For years I’ve been writing about the challenges in starting a business that offers credit restoration or what most people call credit repair. There are 3 areas that someone must address and overcome to have even the smallest chance of success in operating a credit repair business. However, should someone not want to, or cannot overcome them, MWR Financial has a solution.
MWR Financial has created a home-based business opportunity with a suite of financial services called the FinancialEDGE Membership. These services give their clients a "Financial Makeover" by helping them keep more of what they earn, eliminate their debt in record time, and protect and grow the money they save. One of the services included is credit restoration with debt negotiation which is a powerful addition not offered by many if any, other companies.
Credit restoration, or what most people call credit repair, is only one of more than a dozen services included and is FREE to FinancialEDGE members. This free component is CROA & RESPA compliant as well as highly effective. Although results may vary for each client, they typically experience an average credit score increase of 50 to 150 points.
The 3 Big Challenges to Starting a Credit Repair Business
Setting Up Your Credit Repair Business
There are a lot of pieces that must come together in order to have everything you need to operate an effective credit restoration business. It can be expensive and take weeks, if not months to put it all together.
Merchant Services
You’ll need a merchant services company to be able to take debit and credit cards. The challenge here is that most merchant services companies do not want to do business with credit repair companies because they classify this business as high risk. You can find merchant services companies that will work with credit repair companies but the monthly and transaction fees are high.
Accessing Client Credit Reports
To be able to draft dispute letters you’ll need to find a way to get credit reports for your clients. Credit report brokers work with the permission of credit bureaus and credit bureaus do not like credit repair companies. Therefore, in most cases, you’ll have to ask a client to open up an account with a credit monitoring company and have them furnish you with their login credentials or ask them to download and send you their credit report.
Credit Repair Dispute Software
You can draft dispute letters manually. But for time and accuracy, you’ll want to have credit dispute software. Prices range for this type of software but the most prominent company, Credit Repair Cloud charges about $180 per month for use of their software which doesn’t include some steep upfront fees.
A Website That is Legally Compliant
You need to build a website or have one built for you. Then you’ll need to maintain that website by adding content on a regular basis. This can be a stumbling block for a lot of people. They believe a website will bring them business. It can, but it won’t unless the administrator of the site is familiar with search engine optimization, content writing, and more. Further, all content must be compliant with all federal and state laws. You’ll need to research the federal C.R.O.A. law and your state laws for details. More on the legalities below.
These are the basics that are required to set up and start a credit repair business. Based on literally thousands of conversations over ten years that I’ve had with people that have gone through this setup, or going through it, you’re looking at months and thousands of dollars to get past this phase.
Competition
Credit repair or credit restoration, the removal of derogatory items from a credit report, is a process governed by federal law. Consumers can do this on their own, but most don’t know how or want to take the time to learn how and execute the process. So, they look for a credit repair company to help them.
A question that you must answer is how are these people going to find you? And more importantly, once they do find you, how are you going to stand out from the tens of thousands of other credit repair companies out there? If all you offer is the same thing every other credit repair company is offering, why would they choose you? Especially if you are a new company and have little or no track record?
To stand out and get people to first off, find you, and second, choose you, you must offer more than credit repair. Why? The reason is the competition in credit repair marketing. You need to give yourself avenues of getting your message out about the services you offer that are NOT credit repair. For example, if you offer rent reporting you can attract people that are renters and need help improving their credit scores. Then you can also talk to them about your credit repair service. You can also use rent reporting to talk to people in the real estate and mortgage business that have many first-time home buyers that are renters. You simply MUST do more than credit repair.
There are many other services you can offer in addition to credit repair. This is where the MWR Financial business model stands out as you’ll see below.
State and Federal Laws
And finally, the biggest hurdle to overcome is state and federal laws. This isn’t something you can figure out later. It makes no sense to invest the time, energy, effort, and money in starting a credit repair business if you can be fined or worse for operating it.
*The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only. Information on this website may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information as laws change. Readers of this website should contact their attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular legal matter.
Surety Bond
Check to see if your state requires a surety bond. Many states do. Operating in a state that requires a bond and not having one, is professional suicide. Even if you have a surety bond for your state, keep in mind, that you won’t be able to do business in any other state unless you satisfy the requirements of those states.
The Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA)
In my opinion, you should consult an attorney to truly understand CROA and what you must, can, and cannot do. Companies are being fined, hauled into court, and shut down for violations of federal law.
You cannot charge fees to a client for credit repair until you perform the services. What does it mean until you perform the services? You should consult an attorney to get that specific answer.
The other big land mine is the Telemarketing Sales Rule or TSR. You cannot use telemarketing to get clients for credit repair. Does that mean you can’t even call people on the phone? Can they call you? Again, this is where an attorney that knows this law is of value.
What If You Can Accomplish All of This?
Solopreneur vs Entrepreneur
Even if you can successfully tackle the issues of setting up your business, beating the competition, and navigating the quagmire of federal and state laws, you will be doing all the work or operating your business by yourself. You’ll be doing all your own marketing, sales, service delivery, and customer support. If you have a job or operate another business, you’ll need to do all of this in your off time. This is what a solopreneur does, not an entrepreneur.
In addition, you won't have the ability to grow and scale your business because you’re doing it all and there are only so many hours in a day. To make money from your business, you need to market, sell, deliver the service, and keep your customers informed and happy. You’ll be working for your business, and not have your business working for you.
The MWR Financial Solution - A Brilliant Business Model
The MWR Financial philosophy is that a low credit score is a sign or symptom of other financial problems. A low credit score is the result of a lack of knowledge or attention in other financial areas and unfortunately, can perpetuate financial problems due to paying higher down payments and interest rates.
So MWR Financial looks to solve all of the consumer’s financial problems with the FinancialEDGE Membership. This membership gives consumers a personal team of financial experts that use proven strategies to save, grow, and protect their money.
Learn more about the FinancialEDGE Membership
One way to help people save and grow their money is through credit restoration. But credit restoration is not the main purpose of a consumer becoming a FinancialEDGE member. The MWR Financial credit restoration is just one component of a comprehensive financial plan and is FREE to FinancialEDGE members.
MWR Financial has created a home-based business opportunity for people to offer the FinancialEDGE membership to consumers in the same way you would market credit repair alone. As a Financial Director with MWR Financial you can use word-of-mouth marketing, social media marketing, and advertising, and get referrals from those in credit-related industries like the real estate or mortgage business.
What Are the Advantages of working with MWR Financial Over the DIY Method?
Business Setup
Instead of having to set up your business and incur the cost of merchant services, credit repair dispute software, building a website, and more, your business is all set up. You’ll have no merchant services fees because MWR Financial absorbs that cost. You won’t need software to dispute items for your clients because they have an expert staff that does that for your clients. And you’ll immediately have a professional website with marketing videos in English and Spanish.
Competition
If you spend a few minutes learning about the services offered by MWR Financial, you’ll see that credit repair companies just cannot compete. You’ll have so much more to offer people. Just in the credit restoration component of the FinancialEDGE Membership, you’ll be offering clients several ways to build positive credit on top of removing derogatory items. MWR Financial experts will also call and negotiate items that weren’t removed through the dispute process to get the client the lowest possible payoff amount. Very few, if any companies offer this service.
And the FinancialEDGE Membership comes with a money-back guarantee!
Credit Repair Laws
This may be the best part. You’ll not need to worry about surety bonds or state and federal C.R.O.A. laws. Why? Because you are not delivering the services or receiving funds for the services. Therefore, you are not considered a credit repair organization. The MWR Financial credit restoration service is CROA and RESPA compliant and you’ll be able to do business in ALL 50 STATES!
Become an Entrepreneur vs. a Solopreneur
Instead of you doing everything yourself, you’ll have a staff or experts delivering the services to your clients and providing your clients with customer support even when you’re working at your job or operating another business. This gives you more time to concentrate on growing your business instead of doing admin work.
You will still be responsible for marketing and sales. But you can now scale and grow your business to whatever size you like. How can you do that? By bringing on other business owners (Financial Directors) just like you. As your team of MWR Financial Directors grows, you earn “guaranteed residual income”. This residual income is paid regardless of the sales volume produced by your team and there is no qualifying for it each month. Residual income is deposited into your account on a weekly or even daily basis if you choose.
ERA Credit Services has Aligned with MWR Financial
ERA Credit Services represents MWR Financial because of everything we’ve stated above. And they give our clients more services and more help with every area of their finances.
We have built a team of Financial Directors all over the country. In just a short period of time, many have reached the Executive Director level and are earning guaranteed residual income. In addition, each Financial Director has access to the services offered and is now saving hundreds each month which more than offsets the cost of their business.
MWR Financial has an A- rating with the Better Business Bureau. After tens of thousands of clients, they have had just 18 complaints in the last 3 years and only 3 in the last 12 months. Each of these complaints is addressed by the CEO of MWR Financial. That’s the type of responsible corporate ownership we were looking for.
To learn more about MWR Financial and join our team of Financial Directors, visit Credit Repair Business Opportunity. There you can watch a 24-minute business overview video. If you like what you see, you'll then be able to schedule a phone appointment to talk with one of our Executive Directors to get all your questions answered so that you can make an informed decision.