The Submission by the Credit Ombudsman Service Limited (COSL) on the Draft Credit Reporting Code has expressed concern about ‘credit repair’ agencies which offer to ‘fix’ consumer’s credit records for a minimum average fee of around $1,000 per listing when in fact access to credit records and correction of credit records is free of charge.

COSL has proposed that a credit reporting bureau (CRB) or the credit provider (CP) should not deal with any agent of a consumer who is charging a fee to the consumer for access/repairing their credit record.

The agencies obtain the authority of the consumer to access the relevant credit records and then make a complaint to the CRB or the credit provider that certain credit entries are incorrect and should be removed.

The credit agencies often also approach the various Ombudsmen, whose services are available to consumers free of charge, to have the entries removed. About a third of all complaints COSL receives about alleged incorrectly listed credit defaults are from credit repair agents.