COLORADO SPRINGS — In a competitive housing market and with the costs of used cars testing budgets, managing debt and maintaining a good credit score will make a big difference in the homes and cars people can afford in the next few years.
“From buying a house to credit card interest rates, to everything, a person with bad credit or even mediocre credit is paying so much more than the average person,” said Allison Hill of Turn The Page Financial.
For the past 15 years Hill has worked to help people deal with creditors, pay down their debt and take control of their credit scores. She says her passion for helping people with these things comes from personal experience with financial challenges years ago.
“I’ve had to fix my credit twice in my life. It’s very embarrassing, but it is the truth and it happens to most people. We are human. Life happens. Mistakes happen, but that’s how I figured out how to do what I do,” said Hill.
She says one of the reasons she had a tough time in the past was because she trusted someone with credit repair that she shouldn’t have.
“There is so much misinformation out there on credit repair. So, if someone tells you they can fix it overnight, absolutely find somebody else because you didn’t get in that situation overnight and it doesn’t happen overnight,” said Hill.
Faith Boone also works to help people with credit repair in the Pikes Peak Region and says in Colorado consumers need to be especially careful.
“In the State of Colorado they don’t require that you be licensed, certified or anything like that when it comes to credit. So there can be some random person on the street who can totally open their door and say I’m a credit specialist now and not know absolutely anything unfortunately,” said Faith Boone of Credit Yetti.
She says she’s taken on clients who have made the mistake of working with the wrong company, leaving them in worse shape.
“So they’ll take your money and not do a whole lot,” warned Boone. “They’ll give you wrong information, or get you in more debt. I’ve heard of multiple companies in the Springs that tell people they should take out a personal loan. They take it out and they get themselves into more debt and they can’t pay it back.”
The Federal Trade Commission says to keep these things in mind if you’re hiring someone to help you improve your credit:
- They should review your whole financial situation before making a plan
- They shouldn’t ask you to pay in advance
- They shouldn’t advise you *not* to contact creditors or credit bureaus directly
”Just because someone sounds nice on the phone is not a reason to trust them,” said Boone.
”They are not educated on it and then they end up getting themselves into a deeper situation that is not right,” said Hill.
If you believe a credit repair company is trying to take advantage of you, experts say you need to report it to both the FTC and theColorado Attorney General’s Office.
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