Credit repair businesses and related sellers must not take upfront payment, sell referrals, claim they can erase bad credit information, make or advise false credit statements, or use misleading or fraudulent sales practices.
A credit repair business and its salespersons, agents, and representatives, and independent contractors who sell or attempt to sell the services of a credit repair business, shall not do any of the following: (1)Charge or receive any money or other valuable consideration prior to full and complete performance of the services that the credit repair business has agreed to perform for or on behalf of the consumer; (2)Charge or receive any money or other valuable consideration solely for referral of the consumer to a retail seller or to any other credit grantor who will or may extend credit to the consumer, if the credit that is or will be extended to the consumer is upon substantially the same terms as those available to the general public; (3)Represent that it can directly or indirectly arrange for the removal of derogatory credit information from the consumer’s credit report or otherwise improve the consumer’s credit report or credit standing, provided, this shall not prevent truthful, unexaggerated statements about the consumer’s rights under existing law regarding his credit history or regarding access to his credit file; (4)Make, or counsel or advise any consumer to make, any statement that is untrue or misleading and which is known or which by the exercise of reasonable care should be known, to be untrue or misleading, to a consumer reporting agency or to any person who has extended credit to a consumer or to whom a consumer is applying for an extension of credit, with respect to a consumer’s creditworthiness, credit standing, or credit capacity; or (5)Make or use any untrue or misleading representations in the offer or sale of the services of a credit repair business or engage, directly or indirectly, in any act, practice, or course of business which operates or would operate as a fraud or deception upon any person in connection with the offer or sale of the services of a credit repair business. History: History.1991, c. 327, s. 1.