You must master the fundamentals to build a sustainable, growing credit repair business year after year. Credit repair training is also useful for professionals in the financial industry. Mortgage brokers and loan officers, auto dealers and lawyers can all augment their practices and grow their businesses with excellent credit repair training.
Here are seven important topics to learn about in credit repair training:
1. How a Credit Score is Calculated
You’d be surprised how many adults in the United States do not understand the basics of a credit score, and how it is calculated. These three nuggets of credit repair training knowledge will set you apart from the masses:
- Credit scores are used to determine how likely you are to receive a loan: your credit-worthiness
- Credit scores range from 350 to 850, with 700 and above as the goal
- FICO scores, one of the credit scoring methods, are regulated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and calculated every time you or an institution requests it
- There are three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and Transunion, and each of them may have a different score based on items that are included or left off of the credit report
To get into the nitty-gritty of credit score calculations, you’ll need a more in-depth credit repair training course like this one from the American Credit Repair Academy.
2. How to Read a Credit Report
As a credit repair expert you will learn to read a report and see the errors, duplications, and negative items that your clients may not see. Once you can read a credit report and explain the basics to your clients, you can give them valuable feedback and direction on a way forward to a better credit score.
- Review the report with the client
- Show the client the items you will dispute
- Prioritize the worst offenders to determine in what order you will dispute the items
3. How to Give a Credit Audit
Many credit repair business owners provide a free initial credit audit to show prospective clients the value of their credit repair services. Credit repair training can help you read and interpret a client’s credit report, but you don’t need to invest hours analyzing each client’s credit report yourself. Credit Repair Cloud’s newest tool, Simple Audit, lets you upload a credit report and generate an in-depth credit audit, including illustrations and about the person’s credit report, within seconds.
Here’s what it looks like:
Show clients the value of what you do up front, then provide credit report analyses as an ongoing service (for a fee) down the road.
4. What to Dispute on a Credit Report
You have the legal right to dispute any item on a credit report. The bureau must verify it. If they can't prove it, they must remove it. Most people don’t understand this simple fact about credit reports and it can lower their credit score immensely.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act outlines which items can be disputed. Read the client’s credit report with a lens of identifying inaccuracies that you can dispute (and hopefully get removed). You can now develop a game plan with your client on which items to go after first.
Credit Repair Cloud has over 100 dispute letters that are useful for almost every possible client scenario and automatically merges your client’s information into the letter. Read on for the way to dispute.
5. How to Use Factual Dispute Methodology
Before you begin disputing items on a credit repair, you will need to get credit repair training on how to do so effectively.
Some credit repair companies swing at every pitch (and some pitches that weren’t thrown) by declaring that all negative items are due to identity theft. This method may work sometimes, but it is fraud and an unethical business model.
Factual dispute methodology means that you take on the negative items on a credit report that fit the description set forth by the FCRA and follow a strategic plan to get the inaccuracies removed. Using this method allows you to duplicate your process, train a team to use this method, and attract high-quality clients that will give you valuable referrals for your excellent credit repair service.
6. How to Write Dispute Letters That Work
Understand what to include in a Round 1 versus a Round 2 dispute letter.
Write simple, concise dispute letters.
- Round 1 dispute letters are general letters about the inaccurate items on the client’s credit report
- For multiple bureaus
- About multiple items
We suggest disputing up to five items per month as you get started so that the bureaus won’t flag the disputes as “frivolous.” You can spend months fighting to get the bureaus to take a look at the items while they use this stall tactic.
- Round 2 dispute letters are specific to items and creditors or a specific bureau
- About one item only
Include a reason for each disputed item, such as:
- Items on the account are misleading or questionable
- The account is not mine
- Balances are inaccurate
- I have not received a notice of late payment
- Account numbers are listed incorrectly
- Accounts are unverifiable
- This inquiry is not mine
- The original creditor is listed incorrectly
- I am a victim of Identity Theft
- Not my account, my parent/child has the same name as me
- This is a duplicate account
Include an instruction for each item (how want the bureau to take action), such as:
- Please investigate and remove this incorrect information from my credit report.
- I'm a victim of Identity Theft, enclosed is a copy of my police report
- Please show me proof of how you verified this information
- This item was included in a bankruptcy charge off, balance should be wiped to zero
Verify the sender’s identity.
- Include a copy of your client’s driver’s license or other photo ID
- Send a copy of a utility bill or other means of address verification
Send effective Round 1 and Round 2 dispute letters to get negative items removed and bolster your clients’ credit scores. Credit Repair Cloud users can simply use the Wizard tool to create the appropriate letter for the item(s). The Wizard merges your client’s data in the perfect dispute letter with a few clicks of the mouse and makes you look like the pro that you are.
7. How to Track Disputed Items
In-depth credit repair training will teach you how to dispute items, as well as methods that you can use to track the disputed items after you send the letters. Credit repair business owners must track disputed items after the dispute letters are sent:
- Client needs to have credit monitoring, so you can log in each month to see the new changes to the report and score, and to import the data into Credit Repair Cloud
- Remind clients to send you all correspondence from the bureaus and creditors so you can track progress
- Follow up with bureaus and creditors once month after you send the letters through a calendar alert (remember, they are required by law to investigate all disputed items)
- Each time a letter is created, Credit Repair Cloud automatically makes a task for which you can get email reminders or export to many popular calendar apps
If you remain committed to removing the disputed items, you’ll be surprised how many times the bureaus or creditors will simply take the items off because they don’t want to deal with the hassle of investigating on their end. Your persistence and knowledge of the credit repair system pays off for your client and builds your credit repair business.
Get the Training
Without proper credit repair training, you may feel like you are swimming upstream against the credit bureaus. Invest in your business and your clients by starting out with knowledge and a plan to run a successful credit repair business.
To learn how to start, run, or grow your credit repair business, sign up for credit repair training today!
