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Special Reports
Credit Restoration
TRW: Not Just About Repairing a Consumer's Credit
By Brad Finkelstein
It is not just enough to offer credit repair services to consumers who need to
have their credit scores improved. These consumers also need to learn how to keep their credit scores up.
TRW Credit Group LLC here offers not only credit repair and restoration, but also
education services, said its national sales director, Julia Clinton. "So while they are getting their credit
repaired, we educate them on how to maintain a good credit rating, what accounts to pay off, what accounts to re-establish
and how to rebuild, re-establish, maintain and maximize their best scores," she said. The company's motto
is "we repair your credit, we repair your life."
The company's disputing department gets negative items that are incorrect removed
from their credit bureau files. "We remove out of date, incorrect, obsolete and unverifiable information off
of the credit bureau," she said.
TRW is licensed and bonded in Texas, and Ms. Clinton said it is the only credit
repair company without any complaints on file with the Better Business Bureau and the attorney general's office.
It follows the disputing laws as per the state of Texas, but it does business on a nationwide basis.
The company disputes all negative information on the file, unless the customer
tells it the information is accurate. "We know the laws and what to say and how to say it in accordance with
them to get these things removed. Do we get everything off on everybody? No. Not everything off on everybody every
time. We get 95% or more off, enough where we average raising credit scores 120 to 200 points and it normally takes
three to six months in most cases," she said.
It removes bankruptcies, foreclosures, tax liens, civil liens, judgments, repossessions,
charge-offs, medical bills, student loans, late and slow pays, inquiries, and old and incorrect personal information.
"We update your entire credit profile," she said, adding the one thing the company does not go after,
for moral reasons, is delinquent child support. "It is a process, it's not a miracle, it's not magic."
It takes time for things to be removed.
To its customers it offers 0% financing to help make its program affordable to
them.
The three main credit bureaus are "billion-dollar corporations and they are
not out there for consumer benefit," she said, adding if there an item in the file and the computer put it
there by mistake because of a misplaced digit, they are loathe to change it and the consumer is hurt.
The bureaus tell consumers they can do the disputing themselves, but the consumers
find it impossible to have success. "I am very much a consumer advocate," Ms. Clinton said, adding she
left a career in pharmaceutical sales management to this "because I believe in this so much," adding
she is a past client herself. There was a past derogatory item on her file, but this item was not being reported
correctly for years.
And this is common, she said, because in nine of 10 cases the creditors do not
report as per the law. And under federal law this information has to be removed. "There are laws out there
that protect the consumer. Credit repair is legal. There are laws out there that protect the consumer that they
can utilize and take advantage of to fix their credit. So why wouldn't they, but a lot of people have no idea,"
Ms. Clinton said.
She had a recent client who has a collection from his telephone company still
being reported on the file, which dated back to 1986. The collection was bought and sold several times over the
years, which started the time it could be reported from scratch. But that is the type of item TRW goes in and get
removed.
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