People with bad credit histories are in a tough spot. Even if youve recently cleaned up your act, it can take a lot of time and work to get your credit score back to a workable place, and the process can get wearing fastespecially if youre trying to get a small loan or mortgage. So if you have bad credit, and someone sends you a letter that says that they can have your credit score right as rain by the end of the week for just a small fee, youll probably sit up and pay attention.
Unfortunately, youll also probably be falling for a scam. Every day, companies send out fliers, letters and even make phone calls to people who are badly in debt, promising them that they can make their credit problems disappear. These companies offer different ways of doing this, some of which work, but only very temporarily (a day, at most), while others are just downright illegal. At the same time, they are taking money from people who need it the most.
The best rule of thumb on these things is, If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. If you get a letter or a call that says something like, Bad credit? No problem! or We can clean up your credit history instantly! someone is...