How credit repair Works
VIOLATIONS REPORTED:
In most cases, creditors and collectors have 30 days to complete their investigations and send the results. You will receive various responses which must be forwarded to us. Based on your individual situation and responses from previous disputes, we will identify possible law violations and if warranted, we will file complaints with the state attorney general, FTC and BBB.
GETTING STARTED:
As part of the enrollment process, one of our trained Credit Specialists will review your credit reports and provide a consultation. The consultation is important because we want to provide advice and get feedback so we can do the best job. When the enrollment is complete, our Service Department will carefully analyze each report to determine what items will be disputed, how and on what legal basis. We will also start to see how we can leverage your current credit cards so that you can obtain more available credit.
CREDIT BUREAU LAWS:
Using our experience and consumer protection laws such as the FCRA, FDCPA, FACTA & the FCBA we create and mail a custom dispute letter to each of the 3 major credit bureaus disputing up to 45 individual items. Under Federal Law the credit bureaus are required to investigate. Each bureau is required to investigate each item by contacting the source that reported it.
INVESTIGATION:
If the source fails to verify the item, it is deleted. If it is updated, something has changed and if it is verified; nothing changes. Regardless of the result, each credit bureau is required to mail an updated credit report with each completed investigation.
CREDITOR INTERVENTIONS:
Based on the responses from the bureaus; typically we draft up to 15 dispute letters and mail to creditors, collection agencies or any other furnisher that reported the information. Interventions include validation demands, goodwill letters, disputes and information requests. This is a time consuming and expensive process that most "credit repair" companies do not bother with however; we feel it is absolutely necessary.
RESULTS:
You will receive updated credit reports approximately 30 to 45 days later; individually from each of the 3 credit bureaus. You may upload to your online account, email, fax or mail the correspondence received in response to our disputes. We will review the responses, transfer the results into your online account and determine what is the next course of action will be.
REVIEW:
Based on your individual situation, previous correspondence, results and responses from all parties involved in previous disputes, we will determine the appropriate course of action and continue attempting to correct your credit reports. In most circumstances the process starts over by disputing with the credit bureaus, only more aggressively. Creditors, debt collectors and bureaus are usually resistant to conform to the law. It takes persistence and expertise to root out the inaccuracies and violations committed.
REPEAT:
The process is repeated, tenaciously with persistence until your credit file is completely accurate and free of mistakes, duplicates and false negatives. During the process at any time, we encourage you to call us to discuss special requests such as settlement offers for recent debts that have been deemed accurate and to discuss possible credit building optimization. When we have corrected everything believed to be inaccurate, outdated, questionable or unverifiable, our service department will contact you to close your account.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Absolutely! Credit is goal-driven. That means that our goal is to help you reach your goals, and you are able to cancel your service whenever you are satisfied with your credit score. There are no cancellation fees.
The national average for completion of a credit restoration program is 18-24 months. By contrast, Rocket Clients graduate our program in around 8 months or so (as of Sept 2022) on average.
There are a few reasons for this: Nearly all credit repair companies use a model where they only dispute or challenge 2 or 3 negative items at a time before moving on, which extends the program time AND the cost to you.
At 1st Financial, we challenge EVERY negative item EVERY SINGLE MONTH, which means our clients graduate the program faster, same money, and can get on with their life and enjoy their new credit as soon as possible.
Absolutely! We have relationships with several lenders and credit card companies, and we have developed an Exclusive Line of Credit Building Products with guaranteed approval, no matter what your current credit score.
This is EXTREMELY important because how high your credit score can go is determined by the POSITIVE items on your credit report. Think of them like building blocks: the more of them you have, the higher your score and the stronger your credit profile will be.
ALSO, every piece of credit that reports each month can help minimize the impact of any negative items that may exist, so the more positive items the better.
This also sets you up for success AFTER you graduate the program, because lenders like to see thick credit reports with several lines of credit reporting positively every month. Likewise, lenders are skeptical of anyone that only has one or two low-limit lines of credit, because it does not show them if you can responsibly handle credit.
As our client’s credit profile improves, we can help them navigate the maze of applying for even better lines if credit, like the high-limit, cash-back cards or reward-point cards by letting them know their approval odds and best options
Virtually any item on your credit report carries the possibility of removal, including Bankruptcies, Charge-Offs, Collections, Medical Bills, Late Payments, Repossessions, Cell Phone and Utility Bills, Student Loans and Hard Inquiries.
Credit repair is about creating leverage against the alleged negative items on a credit report by compiling evidence that something (usually multiple things) about either WHAT is reporting (factual disputing) or HOW it was reported (METRO2 Compliance).
Each month, we send out a new round of attack letters, piling on to the evidence for why the credit bureaus or creditors should remove the challenged item, either because of a factual inaccuracy, a reporting violation or a violation of federal law, any of which can be grounds for removal.
Several ways. We send regular updates about what we are doing, including what steps we are taking as what our clients should expect.
We also send each client a progress report each month showing the changes in credit score, how many negative items have been removed or updates, as well as a short list of tasks they can take to help improve their score.
Each client also receives access to their own Client Portal where they can see their current scores, dispute results and send messages back and forth to their account manager.
Trust us, there is a LOT of communication. You won’t miss us for long before we are reaching out to you with another update.