When someone researches their credit report for problems and finds collections, usually the immediate response is to begin looking for ways to correct or remove those items from their credit report. The good news is there are a few ways. The most popular way is by disputing them with one of the 3 main credit bureaus (Equifax, Trans Union and Experian) that are reporting them.

You can also contact the collection agency directly and try to… work out a deal with them.  Please make a note here, you must be careful as it is possible to cause more pressure on your credit scores and the level of intensity of the collector.  You simply ask them to remove it in exchange for paying the debt in full or settling in full.   This is called pay for delete. Many collection agencies will tell you that they can’t remove it, but they definitely can. Credit reporting is 100% voluntary and anything that can be placed on it can be removed at any time.

If a collection agency doesn’t cooperate with you, simply don’t pay them because even if they upgrade the account to “paid collection” it is still on your credit report for 7 more years from the date you paid, unless you get them to remove it.  Worse still is in many cases paying a collection will bring your scores down. Of course, you always want to get the agreement in writing as collection agencies don’t always have the most trustworthy people working for them.  Never ever take a verbal agreement with a collection company.

Many people stumble on this part and are unable to persuade the collection company to give a letter of delete and may just believe that paying the debt off will help their credit scores. After the collection company has your money they simply no longer care and will not help.  This is why most complain that this collection or that one should not be reported as they accepted a verbal agreement.  It’s a costly mistake and can be easily avoided when obtaining the services of a professional.

Lesson…most have troubles negotiating with a collection company. To find out if debt settlement might help you check out www.smartdebtrelief.org. Enter in your collection debts, credit card debt or other unsecured debt into the calculator to see just how much you might save every month.

Be Bold!!

Herschel

The post Collection Companies are a pain! appeared first on National Credit Federation.

Sometimes old debt that you thought was long ago dead and forgotten comes back to haunt you.

A scary practice performed by junk debt buyers and collection companies is the purchase of old and often outdated debts for pennies on the dollar and then come after you for payment.

These outdated debts are known as Zombie Debts which you may have to kill if they resurrect from the grave.

Over the last several years debt buying has emerged into a multi-billion dollar industry.  Junk debt buyers from small one man operations to large publicly traded Wall Street companies are buying up this old debt by the billions and are banking on the consumer being ignorant of law and their rights.

Here are a few things you can do if you are contacted about an old debt:

1 Do not acknowledge the debt. When you agree to pay a portion or even acknowledge the debt as yours you can hurt your credit by restarting the 7 year clock which is how long most bad credit can stay on your credit report.  If you’re close to the 7 year mark it may be best to do nothing at all and just let it fall of your credit report.

2 Simply ignore the phone calls. Just speaking with these debt collectors may extend or even restart the clock on the statute of limitations for the debt let alone restarting the 7 year clock the debt may be reported on your credit report.  If the statute of limitations has run out on a debt then you cannot be sued for it.

3 Get the phone calls to stop. If the phone calls become harassing and continue simply write a letter demanding the collection company ceases any phone contact.  Federal Law requires collection companies to comply with all requests to cease phone contact but make sure you send this letter certified and that you state in your letter that you are not acknowledging nor agreeing that the debt is yours.  You simply do not want further phone contact.

4 Check your credit report. At a minimum once per year I’d even suggest more often because collection agencies have been known to stoop to downright illegal tactics in order to squeeze any money they can out of you.  They will report the old debt to the credit bureaus as if it was a brand new debt which is known as re-aging in order to restart the 7 year credit reporting clock which can drop your credit score like a rock!

5 Demand the debt to be validated. Debt validation requires the collection company to produce a copy of the original signed paperwork as well as the payment history of the debt.  Most often they simply can’t do it and will go away.  Proof that they are licensed in your state as well can send them packing as they are in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and any negative entry they make on your credit is a violation of the law and must be removed.

6 If you must negotiate with caution. If you want to pay the debt move ahead with extreme caution and make sure you get everything in writing.  Collection companies purchased the old debt for pennies on the dollar so anything over that is pure profit to them.  But BE CAREFUL these companies are ruthless and will hang you out to dry if you don’t know what you’re doing by selling the remaining debt owed to another collection company and thus the cycle continues.  They may even report the remainder to the IRS as “income”.  See how well that “income” pays the bills!  You can find more on how debt settlement might help at www.smartdebtrelief.org

7 Beware of the collection company false promises. Many times you as a consumer run into a brick wall trying to remove a bad credit rating by requesting a letter of deletion.  Some debt collectors will lie and use any dirty underhanded tactic they can in order to collect money from you.  So if they do agree to any request you might make, just be sure to get it in writing.

So in your battle of dealing with this Zombie debt which can include any charged off debt, debts included in bankruptcy, debts incurred due to identity theft as well as debts you never even owed keep in mind most of these debts will be well past the statue of limitations and uncollectable.  If you’d like to have your credit report reviewed and find out what might be done get a no obligation credit consultation with a certified debt specialist.

Drop me a quick line below and let me know of your Zombie stories and what happened.  Just keep in mind if you run into a zombie collector…

BE BOLD!

The post How to deal with Old Debt…Zombie Debt appeared first on National Credit Federation.

The figure works out to nearly $1,500 for every U.S. household, or more than 10 times the median daily household income.

According to Wikipedia, deficits are:

A budget deficit occurs when an entity spends more money than it takes in.

The difference between a deficit and national debt is that a deficit is government revenues versus spending each year, while national debt is these annual deficits accumulating over history. These daily debt calculations go up and down frequently as they are recalculated daily based on receipts and outgo by the CBO (Congressional Budget Office).

“What matters is the overall trend line, and the overall trend line is shooting up,” said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a bipartisan deficit watchdog group, who said it is one more reason for a fiscal wake-up call.

It seems that the US Congress has some very tough decisions with deficits continually racking up to make the national debt even larger! These are decisions that we as individuals and families are currently faced with everyday as we see either the loss of a job or working a lower paying one decreases the money coming in and then higher prices at the gas pump, for utilities, and groceries keeps rising, we can put the issue into the dire perspective that it is.

The best thing we can do for ourselves is to decrease our outgo as much as possible while trying to increase our income at the same time. While the job market may be tough right now, there are two ways that you can reduce your outgo (a part from spending on luxury items): by paying off your debt; and reducing your interest rates by refinancing from high interest to lower interest rates.

The cost of credit can be amazing and our government is learning that more and more each day (literally)!

The post HUGE one day deficit jump – $166 Billion (with a "B") appeared first on National Credit Federation.