Print and electronic media as well as the Internet is full of news about scams in respect of almost every activity; individual, communal, national, and international. Millions of innocent people have fallen victims to such scams and suffered in terms of money and huge mental agonies. Good news for such poor victims is that they have legal protection and support available at hand for rendering justice.

Legal Recourses

Most of the state as well as the Federal laws prohibit any profession becoming a scam. Since credit repair companies in the past have been involved in such scams; Law has been put in place to stop and prevent such scams. Such laws have come up at both state and the federal levels. Some people have apprehensions that approaching the Government could turn their case into worse condition. However, they should realize that law is there for protection of people and not to act to their detriment.

Whom to Contact

While law can give protection to the victims of injustice they have to be enforced through some agency. Consumer affairs offices have been opened in almost all the states. Local Attorney General is the person to be contacted and approached in any problem. Contacting them is not difficult and many of them have toll free numbers as well. List of such Attorneys can be obtained from the local touts on payment of a few bucks.

Different Aspects of Credit Repair

Certain different aspects of credit repair are also there.

• Poor credit report does not necessarily indicate ineligibility of getting credit;
• Creditors follow their own specific principles regarding grant of credit;
• Credit history of consumer is assessed differently by different creditors;
• One that looks only at the recent credit activities and notices improvements in bill payment activities;
• Informal discussion with the creditor could resolve multiple issues.

Exercising Restraint before Repair

Essence of credit repair on the part of a consumer is exercising restraint on his or her habits and erratic life style. Some of the steps in this direction would be: -

• Making a preliminary budget that should be workable so that the expenses can be restrained within limits;
• Keeping track and records about the mounting bills;
• At times obtaining the services of credit counsel bureau could be helpful;
• Choosing the service provider with due caution and care is a must. Because while the agency could claim to be non profit, their services may not be free and may not be legal either.
• Unscrupulous service providers could charge high fees in the guise of voluntary contributions that are in reality forced payments.

Getting Information on Genuine Providers

That does not mean that there is no genuine credit repair organization in the market. Information on such agencies shall be available from: –

• Local offices;
• Internet;
• Telephone Directory yellow pages;
• Counselors on the job;
• Reviewing websites and trade journals;
• Financial institutions;
• Local consumer protection agencies;
• Friends and family.

Organizations Providing Free Credit Counseling

Some of the organizations that provides free credit counseling are -

• Universities,
• Military Bases;
• Credit Unions;
• Housing Authorities;
• Branches of the United States Cooperative Extension Services;
• Nonprofit Credit Counseling Agencies.

Filing Bankruptcy

Anyone considering filing bankruptcy should be aware of the laws that require credit counseling from the government approved organizations within six months before filing bankruptcy claims. However, there are certain pre-requisites for filing of such bankruptcy. Consumer claiming must obtain credit counseling from some government approved organization. Such counseling should be obtained within a period of six months before filing bankruptcy. Finding such government approved agencies would not be difficult as they are available at www.usdoj.gov/ust that is the website for the United States Trustee Program.

A word of caution for the consumers searching for the government approved organizations. Some of the counseling organizations claim to be part of government or approved by government but they do not find mention in the list of approved agencies.

Naturally; they are scams.