Another Credit Repair Company Sued

According to a lawsuit filed by Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, a “credit repair” company has clearly violated federal and Colorado law by charging upfront fees and failing to disclose the total cost of its services.
The suit was filed in Denver District Court against Veracity Credit Consultants, a credit repair company that charges consumers initial fees of up to $99, and subsequent monthly fees as high as $79. Colorado law prohibits credit repair companies from charging fees until their services are complete.
The credit repair company of questionable character boasts of “results” and claims to be one of the best credit-repair outfits available.
According to the Colorado Attorney General, many of the company's claims are exaggerated at best. He specifically pointed to the company's claim that it can “optimize” consumers' credit reports by repairing or erasing bad credit as worthy of suspicion. Both the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act and Colorado Consumer Credit Reporting Act provide that credit bureaus can continue to report negative information about a consumer's credit for up to seven years.  Veracity's claimed tactics apparently fly in the face of the FCRA and Colorado's Consumer Credit Reporting Act.

Veracity's website says that the company “uses knowledge of the law and years of experience perfecting a proven formula to provide results while protecting your rights.” Once a consumer opens an account, according to the site, Veracity “investigates and works with credit bureaus and creditors” and works “to remove errors, delete negatives, and highlight good accounts.”
Despite these impressive claims, Veracity's “client-services agreement” explicitly says that the company doesn't “represent or warrant that it will achieve specific results for client.”
I have yet to meet a credit repair company that is above board.  Credit repair companies that are willing to try to remove accurate, non obsolete information from a consumer's credit report for a fee simply fly in the face of the entire credit reporting system and hurt those consumers who do pay their bills.  Just as strongly as I feel that credit bureaus should correct errors on consumers' credit reports, I also believe that consumers should have to live with their legitimately bad credit for the seven years that the FCRA allows the reporting of adverse credit items.  Credit repair companies are shady at best and those consumers who try to skirt the rules by using credit repair companies are, in my opinion, questionable as well.