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

By: Daniel Rosen Last updated: July 12, 2022

How do you tell the difference between an industry-standard best practice and a bunch of magic beans?

Well, on this week’s podcast I’m going to talk about FACTUAL DISPUTING, what it is, why it’s a hot topic, and what it means for your business and our industry!

 

There have been several topics trending throughout the CRC Community recently: Metro2, Tradelines, FTC court cases…and Factual Disputing.

We recently discussed Factual Disputing in-depth during a previous Podcast about Repossessions…

But due to confusion in the community, some of it bears 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Factual Disputing​ is when you are disputing an item based on the fact that something about the item is inaccurate, outdated, or incomplete.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.

Factual Disputing is not crazy or new…It’s considered a “Low Hanging Fruit” dispute in our Basic Disputing Course that comes with our Credit Hero Challenge and also with the free trial of Credit Repair Cloud.

In fact, Factual disputing is actually the basis for all credit disputes… and (arguably) 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You file a Factual Dispute when you find ACTUAL errors, inaccuracies, and outdated or incomplete information.

And…you can even file a Factual Dispute about a negative item that’s 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 might be varied and different based on circumstances…but what you’re disputing is not…

Now, some opportunists are using confusing marketing to turn this time-tested ethical process…into a suspicious-sounding trend…

But it’s not a trend. It’s how credit repair already works… and couldn’t be simpler…

Are the facts on your side? 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.”

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 our industry.

You may have seen a few scary stories in the news recently…

For example, there’s a current court case where the FTC alleges that a very large credit repair company misled and deceived people, combining fake promises with the offer of a bogus money-making opportunity…also known as a pyramid scheme.

The FTC alleges the 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 services, and the refund and cancellation policies…But the company withheld this information from its customers.

Now, wild guarantees of “huge credit score boosts” in short periods of time and claims of permanent deletions might make for a hip and effective ad campaign…but Credit Repair is not hip. It’s not a fast and easy process…If it was, everyone would have perfect credit.

There’s also an additional, unrelated FTC case alleging that a separate company marketed a business opportunity that essentially asked for people to turn over their COVID-19 government benefits to them in order for them to learn how to start their own credit repair businesses.

Wow, that was scary to read!

Cases like these are proof that time-tested, ethical processes must be followed…And new flash-in-the-pan quick fixes, computer language “hacks,” and magic bean promises of overnight success…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…quick fixes don’t make lasting results.

Our financial system is broken, and our industry is a bit of the wild west. But even still, there are laws that you must follow.

You cannot make false promises or guarantee results. Doing that is illegal. But you can explain the process and show customers the results you’ve had with others.

A customer might have a clean credit report…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’s important to establish ground rules for your client on ways they must participate to improve the outcome.

If your client isn’t an active participant in their credit repair process, they will become a return customer for the wrong reasons.

We must establish and follow the best practices, or our entire industry will suffer.

Factual Disputing nets long-term results when coupled with financial literacy. And if you decide to offer Financial Literacy or Credit Building courses as additional services, terrific! Get paid for the work you do.

But make sure you’ve established proper expectations with your customers early on, or you might be the recipient of a negative review.

“Here’s what you need to know.”

I don’t want this talk about bad practices and Federal cases to scare any of you new to the business.

I’m simply saying don’t lie to or mislead your customers. If you do, you will get in trouble.

The companies that are under investigation made false claims, promised the moon, charged high prices up front, delivered nothing…and ripped off a lot of people.

These bad practices are recipes for disaster.

Financial Literacy and ethical practices beat buzzwords and magic beans any day of the week.

I’ll end with an example…

Many customers seeking Credit Repair 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…They still have to pay or risk being sued over it…But more than that…not only does the debt still exist…that debt can be SOLD. And if that debt is sold, it can come back from the dead and return to the customer's credit report…

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 your company to offer. They’re honest and ethical practices…just like Factual Disputing.

Overall, it will be better for your business, better for your customer's long-term financial health, and better for our entire industry if you are honest and ethical in your practices and your messaging.

If you’d like to learn more about Factual Disputing, it is one of the many topics we cover in our Credit Repair Cloud Basic Disputing Course that comes with our 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. Just 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 own credit repair business, check out our Credit Hero Challenge!

Challenge-Stack-Mockup-Final

It’s an amazing program where you’ll learn the processes that have made millionaires, and it costs less than you'll spend taking your family to McDonald’s for dinner.

We’ve got another challenge starting in a few days, so grab your spot right now at CreditHeroChallenge.com!

Until then, remember, keep the facts on your side…

And keep changing lives!

Be sure to subscribe on your favorite platform below!

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Topics: Podcast

Transcript

Daniel Rosen  0:00  

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. So the big question is this, how can we take our passion for helping people with their credit and turn it into a successful business without taking loans without spending a fortune by bootstrapping it from nothing? So we can help the most people and still become highly profitable? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answer. 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 organisations 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 creditheroscore.com.

 

Okay, let's get into this. There have been several topics trending throughout the Credit Repair Cloud community recently, Metro two tradelines 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 means 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 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. And it couldn't be simpler. Are the facts on your side? Will 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. 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 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 organisations act crolla 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 and 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 COVID-19 government benefits to them, in order for them to learn how to start their own credit repair businesses. Wow, that was scary to read. 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 being 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 is 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 and if 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 charge 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 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 dead and returned 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 Bureau 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 score.com.

 

And now for my favourite 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. Thanks to this community. Hashtag Millionaire's 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 millionaire's 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/free trial. 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 tonnes of credit heroes to get their first clients get certified in disputing and to gain confidence as they launched 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 of days. So you want to join before the doors close, or you're gonna have a long wait until the next one. So sign up right now at 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 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 to fast track to creating an amazing business that helps people changes lives and makes you a great living in the process that I'd like to invite you to my free online training at creditrepaircloud.com/free Training. 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/free training

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