What is a Collection Account?
Collection accounts are the result of having a debt charged off (bought off) from the current creditor that you owe the money too, to a collection agency. For example, if you owed money to a company or agency and you were not able to pay back the debt that you owed, collection agencies will buy your debt from the company.
How a Collection Account affects your credit score
From here, they will either try and get you to pay the entire debt back or a portion of it and if they are unable to do this they will take the necessary steps to absolutely trash your credit score. On average, one collection account listed on your credit report can bring down your score 20 – 60 points.
Reconciling your Collection Account Yourself
Having the collection agencies calling you up and giving you grief for your past due debts is already stressful, but trying to negotiate with them so that they will not list collection accounts on your credit reports is a whole different beast.
One way that is usually less time intensive, is to try and put up with the agency, and to form a written agreement. If a written compromise is formed then you may be able to save your credit from the debt agency. If the agency is unwilling to settle for this, then your best bet is to send them a letter stating that you wish to recieve all future correspondance in writing only, to stop the phone calls.
The next step, if the collection account is an error, mistake or misleading is to send a debt dispute letter to the credit bureaus. The agencies will then respond back and hopefully, open up a credit case for you.
Challenging a collection account is not the most pleasurable experience because the process is really drawn out and it takes along time to get any results. If you have challenged a collection agency in the past regarding a collection account then you likely are already aware of this.
Finding a quicker solution
Collection agencies in short, care about profits and normally will not succumb to the idea of removing a negative listing off of your public credit report records, unless the price is right. Essentially, you have to buy your way out of it and it is not a cheap expense to say the very least.
Countless individuals who have been in these circumstances have found that it is much easier employ a professional credit repair service than to try and handle the collection agencies themselves.
One company most consumers have chosen is Lexington Law because it is one of the most established credit repair services in the United States and they have an amazing track record in dealing with collection agencies and they can get the negative listings removed. If you would like to sign up for a free, no obligation credit consultation please feel free to fill out the form below and a paralegal from lexington law will follow up with you.