Media Release

Consumers face war over credit blacklist errors – whether the bill was big or small.

24 July 2012

Australians are seeking help in droves to fight devastating credit listings which are seeing them blacklisted from credit for up to 7 years and losing dreams of homes, cars and business opportunities often for overdue bills as low as $100.

A leading national credit repairer says the complexity of disputing credit rating defaults has led many people to seek help from the professional credit repair industry.

MyCRA Credit Rating Repairs CEO, Graham Doessel says complaints can be just as difficult to dispute whether the bill is for $100 or $10,000 and are very seldom as simple as calling up the Creditor and telling them they got it wrong.

“There are a host of laws which must be adhered to by Creditors when adding credit listings to consumer credit files, and likewise when disputing potential errors and mistakes – the same laws apply to be able to show cause why a Creditor should remove a default.”

“Most consumers trying to resolve their own credit issues don’t have the knowledge of legislation or processes to effectively argue their case. They are often brick-walled by their Creditor and forced to put up with the default – banned from affordable mainstream credit for the term of the listing,” he explains.

He says with tight lending criteria following the Global Financial Crisis, any black mark is generally going to prevent people from obtaining credit in the current market.

“Some can’t even get a mobile phone on a plan and most that need credit are forced to pay much higher interest rates with non-conforming lenders – potentially costing them tens of thousands more in interest,” he says.

Mr Doessel is echoing criticism from the Australian and New Zealand Ombudsman Association which yesterday, said too many people are being put on debtor blacklists for owing small energy and phone debts.

“Often they didn’t even know that they had been credit-listed until they had applied for a mortgage or a credit card or a business loan and then they found they had been credit-listed for small amounts, were denied that credit and lost deposits, were not able to start up their business and so experienced quite severe consequences,” the Association’s Chairwoman Clare Petre told the ABC yesterday.

Ombudsmen are calling for the threshold for credit listings to be raised to $300.

Ms Petre also expressed her concern that people are paying private agencies to solve their problem, when public authorities such as the Ombudsman’s office can help.

“For people who are already often financially vulnerable they’re huge costs, but they’re desperate and they’re prepared to pay that money when they could come to us for free,” she added.

But Mr Doessel says the services of Professional Credit Repair firms are of assistance to many of the Ombudsmen and most times enhance the likelihood of a successful outcome for the client. He says they have a duty of care to exhaust all avenues of complaint, some of which may not have been within the realm of the Ombudsman to investigate.

“It’s actually a requirement of the Code of Conduct of the Credit Repair Industry Association of Australasia (CRIAA) that the credit repairer has conducted an exhaustive investigation into the conduct of the Creditor and can provide that investigation to the Ombudsman if the Ombudsman is ever actually required to help at all,” Mr Doessel says.

He goes on to say “Many of the Ombudsmen Bodies have seen a massive increase in the number of consumer complaints recently and some (Ombudsmen Bodies) have extensive waiting lists that many consumers cannot afford to be on.”

/ENDS.

Ref: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-23/ombudsman-concern-small-debt-credit-ratings/4148476

Please contact:

Graham Doessel – Founder and CEO MyCRA Ph 3124 7133

Lisa Brewster – Media Relations MyCRA Mob: 0450 554 007 media@mycra.com.au

http://www.mycra.com.au/ www.mycra.com.au.blog

MyCRA Credit Rating Repairs is Australia’s leader in credit rating repairs. We permanently remove defaults from credit files.

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