How would I start a credit counseling business?

Question

I run a mortgage broker company an real estate brokerage in addition to manage a rental complex. I have looked at tri-merge credit reports on a daily basis for the previous 6 years and have had close working relationships with several credit counseling vendors. I'm also bilingual and there is a predominant Spanish language need community that are very misinformed about establishing credit.

I'd like to set up a business but I am very unsure of how to begin.

Answer 1

You need to do as much reading as you can in the FTC materials and your state laws.

There have been so many shady CRO's that have popped up in the past few years that the FTC and many states have tightened the laws on what a CRO can and can't do (along with making stiffer penalties). The states that haven't done that yet are working on it.

You might do some reading in the following link to the FTC concerning CRO's
http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/croa/croa.shtm

The FTC has many different pages concerning CRO's, so you might also do Google searches for more FTC info - such as credit repair organizations, FTC credit repair organizations, FTC credit repair organization laws, etc. (play around with it to get the most FTC hits you can)

You will also need to look at your own states laws and statutes concerning CRO's.


Then you need to read the FCRA, FDCPA (and reading the FTC staff opinions on both of those won't hurt either)
You also need to read your own states statutes concerning debtor/creditor, court RCP, etc., etc., etc.

Answer 2

What are your skills and background? How to beat the system is not acceptable.

Added after poster added info:

Find out if there is a licensing requirement for your area, then hang up a shingle.

Do you just want to help in getting folks on the right track or help in establishing payment arrangements etc... with creditors and collection agencies?

In all honesty credit counselors are a dime a dozen, good ones are rare.