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Short answer
This page collects 18 short answers drawn from 2 guides in the Resources section of Credit Defense Hub.
Each answer is the same text that appears in the FAQ section of its source guide, and links to that guide for the full context, sources, and dates. Nothing here is legal or financial advice. Browse the Resources section
18 answers from 2 guides.
A fee collected before the promised work is finished. The Credit Repair Organizations Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1679b(b), bars a credit repair organization from charging or receiving money for a service before that service is fully performed. The amount does not matter and neither does the label. A setup fee taken at sign-up is the same violation as a large advance payment.
Yes. CROA § 1679b(b) prohibits charging or receiving any money for a service before the service is fully performed. The CFPB adds that some companies structure monthly payment plans to try to avoid the rule, and that all forms of upfront payment before services are completed are illegal. Lawful billing follows completed work rather than preceding it.
No. The CFPB states that you generally cannot have negative information removed if it is accurate. Accurate, current, verifiable items stay until they age off, which is about seven years for most negative information and ten years for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The disclosure CROA § 1679c requires the company itself to hand you says the same thing.
Under CROA § 1679d(b), the written contract must state the terms of payment including the total amount of all payments, give a full and detailed description of the services with all guarantees of performance, estimate the completion date or the length of the work, name the organization and its principal business address, and carry a bold-face cancellation notice beside the signature space.
Three business days. CROA § 1679e(a) lets a consumer cancel without penalty or obligation at any time before midnight of the third business day that begins after the contract is signed. Section 1679e(b) requires the company to attach a duplicate "Notice of Cancellation" form. Section 1679d(a)(2) separately bars services before that period ends.
A CPN, or credit privacy number, is sold as a replacement identity number for credit applications. The FTC warns that using a number other than your own will not get you credit and can bring fines or prison. CROA § 1679b(a)(2) prohibits statements intended to alter your identification in order to conceal accurate, non-obsolete adverse information.
Three places, and they are not exclusive. The CFPB takes complaints at consumerfinance.gov/complaint under the "Debt and credit management" category. The FTC takes reports at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Your state attorney general or consumer protection office, listed at usa.gov/state-consumer, may regulate credit services organizations directly under state law.
CROA § 1679g creates a private right of action against any person who fails to comply. Recovery combines actual damages, measured as the greater of actual harm or any amount paid to the organization, plus punitive damages the court allows, plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees in a successful case. Section 1679f makes any waiver of these rights void.
No. CROA § 1679f treats any consumer waiver of a protection or right under the statute as void and unenforceable by any federal or state court. It goes further: an attempt to obtain such a waiver is itself a violation. A contract that does not comply with the statute is also treated as void under § 1679f(c).
Legitimacy is checkable rather than felt. Confirm state registration, licensing, or bonding where the state requires it. Search the company in the CFPB complaint database. Read the BBB profile as one private opinion. Then test the written contract against 15 U.S.C. § 1679d. A company that charges before performing services fails the federal test, however polished it looks.
It depends on the state. Texas requires registration with the Secretary of State and a $10,000 bond. California requires a Department of Justice certificate of registration and a $100,000 bond. Maryland requires a license from the Commissioner of Financial Regulation. Florida's credit service organization part requires no registration at all, only a bond and trust account for advance payments.
No single national registry exists. Registration and licensing are state functions, and the requirements differ by state, so the record lives with a state agency. California is required by statute to publish its registered credit services organizations on a public website. For other states, the consumer protection office listed at usa.gov/state-consumer is the place to ask.
It shows complaints the CFPB forwarded to that company, the product category, the consumer's narrative where consent was given, and how the company responded. Credit repair complaints usually appear under "Debt and credit management." The database is a pattern tool: repeated complaints describing the same fee or the same broken promise say more than a total count.
No. BBB describes its ratings as its own opinion of how a business is likely to interact with customers, and says a rating is not a guarantee of reliability or performance. Customer reviews are excluded from the letter grade. BBB is a private nonprofit, so a rating is never a state license and does not answer the registration question.
Under 15 U.S.C. § 1679d the contract must be written, dated, and signed. It must state the total of all payments. It must describe the services in full detail, including any guarantees, and estimate how long the work will take. It must give the company name and principal business address. A bold-face cancellation notice sits beside the signature line, with a duplicate cancellation form attached.
Reports are free every week from all three nationwide bureaus at AnnualCreditReport.com. Disputing errors with the bureaus, and with the businesses that reported them, is a free right under the FCRA. The CFPB says there is no reason to pay someone to do it. Nonprofit credit counseling is a separate service, aimed at debt and budgeting problems.
Under 15 U.S.C. § 1679b(b) it cannot charge for any agreed service before that service is fully performed, and a review is a service. Beyond the timing rule, the reports themselves are free weekly at AnnualCreditReport.com, so a fee described as being for pulling reports is a fee for something available at no cost.
CROA reaches any person using an instrumentality of interstate commerce or the mails to sell credit repair services, so distance does not remove the federal rules. Several state statutes also reach out-of-state solicitation. Maryland's act, for example, applies notwithstanding any choice-of-law clause in the contract.
Educational information — not advice
This page provides general educational information about credit, debt, and consumer protections. It is not legal advice, financial advice, or credit repair services, and reading it does not create any professional relationship. Laws, procedures, deadlines, and dollar amounts vary by state and change over time.
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