negative feedback deleted:
Blackmail at Ebay - don’t buy from tech_google - L & T Limited
I’ve stayed away from Ebay, but was researching prices and products the other day and I noticed that more and more power sellers require that the buyer leaves feedback for them BEFORE they will leave feedback for a buyer.
2005 on planet Earth - nothing is what it appears to be. It’s all smoke and mirrors and lies and deception.
If you still want references, try a credit repair outfit like CreditAttorney
Obviously, none of the credit repair scammers like Lexington, CreditAttorney, Bradley Ross, Ovation, etc. provide any information about what they do, claiming proprietary techniques, and they rarely provide ANY info on the barely above minimum wage clerks who actually do the credit work. You can evaluate a typical letter and decide whether that’s what you want:
The SECRET letter used by credit repair scammers
You may have noticed that most credit repair companies proudly display the BBB logo and unfortunately the BBB is PAID by the businesses and obviously has a financial interest to support the businesses.
It’s usually very difficult to determine who you can trust and do business with. But you can’t say that I haven’t posted enough on my free sites to give you the opportunity to research who I am and what I’ve done, especially since I got on the web in 1995.
Since you probably don’t want to read my 50,000 or so postings, some highlights are linked at the FAQ
If you actually take the time to study the entirely free materials, especially my submissions to the FRB and FTC and the postings at Fight Back, you might not not need my services anymore. Which is of course the point of my entirely FREE publications, as I couldn’t personally assist the at least 100 million people who would greatly benefit from a personal consultation and I’m not exactly sitting around with nothing to do.
Often I get mail suggesting that I expand and HIRE employees and TRAIN them to do credit work.
And that just shows how ignorant people are about the enormous complexities of not only credit scores, but my clients’ lives.
My recommendations depend not just on the credit reports, but on my clients’ financial goals and time frame and whether they are willing and able to settle debts and/or sue creditors and CRAs, whether and how they previously disputed, etc. etc. Everybody’s situation is different and every client is different. Situations change.
More about the Credit Analysis
I’ve been asked to evaluate software that recommends disputes and actions to improve scores.
It is SCARY, very very scary to see what loan agents and others use to charge people for “credit repair.”
I depend on computers and software, but those are TOOLS to organize and process data and to help ME analyze, ask questions and find solutions. Software and those score simulators do NOT work.
Please also note the absence of any advertisements and an affiliate program for CreditFactors.
I don’t want to have to double or triple the fee due to advertising expenses, spam complaints and all kinds of related problems.
If I could find just ONE credit repair company I could recommend, I’d never have to work again!
The affiliate commissions range from about $20 to $50 for each new sign-up! Of course they pay so much because they suck, they don’t have a single qualified employee and some clueless clerk “works” on your file on average about 20-30 minutes per month by submitting frivolous disputes for often GOOD accounts to the CRAs and creditors.
I can say this because it’s true. The credit *lawyers* have been noticed and have yet to sue me despite my numerous invitations.
I sure wish that it was easier to find qualified professionals.
I maintain the websites and do just about everything myself. It’s less time consuming to learn how to do stuff than to try to find someone who is competent and can be trusted to do a good job. I consider myself very fortunate that I found a trustworthy competent person to manage my server. It’s not about reviewing credit reports or bank statements, it’s a matter of either knowing people for literally years or knowing what they’ve done (if published, easy to do), doing some business with them and *experiencing* how they do.
