Grassroots effort to allow legitimate and reputable credit repair in Georgia

I would like some help in changing a current Georgia law that is hurting Consumers across the state and putting Georgia residents at a disadvantage to every other state in the union.

Please allow me to tell you my story. I organize and promote the largest domestic credit convention in the country.  It is attended by companies such as Equifax, TransUnion, FICO, Vantage Score, The Credit Data Industry Association, Microsoft, and Moody’s Analytics just to name a few.  In 2020, I planned to have the convention in Atlanta Georgia.  Atlanta has a world class airport which would make travel to the convention affordable and easy as many cities have direct flights into ATL. I did 12 venue site visits in Atlanta and picked a location for the event which would have brought 7 figures of revenue to the city. That is when the other shoe dropped.  I learned that if I held the convention in Georgia that the attorney general would prosecute me for breaking the law.

You see there is an antiquated law on the books in Georgia that you are not allowed to discuss the improvement of consumer’s credit in the state unless you are an attorney or a non profit.  Any person attending the convention that was not an owner of a business would be deemed a consumer and any discussion of credit improvement would mean we would be violating Georgia law and subject to prosecution.

Georgia is actually the only state in the country where it is illegal to help a consumer improve their credit!  This puts Georgia residents at an extreme disadvantage to other parts of the country where individuals can seek the help of professionals with their credit issues. In fact Georgia ranks 48th out of 50 states when it comes to consumers credit scores (source Experian)!  Georgia residents average a 654 Vantage score which is a higher average score than only 2 other states!  I believe that a large part of the reason consumers are plagued with bad credit in Georgia is this law which prohibits companies from helping Georgia consumers with their credit issues.  For a point of reference, Georgia is ranked 29th in median income so clearly Georgia residents have more income means than many of the states which have much higher credit scores – so why do Georgians have such low credit scores – the answer is very simple – without access to legitimate and reputable credit repair companies, Georgian consumers are left to their own means or worse – preyed upon by unscrupulous scams who do not care about complying with the Georgia  credit repair law.

So how are Georgia consumers doing when it comes to home ownership? Georgia ranks 40th out of 50 states when it comes to homeownerships (U.S. Census Bureau 2019). Only 10 states have a worse homeownership rate than Georgia! When you take into account states like Hawaii, Massachusetts, and New York that have exorbitant home prices that limit homeownership, the statistics are worse than they seem. Why is it so hard to become a homeowner in Georgia? The answer is simple. Whether you are applying for a VA, FHA, USDA, or conventional mortgage, the scoring requirements are regulated and the same across the country. With the same credit requirements as other higher credit score states, many Georgia consumers just don’t have high enough credit scores to get approved for a home loan!

I believe the current law is of great benefit to the three big credit bureaus, as it has greatly reduces the challenges they receive from Georgia consumers with respect to their credit profiles. 

This site will be to track the challenges of getting the law in Georgia changed.

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