Running a successful credit repair business is challenging at best with all the regulations and eyes upon your business. Following these seven tips can help you succeed as a trusted authority in credit repair.

Maintain Confidentiality
Trust is paramount to an exceptional client experience. People come to you with very personal and sensitive problems. Keep all conversations and correspondence private and secure.

Confidence – Believe In Your Ability To Help People
Regardless of the size of your company, you must put your best efforts to deliver superior service and understand that you are making a difference in the life of the people you touch.

Concentrate On Your Client’s Needs
Your customers should be confident that you are looking out for their best interest and are receiving the best service available.

Network, Network, Network
Always be networking with local financial business groups and businesses that deal with loans and financing. Get involved in online groups that cater to the clientele you are seeking to help.

Build a Respectable and Authoritative Online Presence
With the majority of people looking for credit repair searching the internet, it is important to establish a credible reputation and first-page website ranking in your local area first before seeking national exposure.

Deliver More Than What Is Expected
Deliver more than what your client is expecting. Don’t hold back even if it may exceed your fee structure. Add value where you can and deliver a premium customer experience.

 ender will pull an applicant’s credit report for virtually any loan application. However, even if you are not applying for loan certain companies will look at your credit report before approving you for services.

MoneyTalk News lists 8 types of companies that may have looked at the credit report of your clients or leads.

1. Credit card companies

Credit card companies will run a full credit report when applying for a credit card (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau CFPB).

Credit card companies also may purchase a data from the credit bureaus to offer prescreened credit card offers, thus the deluge of offers in the mailbox. This is allowed under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)

2. Insurance companies

According to the CFPB, Insurance companies are allowed by the FCRA to access credit reports in conjunction with offering insurance to or setting premiums for your clients.

Although prescreening is allowed by federal law, the customer seeking insurance can opt-out of the process.

3. Employers

Requesting a credit report by a potential employer is not uncommon in association with a background check. The employer must get a potential employee’s written permission before they can pull a credit report.

4. Telecommunication companies

Companies that handle phones, television, internet and the like may draw a credit report to determine your clients’ bill payment history and make a determination of the likelihood that they will pay their bill in a timely fashion.

5. Public utilities

In order to secure gas, water or electric service, a person could be asked to provide a credit report to determine if their bill payment history is in line with what the utility companies deem and responsible.

6. Government agencies and courts

Government assistance is a service that is constantly being jammed by unscrupulous people. These agencies, when people apply for assistance could be subjected to a check of their credit in order to prove they qualify.

Also, as permitted by the FCRA, credit reporting agencies can be required to release the credit history of a person in regards to child support and enforcement.

7. Landlords

Landlords or apartment management companies often require a credit check for potential renters to qualify them for lease. This provides a good barometer of their timely and late payments.

8. Nursing homes and assisted living facilities

You can be sure, that when applying for assisted living that you will be subjected to a credit background check. Assisted living facilities treat applications just like applying for an apartment. 

While these are the main 8 types of companies that can look at your credit if we have missed any let us know on our Facebook page.

In this article you will learn how doing this one simple action can help you grow your credit repair business exponentially and protect you from natural business fluctuations.

What is at issue here is your business is so good that you are being overwhelmed with files that you can’t keep up with and clients may be getting frustrated which leads to your frustration.

You might think that hiring additional staff will help eliminate the back log and remove the stress and frustration. However, I will dispel this as you read through this article.

Hiring a staff to process your influx of credit repair files can be expensive and time consuming.

First.
You will be adding to your payroll whether it is a salaried position or hourly. This will add significant cost to your business.  At $15 per hour that is an additional $31,200, not to mention the additional business taxes you will have to pay. This can take months and years to show a positive ROI. 

In addition to the taxes, there may be medical benefits to be added to your expense line. The average cost of a basic employee package is $18.80 per hour. So a $15 an hour employee can become a $30 per hour+ employee.

Bureau of Labor Statistics December 2018

This may or may not be part of your employee package, but important to note, none the less.

Plus, if your business has a slow period, how do you handle the additional staff you hired, do you lay them off and risk losing them to another job and lose all the time, effort, and cost to traing them?  Our outsourcing protects you from the peaks and valleys of runnnig your business. 

Second.
Training. You will need to consider how much time you will have to spend training your new hire. How much hand holding until they are able to fly solo to process the credit disputes on their own? This will take important time away from your responsibilities, especially if you are a small credit repair company.

Third.
As fickle as people are in this day and age about employment, what happen after your new hire is trained and they decide one day that credit repair is “not their thing”? If you are fortunate they will give a two week notice but it is not beyond the scope of imagination that they simply don’t show up to work one day.

You have spent hours of your time and money to train someone that has moved on, then the process starts all over.

Workers in service occupations, who are generally younger than persons employed in management, professional, and related occupations, had the lowest median tenure (2.9 years). Among employees working in service occupations, food service workers had the lowest median tenure, at 1.9 years. Bureau of Labor Statistics 9/20/18

There are a couple things you can do to protect yourself from higher business costs and employee turnover in your credit repair business.

Continue to operate the way you have been operating.
But we know that this is like climbing a mud covered hill on a rainy day.

OR

Outsource Your Dispute Process

The benefits of outsourcing are numerous.

Consider all the added expense to your business when hiring an employee, dispute outsourcing is a fraction of that cost.

Plus, outsourcing will allow you more time to work on your credit repair business instead of working in your credit repair business. When you get comfortable with your new dispute outsourcing association you will likely find that your level of frustration will decrease dramatically. No more sense of overwhelm and panic.

But you do have to be careful who you choose to partner with to process your credit dispute letters.  A lot of new one-person services have popped up trying to provide outsourcing.  They may have been an employee at another company or have some training, but they don’t have the capacity or knowledge to provide the services you are seeking.

Most credit outsourcing providers have a one size fits all solution. You can find yourself paying for services that you don’t need or want. This can be frustrating.

Your best solution is to find a reputable credit repair outsourcing company that:

1. Writes and process the dispute letter for you.

2. Provides varying levels of support so you pay for only what you need.

3. Is established with a proven track record of success and satisfied credit repair companies, and more importantly that the clients of the credit repair companies are satisfied.

You can spend countless hours looking at all the credit repair outsourcing companies, signing up, logging in, taking time to try and learn the back office interface or you can contact The Dispute Center.

The Dispute Center has been providing credit repair companies with outstanding dispute processes and results for over a decade. They actually write and process the dispute letters, offer multiple options and levels of support and dispute processing and have a long list of satisfied clients.

If you are tired of the frustration and feeling overwhelmed by processing credit dispute letters and all keeping up with it, don’t hire additional staff, contact The Dispute Center or call (616) 541-2322.

We follow a Comprehensive, Proven 3-Pronged Credit Strategy to Help Clients Reach Their Credit Goals.

Our time-tested and proven credit strategy has helped thousands of clients reach their credit goals. We have helped them obtain the financing and credit they were seeking. So you are aware, when the client participates, it allows us to complete their program faster, and helps us to maximize their results and credit scores.

Client Participation to Maximize our Credit Strategy:

1. Client communicates consistently.
2. Client forwards responses received in a timely manner. The client can reduce their program time by 50% or more if they send the mailed responses or emails as they receive them.  It helps to achieve better results and complete their program faster. The responses provide vital information not included on a credit report.
3. Client stays the course and avoids any additional new derogatory actions, such as, new late payments, new collection accounts, increasing balances with open credit cards, or applies for new credit too many times.
4. Client has funds available or access to funds to pay/settle any accounts that are deemed verified or validated, and a balance is owed.
5. Client adds positive credit, if necessary, and when appropriate, to boost their credit score beyond any increase already achieved.

Step 1: We verify the accuracy of the accounts the client believes are inaccurate. We verify and validate the accounts with the credit bureaus and the reporting companies. This will delete or correct the accounts found to be inaccurate and erroneous.

Step 2: If any derogatory accounts remain, we will provide resolution options based on the clients goals. The client can decide which option is best.  In many cases, it may be best to pay or settle the account to improve the client’s credit standing and reach their credit goals.

It is important for the client to properly pay/settle an account to protect themselves against future collection activity and to ensure the account is reported properly once it has been paid. We always recommend a written agreement of the terms and payment amount before any payment is made. We always ask for a pay for delete agreement, but those arrangements are not always available.

Step 3: We recommend credit-building strategies and accounts to help increase the client’s credit score. In most cases, this is needed due to the lack of positive credit. Removal of negative credit can cause a credit score to decrease temporarily if there is not sufficient positive credit. You should be aware, there is a proper time to add positive credit. If the client has open derogatory accounts with a balance owed, we strongly recommend the client resolve these accounts prior to adding new positive credit; the addition of positive credit can increase the collection or legal activity.

When the client’s program is complete, their credit file and credit scores will be in their absolute best possible status.

Call today to learn more and pricing info. Don’t forget to ask about our business credit building outsourcing program too.

Looking to build business credit the right way?

At The Dispute Center, we understand the struggles that business owners face when it comes to personal and business credit issues. That’s why we offer outsourcing services to help your clients build or correct their business or personal credit.  Better credit is their gateway to better business funding at a lower cost. With our expert guidance and six-step business credit process, we will position your clients for maximum funding with the best rates and terms.

We start by checking your business foundation and establishment, review personal and business credit reports, and evaluate credit profiles. From there, we establish any missing business credit profiles, help establish trade accounts, and confirm reporting to your business credit profiles. We then move on to the establishment of revolving trade accounts, laying the groundwork for future funding opportunities.

Although the process of building or correcting business credit can be complicated, The Dispute Center strives to make it as easy as possible for both you and your clients.

Here are the basic steps we take to position your business with the best business credit possible.

Step 1: Checking Compliance:
This step includes the review of the business owner’s business filing and entity setup to determine it is proper, legal, and correct. This allows us to determine the current phase the business is at and the best strategy to move forward. If they are not established, we can help them with their business filing.  If there are any issues with their existing setup, we will work to get the issues corrected.

Step 2: Establishing Business Credit Profiles:
During this phase, we determine if the business has existing business credit profiles.  If not, we will work to establish business credit profiles with D&B, Experian Business, and Equifax Business Credit. If there are existing business credit profiles established, we will review them along with the personal credit reports to determine the best strategy to build or repair their credit profiles.

Step 3: Establishing Trade Accounts:
If the business has no business credit accounts reporting, we assist in establishing trade vendor accounts starting with Net 30 merchant trade accounts. Once the vendor accounts are reporting activity we continue to establish next tier accounts.

Step 4: Business Credit Profile Confirmation:
Most businesses will begin receiving “pre-approved offers” around this time. We monitor reports to confirm that credit files are active and accounts are reporting through all major business credit bureaus that were established in step two.

Step 5: Establishment of Revolving Trade Accounts:
After merchant trade accounts are established, the business credit profile becomes well-rounded through the opening of revolving trade accounts. These accounts lay the groundwork for traditional, bank-type business credit.

Step 6: Opening Business Tax-ID Credit Card:
After a period of time in which the vendor and revolving trade accounts have positive reporting and payment history, we help the business owner apply and receive their first unsecured credit card.  Depending on the age of the business, business revenue, profitability, and overall business profile, the business may receive approval for funding based on the business tax ID instead of their personal social security number.

With our program typically completed within 6-12 months, your clients will be well on their way to building a strong credit foundation.

Don’t navigate the complexities of helping your clients build business credit alone – contact us today to find out more about our business credit building services.

Our dedicated team is here to support you every step of the way. 

Don’t forget to ask about our personal credit programs and lead generation services.