Be Careful! Here's What You Need to Know About Factual Disputing!

Hey credit heroes. So how do you tell the difference between an industry standard best practice and magic beans? Well, today I'm going to talk about factual disputing. What it is, why it's a hot topic, and what it means for your business. So you better stick around.

My name is Daniel Rosen and welcome to Credit Repair Business Secrets.

If this is your first time listening to my podcast, every week I cover industry news, financial tips, and entrepreneurial advice for bootstrapping your business from nothing. This show is an essential how to guide for business owners and there's no other podcast like it. So be sure to click that subscribe button right now and get ready to start changing lives. Okay, so how do you tell the difference between an industry standard best practice and a bunch of magic beans? Well, today I'm going to discuss some bad practices that can harm your business, the ethical way to run a successful business, and the responsibility that credit repair organizations have to their customers. And I'm going to cover all that by talking about factual disputing. Now, before we get started, this podcast.

Is brought to you by Credit Hero Score.

Credit Hero Score is the only credit monitoring service that integrates directly with Credit Repair Cloud. Get instant access to your credit reports and scores by signing up for a seven day trial for only $1. Sign up right now at Credit Hero School. Okay, let's get into this. There have been several topics trending throughout the credit repair cloud community recently. Metro2 trade lines, FTC court cases, and factual disputing. Now we recently discussed factual disputing in depth during a previous podcast about repossessions. But due to all the confusion in our community, some of it needs some repeating. Factual disputing is when you are disputing an item based on the fact that something about the item is inaccurate, outdated or incomplete. Factual disputing is not some crazy new trend or buzzword. No, factual disputing is not crazy. It's not new. It's actually considered a low hanging fruit in our basic disputing course that we've had for years. In fact, factual disputing is actually the basis for all credit disputes and arguably it is the bedrock of all credit repair coupled with credit building. When you factually dispute, you are simply pointing out something that is undeniably false. You file a factual dispute when you find actual errors, inaccuracies, or outdated or incomplete information. And you can even file a factual dispute about a negative item that is accurate and true because very often there is something inaccurate about how that item is being reported. So to be clear, the process of factually disputing is it might be varied and different based on circumstances, but what you are disputing is not. Now some opportunists are using confusing marketing to turn this time tested ethical process that we have always done to turn it into a suspicious sounding trend. But it's not a trend, okay? It's how credit repair always works. You and it couldn't be simpler. Are the facts on your side? Well, if yes, then you're filing a factual dispute. Are there inaccuracies with how the item is being reported? If yes, then you're filing a factual dispute. At the end of the day, factual disputing has always been and will always be an industry best practice when what you need to watch out for are the deceptive bad practices, the bogus guarantees, false promises and quick fixes that are potential threats to your business and to our industry. You may have seen a few scary stories in the news recently. For example, there's a big court case right now where the FTC alleges that a very large credit repair company misled and deceived people and combining fake promises with the offer of a bogus money making opportunity, also known as a pyramid scheme. And the FTC alleges that this very large company claimed to boost people's credit scores by hundreds of points in a short time by permanently removing negative information like collection accounts and late payments from credit reports and adding positive information. And according to the ftc, the company did neither. The Credit Repair Organizations Act CROA also requires that specific information be provided to all customers, including signed contracts that disclose the services provided, the total cost of the services, and the refund and cancellation policies. But that company? They withheld all this information from their customers. Now, wild guarantees of huge credit score boosts in short periods of time and claims of permanent deletions. They might make for a hip and effective ad campaign. But credit repair? It's not hip, okay? It's not a fast and easy process. If it was, then everyone would have perfect credit. There's also an additional unrelated FTC case that alleges that a separate company marketed a business opportunity that essentially asked for people to turn over their COVID19 government benefits to them in order for them to learn how to start their own credit repair businesses. And wow, that was scary to read. Can you Cases like these are proof that time tested ethical processes. They must be followed. And these new flash in the pan quick fixes, computer language hacks and magic bean promises of overnight success. They must be looked at with suspicion and be held up for scrutiny. Here's why this is important. We have a responsibility to our customers. Schedule a consultation with them. Discuss and establish clear expectations. Always be upfront about what you can offer and give them a realistic timeline for accomplishing it. And explain to your customers their role in the credit repair process. Your customers need to learn that quick fixes don't make lasting results. We all know our financial system is broken and our industry, it's a bit of the Wild west. But even still, there are laws that you must follow. You cannot make false promises or guarantee results because doing that is illegal. But you can explain the process and show your customers the results that you've had with others. A customer might have a clean credit report and you may have eliminated all negative items and their score might still be 400 or lower. This client might be continuing to apply for things or pay their bills late and that is going to affect your outcome. So it is important to establish ground rules for your clients on ways that they must participate to improve the outcome. Now, if your client isn't an active participant in their credit repair process, they're going to become a return customer for the wrong reasons. We need to always establish and follow the best practices or our entire industry is going to suffer. Factual disputing gets you long term results when it's paired with financial literacy. And if you decide to offer financial literacy or credit building as an additional service, terrific. Get paid for the work that you do. But make sure that you've established proper expectations with your customers early or you might be the receiver of a negative review. Here's what you need to know. I don't want this talk of bad practices or federal cases to scare any of you who are new to the business. I'm just saying don't lie or mislead your customers. If you do, you're going to get in trouble. The companies I was just talking about, they made false claims, they promised the moon, they charged high prices up front, they delivered nothing, and they ripped off a lot of people. These bad practices are recipes for disaster financial literacy and ethical practices. They beat buzzwords and magic beans and any day of the week. And I'm going to end with an example. Many customers seeking credit repair, they don't understand that once you remove an outstanding debt from their credit report, it doesn't remove the actual debt. The debt still exists. Okay? They still owe that debt, they still have to pay it off or they risk being sued over it. But more than that, not only does the debt still exist, but that debt can be sold. And if that debt is sold, it can come back from the debt and return to the customer's credit report. And then the customer has to go through the entire credit repair process all over again. This story illustrates why financial literacy and credit building might be viable additional services for you to offer. They are honest, they are ethical, just like factual disputing. Overall, it's going to be better for your business, better for your customers long term financial health, and better for our entire industry if you are honest and ethical in your practices and in your messaging. And just a reminder, this podcast is.

Brought to you by Credit Hero Score.

Credit Hero Score is the only credit monitoring service that integrates directly with Credit Repair Cloud. Get instant access to your credit reports and scores by signing up for a seven day trial for only $1. Sign up right now at creditheroscore.com and now for my favorite part of the episode, Our Community Highlight. Every week I feature one of our Credit heroes inside our Credit Repair Cloud Facebook community so that you can see firsthand what real people are doing as they launch and grow their business. And today's spotlight is on Joanne Alexandra Morrison. Joanne recently posted this inspiring message in our community as she passed $750,000 in total net billing. She said, Credit Repair Cloud has truly changed my life. We continue to grow and change lives every day and thanks to this community. Millionaires Club Next. Isn't that amazing? And in an earlier post, Joanne explained that she started her business from her apartment with a $199 investment from a friend who loaned her the money. And ever since she's been steadily growing her business and saying if I can do it, you can too. Congratulations Joanne. You believed in yourself, you worked hard and you earned all your success. And the Millionaires Club is definitely up next for you. And I'm going to end by saying if you'd like to learn more about Factual Disputing, it's one of the many topics that we cover in our Credit Repair Cloud basic Disputing course that comes with our Credit Hero Challenge. If you don't already have a Credit Repair Cloud account, check it out. It's the software that most credit repair businesses in America run on. You can sign up for a 30 day free trial at creditrepaircloud.com freetrial and if you'd like me to hold you by the hand as you launch your very own Credit repair business, check out our Credit Hero Challenge. It's a live experience that has helped tons of Credit heroes to get their first clients get certified in disputing and to gain confidence as they launch their credit repair business on a solid foundation so they can change a whole lot of lives and make a great living in the process. We're starting the next challenge in just a couple days, so you want to join before the doors close or you're going to have long wait until the next one. So sign up right now@creditherochallenge.com and if you're finding value in the things that I share on this podcast, be sure to subscribe and leave me your questions and your comments below. The because I read each and every one of them and be sure to visit my blog if you'd like to read the show notes. And if you have a question that you'd like me to answer, drop it down in the comment section and I'll be sure to answer it during a later episode. And until then, remember, keep the facts on your side and keep changing lives. Want a fast track to creating an.

Amazing business that helps people, changes lives, and makes you a great living in the process? That Then I'd like to invite you to my free online training@creditrepaircloud.com freetraining in this free training you will learn how to get clients willing to pay you even if you're just starting out, how to get easy credit repair results without being an expert, and how to get all the clients you'll ever need without paying for advertising. Again, this training is absolutely free. Just visit creditrepaircloud.com freetraining.