Tried a DIY credit repair letter service off Etsy and it flagged my landlord's credit bureau instead of mine

Found this $15 template pack on Etsy that promised to help fix errors on my credit report so I could qualify for a better rental. Filled everything out, sent it off to the address they gave me. Three weeks later my landlord calls me furious saying someone sent a dispute to the wrong bureau under his name. Turns out the template had a pre-filled return address from some random prior customer and I didn't catch it. Learned to triple check every line on those cheap templates. Has anyone else had sketchy luck with those online credit repair kits?

3 comments

3 Comments

singh.harper1d ago

You accidentally started a credit war between your landlord and some random stranger. That's a special kind of DIY disaster. Bet the Etsy shop owner is laughing all the way to the bank with that $15 while you're stuck explaining to your landlord why he's got a fraud alert on his credit now. Maybe stick to the free templates on the FTC website next time, at least those don't come with a surprise address from someone's ex-roommate.

grant1552d ago

Man that's impressively bad luck right there. I tried one of those $12 instant fix kits and it just printed out a generic letter with a typo in my own name. Ended up calling the credit bureaus myself and got the same errors fixed in like 20 minutes on the phone. Honestly feels like those Etsy sellers are just copy pasting templates they found on Pinterest and hoping nobody checks their work.

fisher.thomas2d ago

Wait, you actually got someone on the phone who fixed it in 20 minutes? I gotta say, I used to think those instant fix kits were a lifesaver, but hearing that really changed my mind. I was honestly tempted to buy one last month when my credit report had some old address I couldn't shake off. But now I'm thinking it's way smarter to just call the bureaus directly and save the money. Those Etsy sellers probably just have a template they grabbed off Google and slap a fancy label on it. I bet half of them never even tried to use their own products.