Consumers need credit reporting advocates

Consumers need credit reporting advocates: Credit repairer places in top 10% of companies in Start-Up Smart Awards 2013.

27 March 2012

Credit rating repairer MyCRA has been placed at number 35 in the Australian Start-Up Smart Awards 2013, demonstrating the demand for skilled consumer advocates in the credit reporting arena.

MyCRA has been operating since 2009, and entrepreneur Graham Doessel - once Australia’s most successful non-conforming broker has been at the forefront of the emerging Australian credit repair industry, which he says has been born out of necessity.

“The Global Financial Crisis has had a big impact on lending criteria, so all of a sudden it has become vitally important for Australians to have clean credit history in order to obtain approval for finance,” Mr Doessel explains.

He says most people don’t know mistakes with credit history can and do happen, until it happens to them.

“Most consumers have very little knowledge of credit reporting. They assume the system works, but they don’t understand that the responsibility for accuracy rests with them. Many times they apply for finance and are knocked back because of defaults or other listings they just didn’t know existed,” he says.

There are four credit reporting agencies in Australia, and three in New Zealand, with Veda Advantage holding the majority of these credit files – with a total of over 16.5 million credit files in Australia alone. [i]

Of these millions of credit files, it is not known how many contain negative listings, but some reports claim around 3 million in Australia.

Those credit files are impacted for a period of 5 to 7 years, and affected people are generally refused credit in this time.

“We work with those people who feel their bad credit is unfair, innacurate or inconsistent, and we go about proving that, so that unlawful listings are removed from consumer credit files,” Mr Doessel says.

MyCRA conducts an audit-like investigation on behalf of the consumer, in order to uncover where a listing may have been placed unlawfully on the client’s credit file, and formulates a case based on legislation for requesting the listing’s removal by the Credit Provider.

“Credit reporting is governed by strict legislation, legislation which most consumers have limited knowledge of, and often very little time to get to know. We bridge that gap,” Mr Doessel explains.

Mr Doessel says MyCRA has been so warmly received because of the speed of listing removal, and their published success rate of up to 91.7% and he says this is down to the skill and experience of the team, which includes in-house solicitors and specialist compliance officers for each industry.

“We have a large dedicated team, and our blue-print for success ensures that the overwhelming majority of people we take on are likely to have their inaccurate credit listing removed,” he explains.

For the future, Mr Doessel is hoping MyCRA can continue to increase their success level and close the gap even further on their current default removal rate. He also wants to continue MyCRA’s strong history of speaking out for consumers in all matters of credit reporting.

“Consumers will continue to need a voice, especially as new credit reporting laws emerge over the next 12 months,” he says.

ENDS.

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