FCRA Section 609 “B.S” Letter
You may have heard about this letter using a specific part of the Fair Credit Reporting Act called “Section 609”.
Before I start let me state a few words on my thoughts on this section people try to sell letters on:
- Scam
- Bull &%$#
- Lies
- Deceptive
Every once in a while I get annoyed enough to roll up the sleeves and start ripping to shreds certain things like Credit Associates & National Debt Relief (Debt Settlement Companies) to name a few.
I do some research then tell everyone reading this what my experience was with it and that experience is now based on 14 years in the credit industry and in the trenches, looking at case law, seeing how credit bureaus response to consumer letters. Those 14 years and allowed me to review over 17,000 credit file and analyze them and diagnose them to see what can be done to put that file in a position to obtain future lenders from a variety of lenders, mortgages, car loan, credit cards etc.
So I was asked about the “magical” Section 609 FCRA letters floating around. Of course everywhere you look practically you have to buy them. I found a site that had a discussion on them and then they started quoting the sections of law which allowed me to look into it.
There were people swearing by the letters and others saying it didn’t work. Of course the ones who swore by them didn’t give any specifics on the account which is the most important part of the story.
They quoted 609(a)(1)9a) to start and one idiot actually said they “vaguely refer to the credit bureaus having to have copies of original contract signed for proof”.
Ugh………………..
People, NO WHERE does it even closely say that let alone refer to that……. I really think that the rumor gets spread, some people post a cheap web site and then sell the letters for $10.00 or so and the get a check in the mail.
A little more research as I read the section before writing this and there was some more B.S from a guy back in 1999 that quoted a different section of Section 609 (c)(2)(E) so I read that and AGAIN……. L I E S !!!
What I love when reading this was it talks about how the guy has copyrighted his letters, while I’m not a lawyer I’m pretty sure you can’t copyright sections of a law that consumers could use. BUT I could be wrong…. But doubt it.
Now this is what I know and understand as I even saw a credit repair company write a blog about it and I’m convinced they are idiots as they talked about and then they discussed “Debt Validation”… that will be the next blog about that which drives me nots so stay tuned!
So these knuckleheads say:
“Section (609) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act is a Consumers Disclosure section which is to provide for the protection of consumers against false and erroneous reporting. This section of the FCRA places the burden upon the Credit Bureaus and the Creditor to prove an account is yours. To positively prove an account is yours, the creditor must provide the Credit Bureau a copy of the original creditor’s documentation (whatever you filled out and signed upon opening the account with the reporting creditor)”.
This is literally word for word that I found on several site touting the magic of the 609 letters.
The scary part is people hire bozos like this to help them trusting they have a clue about what they are doing. Further looking at their site they only sell letters to consumer for Do it yourself so “selling” the magic bullet is good for their business.
Totally unethical and they should go to hell because while I don’t know what they are charging the false hope they are dangling is just not cool.
Just reading more of this gets my blood boiling, the term creating a mountain out of a mole hill comes to mind when I read some of the “things” they claim.
I truly think they embellish on things then have some people (companies actually do this) post positive responses which gets you hooked and then say what the heck its only $10.00 (a money example)
Section 609 is rather an easy read and while there is a little bit of legal language in it it’s fairly cut and dry so a consumer with little knowledge should be able to understand majority of it.
UNDERSTAND the credit bureaus are like file cabinets of information on you, you have your folder and all the sub sections within it on all different accounts and the information on those accounts.
The credit bureaus sell our information and we willingly give (most of the time) to lenders in exchange of credit of some sort. They only report what is provided to them that we allow in our lender contracts
It is an automated system which has tons of problems and the law (FCRA) like all laws had to be sponsored and someone had to pay for that and you know a consumer group did not pay for that.
Folks, I understand that when your credit is bad you are looking for that “magic pill” to make all the problems go away…. It doesn’t exist, sorry it just doesn’t.
That is why one of the things I always promise before speaking to someone is I’m going to tell you the truth whether you like the answer or not.
It doesn’t mean I can’t help but you need to be aware of what the situation is and not let someone prey upon you to take your money and make it seem like once you pay them all the problems go away, it doesn’t work like that.
Designing a specific plan for your specific issues can always be done it then becomes a timeline issue for you.
I hope I stopped some of you reading this or thinking of spending your money but more importantly your hope and emotions on a joke of a claim of hope, and a mini news flash for the crazies who maybe tried it and got some things deleted.
Did you ever think that maybe the reporting company didn’t respond to the credit bureaus in the allotted time or cared to respond for company internal reasons and that why the accounts were deleted or it fell past the statute of limitations??
That’s it for this posting, hope it sheds some light on some things and feel free to google the FCRA and read section 609 for yourself, you will then see that all the claims they make are not remotely mentioned in the sections they claim. you cant even create an argument that they do, at least not without a straight face.
*** Want to learn more about how the credit system works? Buy my book for easy to understand concepts of how credit works and how lenders look at you at you.
Contact me at wayne @ wayne the credit guy.com
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