FTC Shuts Down Financial Education Services for Defrauding $213M from Consumers

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In fact, Financial Education Services just provided consumers with form letters to send to credit bureaus. Those letters did not result in the promised removal of negative information from consumers’ credit reports and improvement of their credit scores.

The company allegedly charged an upfront fee of as much as $99 and a recurring monthly fee as high as $89 for its ineffective credit repair service.

Additionally, the Commission alleged that Financial Education Service sold a rent payment product to consumers. The company told consumers that it would send their rent payment information to credit bureaus. However, most credit bureaus do not accept this type of information directly from consumers.

Finally, the FTC alleged that the company encouraged consumers to become its “agents” selling its services and earn more than $1,000 a week plus tens of thousands in bonuses.

According to the Commission, Financial Education Services told consumers that they must pay hundreds of dollars to become agents. They must also pay for the company’s bogus credit repair services every month. Most importantly, the company told them to recruit others to join as agents.