Collections can ruin your credit score. That's why is it very important to remove them from your credit report. A collection is an overdue debt that's been turned over to a collection agency. Debt collection is a billion dollar a year industry.

Collection agencies buy debts for cheap and then try to recover the complete total owed. These debts can come from a variety of places, including credit cards, lenders, libraries, cell companies, rental stores, gyms, cable companies, doctors, utilities, and many more.

Once a debt is sent to collection, it also appears on your credit report. A credit report collection hurts your credit score, and remains there for 7 years. A collection on a report is seen as irresponsible behavior to future creditors.

Collection agents are only paid when they get the debtor to pay his or her debt. This can cause many of these collection agents to become frustrated or harassing. Despite this, it's very important to keep your composure and stand up for your rights. You do have them!

According to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, a collection agent can contact you by mail, phone, telegram or fax. They can also approach you in person; however that is not a commonly used practice. Collectors are not allowed to contact you at inopportune times, unless you agree. A debt collector also may not contact you at work, that is if you tell them that your supervisor would not approve.

To stop the collection agency from contacting you, write a letter to the collector telling them to stop. Once the collector receives this, they can’t contact you again regarding your desired payment. The only other reasons you would hear from them again would be them notifying you that they will not contact you, and that the creditor is taking legal action.

When you write this letter, it’s important to understand that this does not meant the debt is eliminated. It only means the collection agency cannot bother you regarding this credit report collection.

Credit collectors also cannot participate in unfair practices, including threatening or deceiving you, just to name a few practices. If you believe that an agent has broken the law, you can sue the specific collector. To remove collections, negotiate with the bill collector. Before you pay the total debt, have the creditor put in writing that after the payment in full, this collection will be removed from your report. You can also follow up with the credit reporting agency and dispute the collection. You can repair bad credit and without waiting seven long years!

All these steps above can help you remove a collection, and get back on the path to good credit. Good luck!

"I just want to share with you my story about how my credit situation. If you are someone struggling with bad credit, then I was walking in your exact same shoes...

And today - if you look behind me - this is the house that I bought.

So, obviously my credit situation has changed.

Basically, while I was in college I ran up my credit cards and acquired a lot of unmanageable debt which destroyed my credit rating.

About a-year-and-a-half ago when I went to try to buy a house, the banks laughed at me and made me feel bad about what happened in college. (They basically implied that I was a deadbeat SCUMBAG even though it really wasn't all my fault).

I knew that I had to fix my credit, but didn't know how to do it myself so I went to Lexington Law.

Now, literally within several months, I was able to purchase a $300,000 new home without any trouble at all obtaining a mortgage.

So instead of going into banks with bad credit and being looked at as a scumbag, the banks were more than willing to help.

In fact, when I applied for my mortgage and the banker ran my credit, he came back and was saying...

"Wow! Sure thing sir. We'd love to help you out."

Lexington Law literally changed my life.

I went from being the person who has bad credit to being the person who is living in what I consider my dream home at age 29.

Some examples of the things that were on my report that are now gone were: all sorts of charge offs, collections, and I even had credit report judgments listed against me (which I heard is one of the worst things you can have on your credit.)

I had basically every kind of negative listing shy of a bankruptcy.

Lexington Law has raised my credit score at least 237 points. I just checked my FICO score which is now a 737. When I started with Lexington Law, it was below 500!"

I encourage anyone struggling with bad credit to pick up the phone and give Lexington Law a call.

 

It was super-encouraging to see my credit score improve each month as the negative items were deleted from my credit reports. I thought some of the bad credit was permanent since creditors misled me into believing that delinquent information would stay on my credit report for the next seven years.

However, through their dispute process and "goodwill interventions," Lexington Law proved it is possible to remove any questionable negative item. (it is the same as pleading 'not guilty' in a court of law).

Additionally, the paralegal assigned to my case showed me other credit rebuilding techniques such as:

• How to add up to three years of positive payment history to your credit with your regular phone or utility bills (these are things I pay each month anyway so it was a real "no-brainer)
  
• How boost your credit score by optimizing your 'Utilization Ratio' - this involves transferring balances and there is a Right Way and Wrong Way to do this
  
• How Lexington Law can erase your damaging credit inquiries (applying for credit puts a small "ding" on your credit. Inquiry Investigation helps you remove these "dings")

Deleting the negative credit items like charge offs and the credit card judgment, combined with the credit rebuilding techniques, rapidly improved my credit score. In fact, in month two my score went up 74 points!

After living with bad credit for so long, it was really encouraging to see that I was making progress in the right direction.

Not only did the attorneys at Lexington Law show me results, they also provided excellent customer service along the way. If you are someone who enjoys that "personal touch", then you may like how Lexington Law assigns a paralegal to your case.

My paralegal (Stephanie) was always available to discuss the status of my case over the phone and email. Even though I didn't expect or ask for it, my attorney would also periodically give me a call to check in.

Here are some strategies Lexington Law used to delete the really stubborn bad credit - such as the credit card judgment:

• Unlimited dispute & delete
• Goodwill interventions
• Escalated information requests
• Debt validation
• Inquiry assist

You can also access you case online anytime you like. (I enjoyed logging in just to see all the deletions!)

If you are struggling with a bad credit score because of negative credit items, then I truly hope that you start repairing your credit today. I know how humiliating bad credit is and I know how easy it is just to 'sweep it under the rug' and pretend it will go away on its own.

I realize that your situation is probably a little different than mine, however, Lexington Law has already deleted questionable charge offs, a credit card judgment, late payments, collection items, and inquiries from my credit report and raised my credit score to a 737!

Here is a shot of my credit score online last month -:

To get started repairing your credit, call Lexington Law today direct at:
1-800-232-2903 (toll-free)

www.LexingtonLaw.com

Or, if you want a Lexington Law paralegal to call you, click here.