Why does the credit repair industry exist? It’s actually pretty simple. As long as data is being collected for credit reports, there’s room for mistakes.
1950s: Local bureaus began to track credit-related behaviors of consumers in a single town or community. Typically, these organizations were cooperatives made up of area businesses.
1960s: Credit reporting bureaus “sponsored” by banks or other financial institutions didn’t share information outside of their networks. That limited the accuracy and completeness of any report with one of these organizations.
1970s: The Fair Credit Reporting Act was passed. The industry stopped reporting events such as arrests or marriages. Instead, it began concentrating on creating accurate reporting specifically for credit.
1980s: Electronic storage supported increased accuracy and completeness of credit reports. Credit reporting agencies evolved from local or regional bureaus into national, integrated systems.
1990s and beyond: The internet made credit reporting even faster and provided increased access to consumer credit reports and scores.
As soon as modern credit reporting was created, the pressure to have a good financial record and credit history increased. And that meant it was more important than ever for credit reports to be correct.
Historically, if you made a financial mistake, it might not have far-reaching consequences. Credit reporting, even through much of the 20th century, was localized.
Today, you can find information on how to repair your credit online and access numerous tools for doing so via the internet.Credit repair companies began to pop up to help consumers get errors on their credit reports corrected.