Resources
Compliance references and practical guides from the Credit Consultants Association. Material for credit professionals sits alongside plain-language explainers for consumers — everything here is maintained and dated, so you can see when it was last checked.
Credit Reporting
How credit data is reported, what the fields mean, and how disputes are actually handled.
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Can a Late Payment Be Removed From Your Credit Report?
When a late payment is a disputable error, when a goodwill request may help, how long late payments stay on a report, and why their effect on a score fades well before they come off.
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Can You Remove a Charge-Off? What Is Possible and What Is Not
What a charge-off is, why paying it does not delete it, the reporting errors that can be disputed, settling versus paying in full, and how long a charge-off stays.
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Hard vs. Soft Inquiries: What Actually Affects Your Score
Hard inquiries can affect your credit score; soft inquiries cannot. This page explains the distinction, the rules around rate shopping, and why most people overestimate how much inquiries matter.
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Can Both a Creditor and Collector Report the Same Debt?
An original creditor account and a collection account for the same debt can both appear on a credit report without being an error. This page explains when that is legitimate, when it is not, and how to tell the difference.
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How Credit Disputes Are Actually Processed
Your dispute is compressed into a category code and a short remark before the furnisher ever sees it. Why that happens, and how to write disputes that survive it.
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How to Read Your Credit Report, Line by Line
A plain-language walkthrough of every section of a credit report — what each field in an account means, how to read the payment grid, which dates matter, and where errors usually hide.
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The 7-Year Rule vs. the Statute of Limitations: Two Clocks, Not One
Credit reporting periods and statutes of limitations are separate clocks under different laws. What starts each one, what can and cannot restart them, and how debts get illegally re-aged.
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Metro 2 Reporting: A Field Guide
What the underlying credit reporting fields mean, why the date of first delinquency governs everything, and how re-aging happens when a debt changes hands.
Your Rights as a Consumer
What the law entitles you to when something on your report is wrong, and what to do about it.
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Credit Hacks Sold Online: What Is Legal and What Is Fraud
A plain-language guide to the credit tactics marketed on social media: which are fraud, which are real tools sold as something they are not, and which have no legal effect.
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Credit Sweeps: Why the Identity Theft Shortcut Is Fraud
A credit sweep blocks accurate debts by falsely claiming identity theft. How the scheme works, why the FTC calls it a crime, what happens afterward, and what to do instead.
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The 609 Letter Myth: What Section 609 Actually Says
Section 609 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act governs what a credit reporting agency must disclose to you about your own file. It contains no deletion mechanism. Template letters sold as a "609 loophole" misrepresent what the law says.
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Credit Freeze, Fraud Alert, or Credit Lock?
Two are free legal rights, one is a product sold by the bureaus. What each actually does, which to use when, and how to freeze a child's file.
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What to Do When a Bureau Will Not Fix an Error
Your options after a dispute is rejected, including reinvestigation, adding a statement of dispute, and where to escalate.
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How to Spot a Credit Repair Scam
Eight warning signs that a credit repair company is operating unlawfully, what a lawful engagement looks like, and how to verify a consultant before you pay.
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Your FCRA Dispute Rights, in Plain Language
What the Fair Credit Reporting Act entitles you to when something on your credit report is wrong, what the bureaus must do, and how long they have to do it.
Debt and Collections
Validation, collector conduct, and how collection accounts appear on a report.
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FDCPA Debt Validation: What Credit Consultants Get Wrong
How the FDCPA validation right actually works — the 30-day window, what a collector must produce, what courts mean by 'verification,' and the five ways consultants misuse it.
Credit Services Compliance
The federal rules that govern how credit services businesses contract, disclose, and charge.
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The Telemarketing Sales Rule and Credit Repair
When a phone-based sale brings your business under the TSR, and why its advance-fee restriction is far stricter than CROA's.
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CROA Compliance Basics: Contracts, Disclosures, and Fees
What the Credit Repair Organizations Act requires in a client agreement, which disclosures must be given, and when a fee may lawfully be collected.
Running a Credit Business
Starting out, state requirements, and the decisions that determine whether a practice survives.
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How to Start a Credit Repair Business
What the work actually involves, what the law requires before you take a client, and how to choose training without overpaying for software you do not need yet.
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Do You Need a License to Do Credit Repair?
The difference between a state license, a state registration, a surety bond, and a professional certification — and which of them you actually need.
Professional Standards
What CCA holds credential holders to, and what happens when a standard is breached.
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The eight professional standards CCA holds credential holders to, the federal laws behind each one, and what the association can and cannot do when a standard is breached.
2 more resources are in progress. New guides are added as they are written and verified. If there is something you need that is not here yet, tell us and we will prioritize it.
Every resource here is written by the Credit Consultants Association, cites the statute or regulator it relies on, and carries the date it was last reviewed. None of it is legal advice. If you find something that is out of date or incorrect, tell us and cite the source — we will correct it and note the change.