Start Credit Repair Business

It is not difficult to start your own credit repair business. Once you get it off the ground, it can be a very profitable business, and there is no limit to what you can achieve if you are willing to put in some hard work and learn the industry.
Make a note to bookmark this page right now because it is one of the most comprehensive resources on starting a credit repair business you will find. We’ll go over everything you need to know to get started from the ground up, all the way up until you get your first client.


This guide specifically addresses:
Legal requirements for establishing and running a credit repair business
How to Select the Most Effective Business Credit Repair Software
How to Create a Website for Your Company
How to Bill and Get Paid for Your Clients
The best dispute resolution strategies to help you succeed with your clients
How to Recruit Your First Client
How to run your business on a month-to-month basis once you’ve launched it.

What exactly is a credit repair company?

Credit repair businesses provide fully managed services that help consumers improve their credit score or qualify for credit. Your clients will come to you with poor credit, and your goal will be to assist them in improving it. Credit repair services typically consist of disputing inaccurate negative information on your client’s credit report. You will oversee the entire process, including communication with credit bureaus, creditors, lenders, and collection agencies on behalf of your client.
Anyone, as long as they are educated about the process, can start their own credit repair business. Now that you know what a credit repair company does, let’s look at what you should know before you start.

Make certain to adhere to all applicable credit repair laws.

The first topic we’ll go over are the legal requirements you must be aware of before starting your credit repair business. It is critical to comply with all applicable laws and regulations in order to avoid getting into trouble.
There are two types of credit repair laws that apply to business owners: federal and state. Federal laws must be followed regardless of the state in which you operate, and each state has its own set of laws and regulations. Some states, for example, may require special licensing and/or registration, whereas others do not.

 

The Credit Repair Organizations Act is the first legal requirement (CROA)

The Credit Repair Organizations Act is the single most important law (or set of laws) you should be aware of (CROA). This is a federal law that was passed in 1996 that regulates all credit repair businesses in the United States and prohibits credit repair companies from taking advantage of consumers or making false claims.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforces the CROA, and the FTC has the authority to penalize, fine, or even shut down any credit repair company found to be in violation of these laws. The full text of the CROA can be found here, but here are some key takeaways:
It is strictly forbidden to mislead your client about the services you provide, the services you will perform, or to make false promises that are not kept.
You must provide a written contract to your client, which he or she must sign. This contract must include a clause allowing the client to cancel the contract within three days of signing it.
You may not charge in advance for any services. Most credit repair companies will offer an initial consultation and credit report analysis for free, and then charge the client a getting started fee once the work is completed.

 

Bonds are the second legal requirement.

You may be required to obtain a surety bond depending on your state. A credit repair surety bond protects consumers (your customers) from any potential damage caused by your credit repair company’s actions.
The bond amount required varies by state, and some states do not require a bond at all. A credit repair services surety bond will typically cost you between $200 and $300, depending on the amount of the bond.
To be approved for a bond, you must first fill out an application and then pay the aforementioned fee once approved. Your application is evaluated based on your personal credit score, financial assets, tax liens, or other public records such as bankruptcies, the length of time you’ve been in business, and the bond amount. Once you submit an application, the process is extremely fast and can sometimes be completed within 24 hours.

 

Licensing and registration are the third legal requirements.

There are no formal “licensing” requirements in any state that we are aware of at the time of writing. However, some states (currently around 25) do require registration.
In the states that do have a registration requirement, it usually entails filling out an application and paying a registration fee to register your business as a Credit Services Organization (or other similar designation) in that state.
California, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virgina, West Virginia, and Wisconsin are currently required to register.
For more information on specific registration requirements in your state, contact your state’s Department of Revenue.
Now that you understand the various laws and regulations that apply to credit repair businesses, let’s move on to the type of software you’ll need to run your business efficiently.

 

Credit Repair Software for Small Businesses

The use of a business credit repair software platform such as Credit Repair Cloud  is critical to your success in this industry. With the right credit repair software, you can maximize efficiency, achieve faster and better results for your clients, and spend less time each month on manual tasks.
With the right credit repair software, you’ll only need to spend 5-10 minutes per month working on each client’s disputes. The majority of your time spent running a credit repair business will be spent on a few primary tasks:
Taking on new clients and offering an initial consultation
Creating and delivering dispute letters to credit bureaus and suppliers
Customer service and keeping your clients up to date on their progress
If you can use software to automate these repetitive tasks, you will get a better return on your time spent running your business and will be in a better position to scale up your operations as your customer base grows.
Here is an example of a repeatable monthly client process using Credit Repair Cloud:
You acquire a new customer and set up a profile for them in Credit Repair Cloud.


Request that your client obtain credit monitoring and provide you with their credentials.
Import the client’s credit report into c and go over it with them.
With a few clicks, you can generate a batch of dispute letters.
Click another button to send those disputes via email.
In 30 days, you will review any credit bureau responses and generate new dispute letters with a few clicks.
Repeat

 

Credit Repair Cloud automates the following tasks:

Maintaining your client list, as well as their personal information and documents
With a single click, you can import your client’s credit report.
Identifying negative credit report items such as collections, inquiries, late payments, bankruptcies, and so on.
Creating ready-to-send dispute letters, complete with addresses for the credit bureau or furnisher, such as collection agencies, banks, or creditors, automatically.
With the click of a button, you can send those letters via USPS certified or standard mail – no downloading, printing or stuffing envelopes required.
Using efficient, powerful, yet user-friendly credit repair software will determine your success or failure as a credit repair business owner.

 

Developing a Website for Your Credit Repair Company

Your public, customer-facing website will be a critical component of your business. A potential customer’s first impression of your company will be formed by your website.
Your website should be professional, friendly, and instill trust in your company and brand. It should also be able to capture leads and new customer registrations so that you can contact them via email or phone.
Theme Forest is a great place to find professional-looking website templates. Most content management systems (CMS) have templates available, and WordPress is the most user-friendly CMS. When searching for templates on Theme Forest, make sure to look for templates that are WordPress compatible.
You will also need a place to host your website. You can find low-cost hosting options by looking at what WordPress recommends, or by visiting a website like WP Engine. The advantage of using WP Engine is that they also provide templates that work in tandem with their hosting service.
To summarize your website-creation steps:
Sign up with WP Engine to get started with basic website hosting.
Use one of the templates they provide directly, or go to Theme Forest to find more WordPress templates.

If you want to learn to build websites with training included then click here. Now that you know how to easily create a website for your credit repair business, let’s talk about how you’ll bill your clients and get paid!

 

Setting Up Client Billing and Invoicing

Because there are so many middlemen involved, getting set up to process credit cards can be confusing at first, but we’ll break it down for you here. Client billing integrations are built into the majority of credit repair software platforms (including Credit Repair Cloud).
To begin, you will require a payment gateway. Your payment gateway will be the entity responsible for securely receiving credit card and customer information and securely transmitting it to your merchant account for processing.
A merchant account is the next thing you’ll need. This is the entity that works directly with the acquiring bank to process each credit card payment and deposit it directly into your company’s checking account.
Finally, you’ll require a recurring billing system to easily view, manage, and control all of your billing. These systems will also automatically bill and invoice your customers each month, saving you time.
Here are some providers we recommend for each of the preceding steps:
Authorize.net is a payment gateway.
PaymentCloud Merchant Account
Software for Recurring Billing: Recurly
Your client will be able to start a subscription and enter payment information directly from the client portal as soon as they sign your credit repair contract (or you can collect payment information from them manually). They will then be billed automatically each month until they cancel their service with you.
Your client payments and subscription statuses are directly integrated into your dashboard with Credit Repair Cloud. For example, if an invoice fails on any given month, your client’s billing status in Credit Repair Cloud. will automatically be updated to reflect that the client is now past due; at that point, you would contact your client to receive payment, or you would stop working on their credit.
Dispute Resolution Techniques for Obtaining Removals and Deletions for Your Client

This is one of the most crucial aspects of your credit repair company. Your clients are paying you to successfully remove inaccurate negative information from their credit reports.
You must ensure that you are employing the most effective strategies that will result in the greatest number of deletions for your client. This will help to ensure customer satisfaction and may lead to your client referring more customers to your company.
If you use Credit Repair Cloud as your credit repair software platform, you will have access to a plethora of extremely effective letter templates. Here are a few of the most common strategies that have been proven to be effective and are directly built into our software:

Dispute Resolution Techniques for Obtaining Removals and Deletions for Your Client

This is one of the most crucial aspects of your credit repair company. Your clients are paying you to successfully remove inaccurate negative information from their credit reports.
You must ensure that you are employing the most effective strategies that will result in the greatest number of deletions for your client. This will help to ensure customer satisfaction and may lead to your client referring more customers to your company.
If you use Credit Repair Cloud as your credit repair software platform, you will have access to a plethora of extremely effective letter templates. Here are a few of the most common strategies that have been proven to be effective and are directly built into our software:

Strategy 1: First, a credit freeze is imposed.

When you get a new client and have access to their credit report, you should probably freeze their credit at LexisNexis and SageStream. Freezing your client’s credit with these entities ensures that no one can access your client’s credit information.
This is done as a first step to prevent the three major credit bureaus (TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax) from cross-referencing their own data with SageStream and LexisNexis. Because the credit bureaus will be unable to “verify” your client’s accounts or inquiries with these other third parties, you will receive more deletions.
Strategy 2: Remove Outdated and Old Addresses

You can also remove any old and out-of-date addresses from each client’s credit report as soon as they sign up.
Because old charge off and collection accounts can sometimes be linked directly to these old addresses, removing them from your client’s credit report may make it more difficult to verify these accounts.
When the address on your client’s credit report cannot be matched up with the account information stored at the collection agency or creditor, the credit bureaus’ electronic verification system (called E-Oscar) will sometimes result in automatic deletions.
Strategy 3: Collections Disputes and Charge-off Accounts

Collections and charge offs are two of the most common negative items that your clients will inevitably have on their credit reports. Typically, disputing these items is done through the use of laws such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
Sections 609 and 611 of the FCRA work together to specify what information credit reporting agencies must provide to a consumer upon request, as well as your rights when requesting an investigation. If any information on your credit report is found to be incorrect or unverifiable, it must be corrected or removed from your credit report.
Disputing Inquiries (Strategy 4)

Disputes for your client are based on one of the following:
Disproving a factual access record
demonstrating or claiming identity theft
demonstrating a lack of permissible purpose
Section 604 of the FCRA defines the permissible purpose, which defines the conditions under which certain types of entities are permitted to access consumer credit reports.
Other options include freezing your client’s credit report at SageStream, a secondary bureau that TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax occasionally use to verify inquiries.
Disputing Other Information (Strategy 5)

As you gain experience with credit reports and the types of negative information that can be found on them, you will be able to begin disputing a broader range of information for your clients.


 Credit Repair Cloud includes default letter templates for disputing collections, inquiries, late payments, charge-offs, inquiries, and certain types of public records such as bankruptcies. You may even end up using your own custom letter templates as you gain experience and figure out what works best for you and your clients.


Getting Your First Client

Gaining your first client is an exciting experience that will allow you to move through the entire client lifecycle from beginning to end. Here’s a rough timeline for getting started with your first client:
The first consultation. This step allows you to examine your client’s credit report and determine whether or not they are a good fit for your service. This would entail identifying negative information on the client’s credit report and determining which items are likely to be inaccurate or unverifiable. Many credit repair companies will provide this initial consultation for free, so keep it brief and to the point. Inform your client about the types of information you will be disputing on their behalf and what they can expect.
Client Agreement. The following step would be to have your client sign your credit repair agreement. Before you can begin providing credit repair services to your clients, you must first comply with the Credit Repair Organization Act and sign this document.
The first work fee. It’s also worth noting that the Credit Repair Organization Act forbids credit repair companies from charging fees before providing a service. Your initial work fee, which should be specified in your contract, can cover things like initial document processing. After you have completed this service for your client, you may bill them for your initial first work fee.
Disputes are resolved on a monthly basis. You’ll now begin your monthly dispute cycle, as described earlier in this article. You will continue to dispute inaccurate negative items on your client’s credit report until all disputes are resolved or your client requests that you discontinue your services.
Conclusion

You should now be ready to start your own credit repair business. Starting a business will require a significant amount of effort, but if you are persistent and disciplined, there are no limits to what you can achieve. Start the Credit Repair Business Challenge Right Now to get your Credit Repair Business up and running within  2 weeks Now.